19 October 2008

Empire Strikes Back:
Another firmware with anti-hacking measures!

Some news from our Forum Section, our Akapu reports that Nokia has quietly released a new firmware update for one of the most underrated S60 phone ever!

Yeah, I am talking about Nokia 5320 XpressMusic and firmware version 3.26. Update is not officially announced, or yet distributed through the Nokia Software updater and is only available Over The Air at the moment for certain product codes.

Firmware upgrade Over The Air is technology introduced with the 3rd edition, to enable fast and cost effective firmware updates.

As you would imagine, the firmware update is always recommended because it usually improves the performance and reliability of your phone but in this case you should think twice before update and I guess that you know why!

Akapu tried to hack it after updater and discovered that it is unhackable now, actually it is semi-hackable, and here is his report:

I just checked today and found an over the air update of firmware… .. .. Previous Firmware version was 3.08 now its has updated to 3.26 and I think its hack prof . Because previous firmware was hackable but after update caps on & caps off doesn't working.......... But i can see private folder and sys folder as X-Plore all files version installed previously............. But i cant delete any files from resource folder...... BINPDA SecMan also doesn't work......... When i try to turn Plat. Security OFF it shows me an error message...... "Failed! You may need to reeboot your phone or reinstall the application." But i can install unsigned applications as there is installserver.exe in my sys\bin\........

So it is more than obviously that Nokia is trying to close the security hole on all S60 models to stop the hacking activities and the only purpose of all these minor updates is implementing new anti-hacking measures and I am just asking way?!? Why Nokia? It was like the backdoor for the power users, a way to learn more about the phone and get the most from the software and hardware as well?!!

However if you don't care about hacking and want to update yopur phone to the latest available phone just go to Menu > Tools > Utilities > Device Manager. Select Options > Check for updates and follow the on-screen prompts. Remember that you can also use Wi-Fi to download the update