Database Develop

[Q] How do you unlock a Wp8 device ? and how do do it (dev account or other options)

Ok, if any place, this is the place to ask.
I still have one of those dreakspark accounts with a dev account. What do I need to unlock and side load apps or 3rd party tools on my HTC 8X ?
Is there a Interop unlock process for WP8 or full unlock with Root tools is it too soon for this ? Is there any other "unlock" options floating around that teams are working on ? I really just want Advanced Config to work on my phone because I miss custom colors but, it should work, right ?
I would love to be able get started with my dev account, what do I need to do ? I do have a partition with Windows 8 x64 on it.....
Is there any thing I should be reading ?
Thanks in advance !

Install WP8 SDK, unlock with phone registration tool.

mcosmin222 said:
Install WP8 SDK, unlock with phone registration tool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, thanks...
Is there any type of advanced unlock or will any of the WP7.5 tools like root tools work on Windows Phone 8 ? That is what my post is really about, is there a Interop unlock or full unlock yet ?

I don't think anyone has cracked WP8 yet for interop unlock and I have been following this forum for awhile. There isn't even custom ROMs yet.
As far as the WP8 SDK, be aware you need Windows 8 on your PC. It will not install on Windows 7
I upgraded my PC to Windows 8 so I could load the SDK and use my Dev Account to unlock. But all you can do is side load apps that do not need root or interop access...but I keep hoping. At this point I have yet to side load anything because my old WP7.5 side loads all need root/IU.
At least WP8 offers enough additional configurability to keep me somewhat satisfied but I still have my old Trophy.

LiFePo4 said:
I don't think anyone has cracked WP8 yet for interop unlock and I have been following this forum for awhile. There isn't even custom ROMs yet.
As far as the WP8 SDK, be aware you need Windows 8 on your PC. It will not install on Windows 7
I upgraded my PC to Windows 8 so I could load the SDK and use my Dev Account to unlock. But all you can do is side load apps that do not need root or interop access...but I keep hoping. At this point I have yet to side load anything because my old WP7.5 side loads all need root/IU.
At least WP8 offers enough additional configurability to keep me somewhat satisfied but I still have my old Trophy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I am dual booting with Windows 8, so I installed it and Dev unlocked but, the dreamspark account I have has a limit of 3 apps Wish at least there was a way around this right now...
Anyone play with any tools from HTC days? I even saw that HTC Connection Setup is available in the marketplace. Getting MAX unsigned apps would be great right now to hold me out till the tools and custom roms can come.
I just miss Advanced Config the most, I HATE limit the factory colors, I need my custom colors back....Is this too much to ask from Microsoft to create custom colors ?
BTW...I wish the SDK could be installed on Win7x64, I am not a Win8 fan right now...
I used my Trophy the other day after having the 8X for a few days, I just can't go back... I think I have to sell mine, the screen is just too small and not as pretty

I tried my Trophy again too and understand. I can't switch back. And no news on the sideload limit as that needs reg edit (but haven't thought about Connection Setup; no one is looking as far as I know).
If someone is working on cracking WP8 they are not saying much. It is pretty dead in the hacking section and WPH/Jaxbot isn't doing anything. Waiting....
P.S. If you have to use Win8 much get Stardock's Start8 and Decor8 apps ($5 each). You get a start button back and can set to boot right into the desktop. Decor8 let's you pick custom colors for your tiles and background! Just need a "Decor8" app for WP8.

Has there been ANY rumor or anything on a exploit for Windows Phone 8 ? I have been following every site I know of and I have not seen anything. It's been months and there has been nothing at all.
Are any of the major players even working on this or have they moved on to other phones ? It's normaly a little more when people are looking into it..

There is the problem of this security chip that checks both the kernel and the bootloader for authentic signatures. This chip is "hard coded" and can't be avoided at startup. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to make a rooted windows phone 8 OS boot on these devices. If either the bootloader or the kernel have been tampered with, said chip will restore them (sometimes even with complete device wipe), thus any modifications are very hard to do.
I have no doubt that the chip can be overridden somehow, but there is a long way till there, requires a lot of effort and the benefits are really not that big.

mcosmin222 said:
There is the problem of this security chip that checks both the kernel and the bootloader for authentic signatures. This chip is "hard coded" and can't be avoided at startup. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to make a rooted windows phone 8 OS boot on these devices. If either the bootloader or the kernel have been tampered with, said chip will restore them (sometimes even with complete device wipe), thus any modifications are very hard to do.
I have no doubt that the chip can be overridden somehow, but there is a long way till there, requires a lot of effort and the benefits are really not that big.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, Crap....Dam, nothing easy huh ? I really hope someone can unlock this to a point, I would like to side load more, yea but, I am more interested in Advanced Config so I could have more colors... sick of the default colors on WP8...

developer unlock wp8?

Hi
I am thinking about paying the 99$ fee and was wondering if I can developer unlock my Samsung ativ s or a lumia 928?
and if I do can I sideload the recently pulled youtube xap onto my phone and for that matter maybe 7.x homebrew apps onto wp8?

noelito said:
Hi
I am thinking about paying the 99$ fee and was wondering if I can developer unlock my Samsung ativ s or a lumia 928?
and if I do can I sideload the recently pulled youtube xap onto my phone and for that matter maybe 7.x homebrew apps onto wp8?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't looked into it much, but I believe that you can only sideload 3 individual applications onto it. All modern Xaps are encrypted, too, and we don't have any way to decrypt them, so even if you could get it you likely couldn't sideload it.

i see
netham45 said:
I haven't looked into it much, but I believe that you can only sideload 3 individual applications onto it. All modern Xaps are encrypted, too, and we don't have any way to decrypt them, so even if you could get it you likely couldn't sideload it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i was wanting to factory reset my ativ and unlock it and sideload the youtube xap because i inadvertently put too any apn apps on my ativ s to try and get internet sharing to work.
because of this every time i soft reset the phone it takes a solid 5 minutes or more to get the internet connection back cause off all the apns floating around in settings that i can't uninstall
i love version 1 of the Microsoft youtube app overhaul and don't want to give it up with a factory reset, i am also thinking about selling my ativ for the lack fo decent oem camera software and go with the lumia 928 but once again i want to get that youtube app back onto whatever phone im using
but like you said they are encrypted anyway which is bad to hear, sigh are they ever going to jail break wp8, i am languishing here without a custom rom, if they could somehow crack wp8 and my ativ s , then my ativ s could be a super phone with all of nokia and htc software installed too
sigh!

You could simply use another YouTube App like MetroTube. I still prefer it over Microsoft's now pulled App and you don't have to play around with Unlocks and what not...

I developer unlocked my HTC 8x a while ago, and I can tell you the following:
1. If you developer unlock you device for $99/yr, you can sideload as many apps as you want. The limitation of 3 only applies to student accounts.
2. Any xap from the Windows Phone store can be sideloaded, as long as it doesn't require Interop Unlock.
3. The Xap files are just specially packaged zip files, so you can edit them with a tool such as 7zip.
4. If you downloaded an xap from the Microsoft store, and then try to sideload it, it will fail, until you delete "WMAppPRHeader.xml" from the xap. This also will "break"
updates for the app as new ones come out in the store.
Hope that helps!

Can I:
1. Sideload 7.x homebrew caps?
2. Sideload the Microsoft YouTube app that was pulled? I have the xap, so I should delete that file you mentioned?
3. Do I use the side load program that you use on your desk top (I forgot the name) in the chevron wp7 days
Someone had told me offhand regarding the YouTube xap that it is encrypted and useless to try and side load anyway, is this true?
Thank you very much for your help!
Sent from my SGH-T899M using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Sideloading WP7 apps will "work" except that most WP7 homebrew either requires Interop Unlock (which we don't have yet) or requires "root" privileges (which we don't have yet). So... not a lot of use.

GoodDayToDie said:
Sideloading WP7 apps will "work" except that most WP7 homebrew either requires Interop Unlock (which we don't have yet) or requires "root" privileges (which we don't have yet). So... not a lot of use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you think it will be easier to gain interop-unlock if the phone would already be dev-unlocked?
If this would be, i guess i would pay the 99$ to dev-unlock my Lumia 920, if it helps the community

I can't open Xap to remove "WMAppPRHeader.xml" (DRM protect)?

You have to change the xap with 7zip and it will turn into a zip file with additional files inside, I would like to know if I deleted "wmappprheaderxml" in Microsoft's ill fated YouTube app could I then sideload it?
Sent from my SGH-T899M using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

[Q] Nokia Lumia 625 Black File Manager?

Hello Everybody,
Recently i bought Nokia Lumia 625 Black, WP8.0, i was thinking Nokia 'll give me fab experience using their Lumia Windows phone but i am really disappointed using its restricted windows phone, the things which i don't like in Windows phone are,
1) Can't easily manage my files on SDCARD/exSdcard, i have download many pdf file in my lumia and i tried to copy them in my laptop but surprisingly i saw that there is no folder for downloaded file in phone storage or extSdcard.
2) Camera photo quality is not that good.
3) I Can't hide my application which i was used to in my Android Core mobile.
4) There is no much app in app store and moreover they are oldest and not updated, many of their app crashes, like whatsapp, truecaller, etc.
5) Can't easily manage your ringtones.
6) Third party call recording is not working.
7) NO DUAL SIM so what it makes you satisfied is its battery performance, thats it, really disappointed buying nokia lumia windows series phone.
8) No option for USB tethering for internet sharing.
my question is that is there any option to manage file on sdcard or extsdcard?

No official file manager right now, but on WP 8.1 there is an app called Pocket File Manager( http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/pocket-file-manager/56dd9c3d-fe0a-4ceb-84b0-043e58e55b19 or search for it on the app store ) that should be able to manage the sdcard files. Again, you have to be on WP 8.1 in order to use it.

Pocket File Manager works just fine on 8.0, and has full access to the SD card there too. The 8.1 version could add more capabilities, but you don't strictly need it.
Camera quality is one of those you-get-what-you-pay-for situations. You bought a budget phone, with relatively low specs aside from its screen size. What did you expect? It'll give better camera performance than almost any other phone in the same price range, but no, it's not going to match a iPhone 5S or Lumia 1020 that costs 4x as much.
Not sure what you mean by "hide my application"; can you be more specific? I've used Android but not extensively.
The third-most popular platform is going to be the third to get apps, or app updates. In my experiences the first-party stuff works extremely well and the stuff from close partners is close, but third-party is a crapshoot. You could try unofficial clients, if you want; it's not that uncommon for them to be better than the official ones.
How much easier ringtone management do you want?!? It's the top item in Settings, and you can add custom ringtones and message alerts to any contact anywhere you can tap their name (People hub, Phone hub, Messaging hub, etc.). Creating ringtones from media files isn't easy with built-in tools but there are plenty of apps which can do it.
Call recording requires hooks at a level of the OS that could also be easily abused by malware. Microsoft could make a special API for that feature, but they haven't done so yet. If this is a vital feature for you, you should have researched what phones support this feature before buying... Most people never need it.
Dual-SIM is supported in the latest WP version, which your phone is upgradable to (which, I should point out, Android phones often aren't...). However, your actual phone doesn't have dual-SIM. If you wanted dual-SIM, why didn't you buy a dual-SIM phone, like the 630?
USB tethering is possible on some phones - for example, I can do it on my Ativ S - but it's unofficial. Is there some reason the official WiFi tethering doesn't work for you? You can still plug the phone into USB to keep it charged while you do that...

Ah I didn't know it was out for 8.0 also. Thanks for the clarification GDTD

[Q] Jailbreaking Lumia 520 ?

Hi all.
I'm an android user switching to windows phone..
I'm getting the Lumia 520 soon ..
I just wanted to get a general idea of how jailbreaking works with windows phone..
is it like android just download the apk (or whatever extension windows phone uses) to the sd card .. install it and voila ?
or is it complicated ?
any guides/tutorials for this ?
Thanks.

Please use search before posting...
You can enable sideloading on WP8, but it's more complex than on Android; you need to use a PC to enable it and to install the sideloaded apps.
More importantly, though, sideloaded apps are very limited. For one thing, you can't install more than a few of them - the typical range is 2-10, depending on what unlock method you use - unless you uninstall some first. They are also restricted to very low permissions. There is no widely-usable "root" hack for any WP8 phone right now, either. I'm working on it... but the Samsung phones will probably be the first ones.
Despite Windows' long reputation for poor security, Microsoft has put serious effort into WP8 security and lockdown (not the same thing... security keeps others from controlling your device, lockdown keeps you from controlling it) and the result is pretty solid. There's a few holes we've been able to attack thus far, but most of them have had such minimal privileges we couldn't use them to *do* anything meaningful.

[Q] Is there a way to pull a XAP file off WP8?

Hello - I am doing a pen test for a customer. They are not giving me the xap files like they did last time. Is there a way to pull the xap file off the phone and on to your PC? I have a dev unlocked phone which I can sideload apps using power tools. I have done some research and it doesn't sound like this option is available, but I wanted to ask.
Thanks in advance.

First of all, the phone doesn't store the XAP files (PLEASE search before posting! This question gets asked a lot). I assume all you really care about is the app binaries and manifest file, though. (You can rebuild an installable XAP from these if needed.)
There's a complicated series of hacks for doing it on 8.1 via the ability to install apps to the SD card. If you don't have 8.1, don't have an SD card, can't install the relevant versions of specific apps, or if the app is marked to not allow installation to SD, then that method won't work for you.
The other approach, which in my experience is standard in the pentesting world (which is my field as well), is to use a hacked/jailbroken/unlocked phone. Samsung (unless it has the very newest firmware versions) and Huawei phones can be unlocked by flashing modified ROMs. The unlock lets you sideload apps with vastly more privileges, such as the ability to read and write the install directory of any app. Using that, it's pretty easy to get the files you want. Such unlocks are also possible with some Nokia phones via JTAG, and possibly some other models too, but the Samsung unlock (which I and -W_O_L_F- found) and the ability to flash customized ROMs for Huawei are the easiest approaches.
On the offhand chance you're part of NCC group, PM me and I'll send you my work email address. If you're with one of our competitors... well, I actually don't mind helping a competitor that much either; some Deja Vu folks gave me a good tip lately though, and I've got friends at SI as well.

GoodDayToDie said:
First of all, the phone doesn't store the XAP files (PLEASE search before posting! This question gets asked a lot). I assume all you really care about is the app binaries and manifest file, though. (You can rebuild an installable XAP from these if needed.)
There's a complicated series of hacks for doing it on 8.1 via the ability to install apps to the SD card. If you don't have 8.1, don't have an SD card, can't install the relevant versions of specific apps, or if the app is marked to not allow installation to SD, then that method won't work for you.
The other approach, which in my experience is standard in the pentesting world (which is my field as well), is to use a hacked/jailbroken/unlocked phone. Samsung (unless it has the very newest firmware versions) and Huawei phones can be unlocked by flashing modified ROMs. The unlock lets you sideload apps with vastly more privileges, such as the ability to read and write the install directory of any app. Using that, it's pretty easy to get the files you want. Such unlocks are also possible with some Nokia phones via JTAG, and possibly some other models too, but the Samsung unlock (which I and -W_O_L_F- found) and the ability to flash customized ROMs for Huawei are the easiest approaches.
On the offhand chance you're part of NCC group, PM me and I'll send you my work email address. If you're with one of our competitors... well, I actually don't mind helping a competitor that much either; some Deja Vu folks gave me a good tip lately though, and I've got friends at SI as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for all your help. So my situation is this: I am doing pen testing for a client (and I'm sure we are competitors some what). The have provided me a Nokia Lumia phone running 8.0 and another Lumia running 8.1. The app is installed by their dev team (app is not avail from the store). They are reluctant to provide my the XAP file as they consider it proprietary info. I have done a dev unlock on the phone, but my primary goal is to view the isolated storage/dlls for the app to make sure they are not storing sensitive data. I am using the standard tools for viewing the isolated storage, but for these to work (best of my knowledge) they require you to sideload the application which I cannot due (not XAP file). I am proxying the traffic, but without looking at the file system there is not much I can do. As an aside, they are using MDM with jailbreak detection.

Whoa, somebody actually got around to writing jailbreak detection for WP8? Crazy. I wish I could see that; I'm sure it's trivial to bypass (at least for interop-unlock, the difference between locked and unlocked is changing a registry value and it would be easily possible to re-lock it, launch the app while keeping the editor app open in the background, switch back to the editor, and unlock/jailbreak again) but I'm amused that anybody even bothered trying. Also, the APIs you would need to do the detection aren't even available on 8.0, officially; you're in violation of the store rules if you use them. Then again, maybe this is an internal, "Enterprise" app; those have permissions to do stuff that typical third-party apps do not. Are you sure they don't just mean they have jailbreak detection for iOS? I see something about Office365 MDM offering JB detection, but while I suppose they could have written something for WP8.x as well I feel like I probably would have heard of it?
If the app was sideloaded by the dev team, then you can see its isostore using the official tools or using Windows Phone Power Tools. If it's an enterprise app and the app was installed that way, then things get more difficult (especially if the phone they gave you doesn't have an SD slot). Not giving a pentester access to the binary they're testing is silly on a number of levels; if you succeed in breaking in then you'll get it anyhow, and an attacker will have a lot more than a week or two to poke at it so they're wasting your presumably-paid-by-the-hour time if they want you to see how good their security is without actually examining the app. I bet they used obfuscation, too... Some people just don't get it. "Security" by obscurity... isn't. Sorry, end of mini-rant. Anyhow, there's a guy on the forum who claims to have a non-JTAG unlock for Lumias, but no idea when or if it'll see the light of day.