decrypt Boox Update Upx

Have been tested only in these Boox ereaders. If you found it available for any other Boox ereader, please submit the strings.

Note 1: There is also another method to fetch decrypted update.zip from @shunf4.

Note 2: There is a way to get downloading url of latest firmware.

Note 3: payload.bin can be extracted with https://github.com/cyxx/extract_android_ota_payload.

Any other issue and pull request is also welcomed!

The detail of algorithm (Simplified Chinese)

How to run?

Python3 should be installed to run the script, and pycryptodome a dependency of the script should also be installed:

(BTW: in some environments, the following pip and python should be replaced with pip3 and python3)

pip install pycryptodome

You can run the application by putting update.upx file in the project directory and running

python DeBooxUpx.py <device model> [input file name [output file name]]

<device model> is required, and [input file name [output file name]] is optional. The input file will be update.upx and the output file will be saved in the current working directory, if not set in the arguments.

For list of currently supported models please refer to the table.

API

There is a python class DeBooxUpx in DeBooxUpx.py to decrypt update.upx, and dict boox_strings where there are known strings.

Following is a example to use this class to decrypt the update.upx of Boox Nove Pro:

from DeBooxUpx import DeBooxUpx, boox_strings
model = 'NovaPro'
updateUpxPath = 'update.upx'
decryptedPath = 'update.zip'

decrypter = DeBooxUpx(**boox_strings[model])
print('When updating, the device decrypt update package into', decrypter.path)
decrypter.deUpx(updateUpxPath, decryptedPath)

Or for manually setting strings:

from DeBooxUpx import DeBooxUpx

MODEL = "NovaPro" 
STRING_SETTINGS = "j857wYAQcWZgvIEQ/tcQqzxreUJgFHwJl6D2TN9BuSkQ" 
STRING_UPGRADE = "+soGw/YVdGIRJiAs5SMmv1ihW37H1Fa9+/1w2Vgt14Ag" 
STRING_LOCAL = "lpsj9NJ8Kzv8jHb+OO8A5lxC+9Zhl243bFmDZYaF" 
updateUpxPath = 'update.upx'
decryptedPath = 'update.zip'

decrypter = DeBooxUpx(MODEL, STRING_SETTINGS, STRING_UPGRADE, STRING_LOCAL)
print('When updating, the device decrypt update package into', decrypter.path)
decrypter.deUpx(updateUpxPath, decryptedPath)

The strings

A few of models sold in China and most (if not all) of models sold in Russia are marked with suffixes -cn/-ru, the firmwares for which don't use the same strings with their international versions!

PS: SP_NoteS is SuperStar (chaoxing) verison.

How to get the strings (Method 1, for Android <= 10)

MODEL string is the model name, exactly the output of getprop ro.product.model and/or value of ro.product.model in the file /system/build.prop.

Other strings can be got in following steps:

1. Get /system/app/OnyxOtaService/OnyxOtaService.apk

   USB Debugging (adb) is one of the the available ways:

   1. Turn on adb in Settings -> Applications -> USB Debugging Mode

   2. (from @mgrub's note) Connect the ebook to computer by usb, run

      adb wait-for-device
      adb shell 'pm list packages -f | grep ota'

      And then the path of ota package will be showed. For example, the following output is in Nova Pro:

      package:/system/app/OnyxOtaService/OnyxOtaService.apk=com.onyx.android.onyxotaservice
      

      So in this case the path is /system/app/OnyxOtaService/OnyxOtaService.apk.

      In the following steps, we assume that the path is /system/app/OnyxOtaService/OnyxOtaService.apk.

   3. Run the following command

      adb pull /system/app/OnyxOtaService/OnyxOtaService.apk .

   Now the apk is got.

2. Get the strings from apk

   1. Use Apktool to decode the apk:

      apktool d OnyxOtaService.apk

   2. Now the strings should be in ./OnyxOtaService/res/values/strings.xml, for example the NovaPro one:

      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
      <resources>
          <string name="settings">j857wYAQcWZgvIEQ/tcQqzxreUJgFHwJl6D2TN9BuSkQ</string>
          <string name="upgrade">+soGw/YVdGIRJiAs5SMmv1ihW37H1Fa9+/1w2Vgt14Ag</string>
          <string name="local">lpsj9NJ8Kzv8jHb+OO8A5lxC+9Zhl243bFmDZYaF</string>
          
      </resources>

   settings is STRING_SETTINGS, upgrade is STRING_UPGRADE, and local is STRING_LOCAL

3. Add and verify (optional) the strings

   Add the strings to boox_strings in DeBooxUpx.py, use this script to decrypt a update.upx file (it can be got by the method in #2), and see if the update.zip file is a vaild zip file.

How to get the strings (Method 2, for Android >= 11)

In Boox OS since Android 11, these strings, which have been moved to libota_jni.so, are empty in strings.xml. In this case, please install and run GetBooxUpxKeys in your device to get keys, or refer to 22#issuecomment-964035840.

This method requires you install an apk in your device.

How to get the strings (Method 3, for Android >= 11)

If you don't want to install the apk in Method 2, you can use Method 3. This method uses the emulator to get the strings.

MODEL string is the model name, exactly the output of getprop ro.product.model and/or value of ro.product.model in the file /system/build.prop.

Other strings can be got in following steps:

1. Get /system/lib/libota_jni.so (for 32-bit device) or /system/lib64/libota_jni.so (for 64-bit device)

   Connect to device via adb as above. Then execute command:

   adb pull /system/lib/libota_jni.so
   

   or

   adb pull /system/lib64/libota_jni.so
   

2. Prepare environment

   Clone the submodule.

   git submodule init
   git submodule update
   

   Install python dependencies.

   pip3 install unicorn capstone
   

3. Execute ota_jni.py

   python ota_jni.py libota_jni.so
   ERROR:androidemu.internal.modules:=> Undefined external symbol:
   ERROR:androidemu.internal.modules:=> Undefined external symbol: __cxa_finalize
   ERROR:androidemu.internal.modules:=> Undefined external symbol: __register_atfork
   ERROR:androidemu.internal.modules:=> Undefined external symbol: __cxa_atexit
   ro.kernel.qemu was not found in system_properties dictionary.
   libc.debug.malloc was not found in system_properties dictionary.
   WARNING:root:File does not exist '/proc/stat'
   WARNING:androidemu.internal.modules:libcrypto.so needed by libota_jni.so do not exist in vfs ExAndroidNativeEmu/vfs
   WARNING:androidemu.internal.modules:libutils.so needed by libota_jni.so do not exist in vfs ExAndroidNativeEmu/vfs
   ----------------
   STRING_SETTINGS uTKx3XVyRhlbI7hoHuy/NiYdwlWViPlc4EecZKYTThN/
   STRING_UPGRADE vzDFqwIEMRfqTPUCV82ahjnz0hXfcZCIxRY8ljuLmTaf
   

   You can test this method with python ota_jni.py test/libota_jni.so, which should give the above output.

Contributing

Refer to CONTRIBUTING.md.