Reverse Engineering W51H extraction Progress
So for those who don’t know, the dump of the W51H was posted earlier. Thanks to Kraze he was able to get the bin file that does contain the filesystem, files. Meaning if we can extract the filesystem from this then I can ensure you that I will be able to extract the Before Crisis Demo. Because at this point, I would not have to destroy my phone by removing the processor. I would just have to buy a JTAG emulator and some wires which I have done and now I am patiently waiting for it to arrive. I intend of dumping my W51H phones so we can get closer to preserving Before Crisis data.
So for those who want to attempt to do this, at this point we need all the help we can get. I do want to share what I have learned because if somebody can find out what to do before I do, and I hope they do, then that would be great. Who knows maybe you or someone else can get further than I have. Cause I want to get to our goal. Even if you show proof that I did a lot of things wrong.
Using a program called binwalk, we can perform many actions on the bin file such as view signatures and even extract files. However you may have found a program that can do better than binwalk or does things differently than binwalk. At this point it's about what gets the job done. There are more things you can do with Binwalk but at this point it seems to be a common program to use when exctracting file from a firmware image file. I am very much a newb and I am still learning a lot.
I am running it on Linux Ubuntu. Because it has given me the best results compared to windows. But it does work on windows and mac as well. So, I used this command to perform a signature scan. (note this is done on Ubuntu, if you want to try this on windows or mac, command line might differ)
$ binwalk -B w51h.bin
I ran a signature scan and couldn't find anyting like Kernel, boot loader, firmware. So I tried the following command to extract the files hoping I would get the system files.
$ binwalk -Me w51h.bin
I thought that doing this would give me the filesystem but It only gives me files in the formats of TGAC, zip and zlib files. This ends up being 12.9gb and the original bin file is 66mb. I’m not sure if what I did was correct or that AU has gotten really smart when it comes to hiding their stuff. It is possible that you need to perform a certain action to extract the filesystem properly. So, I try using zlib to decompress the extracted zlib file. Instead, what I get is more bin files and when trying to extract it, I get an error message.
With my limited knowledge I reached out to some other discord groups hoping someone would tell me I was doing something wrong. But they did point me to another website. This is called website called binvis.io and was able to view more folder paths then I have with any other program before. But still have no idea how to extract what I need. I have seen people use different methods such as search for Kernel and the use that Kernel to obtain access to getting what they want.
So we have some progress, not successful but we are learning, so what do we do?
1. Use Binwalk or a program to extract files from bin.
2. Search for a method that can help us extract system files.
This is what It should look like if extracted correctly. This is just a photo of a different device. But I have seen some similar folder names when viewing the bin with binbis.io.
P-03A progress: I still haven't obtainted the epoxy remover to remove the glue that is holding down the chips. I can't go any further until I obtain this.
As
P900iV: I have been watching various JTAG, hacking of consoles videos seeing if their is a method out their that can bring me a step closer. Of course learning how someone hacked a Wii won't provide all the answers but knowledge is power. I have many ideas that I would like to perform on this to be able to JTAG the P900iV. Because, the more you know about the field you are in and the tips and tricks, the closer you can get to obtaining your goal.
I hope this helps or gives more reassurance that Before Crisis Preservation hasn't died. If anything it is going on, just that this stuff is hard lol. But I enjoy it, I have learned a lot.
G-MODEアーカイブス1周年
