Kindle Touch: Easiest Jailbreak Ever

Posted by Ahsan Tasneem | 2:31 AM | , , | 2 comments »

What would you think if I told you that jailbreaking the Kindle Touch/K5 was as easy as playing an mp3 file? I hope you’re sitting down, because it really is that simple.
A hacker by the name of Yifan Lu has just posted a jailbreak for the K5/Kindle Touch, and I just used it on my K5.
Update: A reader commented that he was confused by my calling the Kindle Touch the K5. I use this term because the Kindle Touch is running Kindle OS,

while the other new Kindle is running Kindle OS4. That makes the Kindle Touch the fifth generation Kindle, aka K5.

How To
I’m covering this first because it’s easy.
 

Download this zip file.
Copy the mp3 over to the music folder on your K5.
Play the mp3 (from the experimental menu).


If you see the screenshot at right then congratulations. You now have a hacked Kindle Touch.

The Technical Explanation
I told you earlier this week that the
K5 (Kindle Touch) was based on a completely different code base from previous Kindles, and that turns out to be more true than I realized.Yifan discovered that the software running on the Kindle Touch is written mostly in HTML5 and JavaScript, not the Java that all the other Kindles use. In fact, the menus can be thought of as webpages in disguise. Pretty cool, huh? I think so, because this means that it won’t take long for hackers to release custom menus and spice things up.
That HTML5 base is also the security hole that Yifan exploited. He assembled an mp3 with his hack buried in the ID3 tags. The Kindle displays the tag info while playing the mp3, and it will also execute the code in the tag.
This hack is quite simple. All it does is install a key to root the K5 and allow you to install other hacks. It’s really just for developers at this point.

The Future
I’ve now hacked my K5, but that doesn’t mean much at the moment.
Yifan reports that none of the existing hacks for previous Kindles will work on the K5. He also didn’t add any amazing new features with his hack; he just wanted to show that it could be done and thus open the door so everyone else could get started. We’re going to have to wait a while for new hacks.
On the upside, the K5 is written in HTML5 and its Java code is not disguised. It shouldn’t be too hard for just about anyone to release a hack that adds a new feature. I myself am hoping we’ll see an Epub reader. I’m also looking forward to HTML5 sketchpad apps.
In any case, I’m glad I kept my K5. It’s going to get a whole lot more useful in the near future.

                                          Kindle Touch Jailbreak




Courtesy: http://yifan.lu/

2 comments

  1. Anonymous // December 16, 2011 at 2:41 AM  

    Thankyou Very Much Mr Ahsan.. can you give more explation about the this jailbreak ..! ?? and reply urgent coz i am trying to jailbreak my Iphone

  2. Ahsan Tasneem // December 16, 2011 at 9:17 AM  

    Appreciate your response Mr. Anonymous, What kind of explanation? I'll try my best to answer ..

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