There are a lot of reasons to manually download firmware for your device. Maybe you're trying to root it and need to modify the stock firmware before flashing it. Or maybe you just want to download software updates early. Unfortunately, companies don't often make it easy to actually download that firmware in an easily-installable way.
Firmware Generator Samsung.rarl
Samsung especially likes to make it hard to manually download software updates. For one, there's no Fastboot mode on Samsung devices. To flash firmware, you have to go into Download Mode and use Samsung's proprietary flashing tool, Odin. Then, you have to actually get the firmware file to flash. If you try to download the firmware directly from Samsung, it'll be encrypted.
Luckily, that encryption isn't very strong, and the process of downloading and decrypting firmware directly from Samsung has been recreated many times. One notable example of this is the SamFirm program for Windows. SamFirm no longer works, but there are alternatives, like Frija, which are still functional.
The only problem with most of these downloader programs is that they're all for Windows. What if you want to download software updates for your Galaxy device from your Mac or Linux PC? Well, you could use one of the many firmware downloader websites out there. Those sites serve decrypted Samsung firmware for basically any Samsung device. You can browse for firmware by device model, filter by region, and even view the history of firmware versions.
But storing all those files gets expensive. To be maintainable, most downloader sites will restrict the download speed unless you pay for an account. Since Samsung's firmware packages are pretty big (recent devices are as large as 7GiB), downloading on a throttled connection can be pretty annoying. You could always pay for unlimited speeds, but not everyone's willing to do that.
So back to square one. How can you download firmware directly from Samsung if you don't have a Windows PC? Enter Samloader, a command-line program that runs on anything where Python 3 is installed. You can use Samloader to check for the latest update for your device, download that firmware, and even decrypt already-downloaded firmware, as long as you know the correct model, region, and firmware string.
Samloader is pretty great since it's a properly cross-platform solution to downloading Samsung firmware. But not everyone likes to use the command line. It can get confusing trying to install Python on macOS, for instance, and keeping track of all the needed command-line arguments can be tricky.
So I made a GUI. The very originally-named Samsung Firmware Downloader is a cross-platform graphical firmware downloader for Samsung. In spirit, it's a graphical wrapper around Samloader, but all of the logic has been rewritten in Kotlin. There are also some additional features.
Put your model and region into the corresponding fields in the Downloader view and hit "Check for Updates." The app will query Samsung's server and return the latest firmware version available, along with which version of Android it is.
If you just checked for updates in the Downloader view, you can then hit the Download button to start downloading that firmware. Choose a destination, and the app will download and decrypt the firmware automatically.
If you have an encrypted firmware file, you can use Samsung Firmware Downloader to decrypt it. Enter the model, region, and firmware version corresponding to the encrypted file, then select the file to decrypt, hit the "Decrypt" button, and the app will take care of the rest.
If you want to download a specific firmware from the list, hit the "Download" button. You'll be redirected to the Download view with the information already filled in. Then you can just hit "Download."
If you have a file to decrypt, you can find the corresponding firmware in this list and hit the "Decrypt" button. You'll be redirected to the Decrypt view, where you'll just need to choose the right file and hit "Decrypt."
The Windfreak Technologies SynthNV is a 34.4MHz to 4.4GHz software tunable RF signal generator, sweeper, and RF power detector controlled and powered by a device running Windows, Linux, or Android via its USB port.
It includes an onboard 34MHz to 4GHz RF power detector which can be used as a generic RF power meter or with the sweep function as a basic RF network analyzer. Set the RF signal generator, then measure RF power in less than 400μS.
The SynthNV is a CE certified, 34.4MHz to 4.4GHz software tunable RF signal generator controlled and powered by a PC running Windows 7 SP1 through Windows 10, or Android via its USB port. WinXP supported by older versions of SynthNV software. It includes an onboard RF power detector which can be used with the sweep function as a basic RF network analyzer.
Before you connect CalMAN to the Samsung TV, connect CalMAN to your pattern generator and disable HDR10 metadata. This is required so that CalMAN loads the correct starting calibration values for SDR, as they are different from the HDR default values.
Note: If you have already completed the HDR10 Calibration, you must disconnect CalMAN from the Samsung TV, disable HDR10 metadata in the CalMAN Source tab, then reconnect CalMAN to the Samsung TV when the TV is no longer receiving the HDR signal from the pattern generator.
Before you connect CalMAN to the Samsung QLED TV, connect CalMAN to your pattern generator and enable HDR10 metadata. This is required so that CalMAN loads the correct starting calibration values for HDR10, as they are different from the SDR default values.
Note: If you have already completed the SDR Calibration, you must disconnect CalMAN from the Samsung TV, enable the HDR10 metadata in the CalMAN Source tab, then reconnect CalMAN to the Samsung TV while the TV is receiving the HDR signal from the pattern generator.
This document helps guide OEMs and ODMs in creation and management of the Secure Boot keys and certificates in a manufacturing environment. It addresses questions related to creation, storage and retrieval of Platform Keys (PKs), secure firmware update keys, and third party Key Exchange Keys (KEKs).
Requirements, tests, and tools validating Secure Boot on Windows are available today through the Windows Hardware Certification Kit (HCK). However, these HCK resources do not address creation and management of keys for Windows deployments. This paper addresses key management as a resource to help guide partners through deployment of the keys used by the firmware. It is not intended as prescriptive guidance and does not include any new requirements.
The UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) specification defines a firmware execution authentication process called Secure Boot. As an industry standard, Secure Boot defines how platform firmware manages certificates, authenticates firmware, and how the operating system interfaces with this process.
Secure Boot is based on the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) process to authenticate modules before they are allowed to execute. These modules can include firmware drivers, option ROMs, UEFI drivers on disk, UEFI applications, or UEFI boot loaders. Through image authentication before execution, Secure Boot reduces the risk of pre-boot malware attacks such as rootkits. Microsoft relies on UEFI Secure Boot in Windows 8 and above as part of its Trusted Boot security architecture to improve platform security for our customers. Secure Boot is required for Windows 8 and above client PCs, and for Windows Server 2016 as defined in the Windows Hardware Compatibility Requirements.
In Secure Boot, Certification Authorities (CAs) include the OEM (or their delegates) and Microsoft. The CAs generate the key pairs that form the root of trust and then use the private keys to sign legitimate operations such as allowed early boot EFI modules and firmware servicing requests. The corresponding public keys are shipped embedded into the UEFI firmware on Secure Boot-enabled PCs and are used to verify these operations.
The UEFI-defined root of trust consists of the Platform Key and any keys an OEM or ODM includes in the firmware core. Pre-UEFI security and a root of trust are not addressed by the UEFI Secure Boot process, but instead by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Trusted Computing Group (TCG) publications referenced in this paper.
Figure 3 above represents the signatures and keys in a PC with Secure Boot. The platform is secured through a platform key that the OEM installs in firmware during manufacturing. Other keys are used by Secure Boot to protect access to databases that store keys to allow or disallow execution of firmware.
The authorized database (db) contains public keys and certificates that represent trusted firmware components and operating system loaders. The forbidden signature database (dbx) contains hashes of malicious and vulnerable components as well as compromised keys and certificates and blocks execution of those malicious components. The strength of these policies is based on signing firmware using Authenticode and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). PKI is a well-established process for creating, managing, and revoking certificates that establish trust during information exchange. PKI is at the core of the security model for Secure Boot.
As per section 27.5.1 of the UEFI 2.3.1 Errata C, the platform key establishes a trust relationship between the platform owner and the platform firmware. The platform owner enrolls the public half of the key (PKpub) into the platform firmware as specified in Section 7.2.1 of the UEFI 2.3.1 Errata C. This step moves the platform into user mode from setup mode. Microsoft recommends that the Platform Key be of type EFI_CERT_X509_GUID with public key algorithm RSA, public key length of 2048 bits, and signature algorithm sha256RSA. The platform owner may use type EFI_CERT_RSA2048_GUID if storage space is a concern. Public keys are used to check signatures as described earlier in this document. The platform owner can later use the private half of the key (PKpriv): 2ff7e9595c
Comments