Clear iSpot was a little too easy to crack

Disclaimer: Whenever you “jailbreak” a device like this you risk bricking it and getting into some trouble. Be nice and be fair! Do this to learn, gain access on devices that aren’t working correctly (which a lot of people are running into right now), extend the capabilities by installing extra software, etc.

Warning: If you are not familiar with the Linux command line and various tools listed below then see my follow-up about using the pre-made configs from jaku.

This is a follow up to my original post which gives some of the background on the iSpot. Have fun!

To get root access:

1. Download your configuration and extract it
2. Add a line to lan.conf to add a new user with no password to your /etc/passwd
   1. For example: echo “wojo::0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh” >> /etc/passwd
3. Tar up the config and upload it
4. When the iSpot comes back up, go into super user mode (/super via HTTP, u: super, p: super), Tools -> Admin and enable Telnet at the bottom under “Save Telent and Log Configuration” (there are so many typos on this device!)
5. Telnet to 192.168.1.1 and enter the username from above (e.g. wojo)
6. Enjoy root
7. Remove the addition to the /etc/lan.conf on the device so it stops adding the user on every reboot

Want to disable the MAC address restrictions?

1. Edit /system/wimax/tree.xml in your favorite text editor (vi is on the box)
2. Search for “RestrictedUse” and set the value to “false” in the node below
3. Save the file and reboot

How about enable RNDIS so you don’t have to use WiFi?

1. From either your local configuration files or via a shell, edit board.conf
2. Change ENABLE_RNDIS to a value of 1
3. Go to http://192.168.1.1/html/rndis.html
4. Set your preference on WiFi enabled during USB tethering
5. For Windows only: download the driver

Lastly, if you don’t want configs and firmware pushed down, you probably want to at minimum:

• Disable auto-upgrading in upgrade.conf (ENABLE_AUTO_UPGRADE=”NO”),
• disable OMA-DM in super user mode under WiMAX -> OMA-DM to prevent OTA updates, and
• never do a factory reset with a signal as the device could pull down new configs and do a firmware upgrade.

Thanks to Jon at methodicjon.com for a reminder to close up as much as possible in terms of OTA automatic updates.

Now what cool things can the iSpot be extended to do now I wonder?

Update on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 11:01PM by Wojo

Almost at the same exact time I posted this I got a tweet from @jaku about http://ispotunrestricted.com/, his site that has a config file you can download that does the modifications for you via some inline vi commands nontheless! No need to get a shell unless you really want to snoop around and lock things down more.

Update on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 12:02PM by Wojo

Do not update to firmware v1994 as it removes the ability to upload configs and changes the super user password.