2018-04-18 21:29:27 +00:00
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# raspi-keygen
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2018-04-18 21:34:28 +00:00
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This is an effort to reverse-engineer the Raspberry Pi license key check for
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2019-06-24 17:36:09 +00:00
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MPEG-2 and VC-1 hardware video encoding.
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2018-04-18 21:34:28 +00:00
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## Patch
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2018-06-07 12:56:55 +00:00
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A patch for `start.elf`, a firmwware blob for the VideoCore IV processor used by
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all Raspberry Pi models, was posted to
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2018-04-18 21:34:28 +00:00
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[reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/5x7xbo/patch_for_mpeg2_vc1_license/)
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by [/u/fuck_the_mpeg_la](https://www.reddit.com/user/fuck_the_mpeg_la)
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on 03-03-2017:
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```bash
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cd /boot
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cp start.elf start.elf_backup && \
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perl -pne 's/\x47\xE9362H\x3C\x18/\x47\xE9362H\x3C\x1F/g' < start.elf_backup > start.elf
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```
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2018-06-07 12:56:55 +00:00
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Applying it to a
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[4.14.44 `start.elf`](https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/blob/a154f2136850dba827cf4bc40794854376902cbd/boot/start.elf)
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(latest as of time of writing) results in the following diff:
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```bash
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$ diff <(xxd -e start.elf_backup) <(xxd -e start.elf)
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38340c38340
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< 00095c30: 400703a4 40161799 3633e947 183c4832 ...@...@G.362H<.
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---
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> 00095c30: 400703a4 40161799 3633e947 1f3c4832 ...@...@G.362H<.
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```
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```bash
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$ md5sum start.elf_backup start.elf
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8327a0720f806814b677efaeb94a7671 start.elf_backup
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fe55537c71b22e8f8c1a92257da2c45b start.elf
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```
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2018-04-18 21:34:28 +00:00
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Some initial analysis was done by [q3k](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=q3k)
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on [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16383368):
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2018-04-18 21:36:25 +00:00
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>Yes, it seems to patch a licensing function at 0xEC95FD4 [1] to always return 1,
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>by patching the jump at 0xEC95FE2 (that should be only taken for the always-allowed H263 codec)
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>to always be taken, thus always allowing all codecs.
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2018-04-18 21:34:28 +00:00
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2018-06-07 12:56:55 +00:00
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## Reverse-engineering
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The initial entry point is disassembled using the
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[VideoCore IV plugin](https://github.com/hermanhermitage/videocoreiv/tree/master/idaplugin)
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for IDA Pro 6 by [hermanhermitage](https://github.com/hermanhermitage).
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After loading and analyzing `start.elf`, we can find the `is_licensed` routine
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at address `0xEC96290` by jumping to the file offset given to us by `xxd`
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beforehand. The relevant code sections are available in
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[sub_EC96290.asm](sub_EC96290.asm) and [is_licensed.asm](is_licensed.asm).
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```asm
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not_WMV9: ; CODE XREF: is_licensed+56j
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cmp r7, 'MPG2'
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cmpeq r6, 0
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bne not_MPG2
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ld r1, 0x1DC0(gp) ; XREF 0xEE86680 dword_EE86680
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addcmpbne r1, 0, 0, return_1
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not_MPG2: ; CODE XREF: is_licensed+68j
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cmp r7, 'WVC1'
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cmpeq r6, 0
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bne deny
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ld r2, 0x2120(gp) ; XREF 0xEE869E0 dword_EE869E0
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addcmpbeq r2, 0, 0, deny
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```
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2019-06-24 17:36:09 +00:00
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Here, two memory locations (`0xEE86680` for MPEG-2 and `0xEE869E0` for VC-1)
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2018-06-07 12:56:55 +00:00
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that point to the `.bss` segment are checked to determine the return value of
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`is_licensed`. There are no other obvious references to these locations in
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`start.elf`, so memory-breakpoint debugging (**TBD**) is probably needed.
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