[Kindle 4: Jailbreak and SSH] #kindle #ssh #jailbreak

readme.md

Following this guide: https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle4NTHacking#SSH.
Using Kindle 4.1 and macOS 10.14.

Jailbreak

1. Connect the Kindle. It should be recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device.
2. Download the jailbreak archive
3. Copy data.tar.gz, ENABLE_DIAGS, and diagnostic_logs to the Kindle folder.
4. Restart the Kindle into Diagnostics Mode.
5. Reboot the Kindle from the Diagnostics Mode. Reboot screen should show jailbroken screensaver.

SSH

1. Download the USBNetwork archive needed to enable SSH over network access.
2. Edit the usbnet/etc/config file if needed. I changed:
   1. K3_WIFI="true"
   2. USE_OPENSSH="true"
   3. (Optional) K3_WIFI_SSHD_ONLY="true" (only after first time connecting via SSH and setting up auto-enabled USBNetwork)
3. (Optional) rename usbnet/DISABLED_auto to usbnet/auto to enable USBNetwork Utility start on device startup.
4. Enable the USBNetwork Utility from the Kindle (enable the keyboard if needed); type:
   1. ;debugOn
   2. ~usbNetwork
   3. ;debugOff
5. Connect the Kindle again.
6. Manually configure the device IPv4:
   • IP Address: 192.168.15.201
   • Subnet: 255.255.255.0
7. Obtain the Kindle root user password:
   • Enter the Kindle S/N into the Kindle Root Password Tool to get the root password for SSH access.
8. SSH into the Kindle: ssh root@192.168.15.244 and enter password from previous step

@estydesu How are you able to turn off airplane mode and not have the device update to 5.13.15? I made a mistake thinking that the hotfix in the main guide did this, and during testing of the USBnetwork binary had the device update to 5.13.5. :(

@banagale Can you elaborate your issue? I haven't done anything new to my Kindle in a while, but still actively use it and connect it to WiFi.

Tyler, Thanks for your tutorial. =)

When I try to SSH into my kindle PW2 (5.12.2.1.1) and it asks for the password it keeps saying "Permission denied, please try again"

I have followed your steps
SSH

1. Downloaded and installed kindle-usbnet-0.22.N-r18833

2. edits in usbnet/etc/config
   USE_WIFI="true"
   USE_WIFI_SSHD_ONLY="false"
   USE_OPENSSH="true"
   QUIET_DROPBEAR="false"
   TWEAK_MAC_ADDRESS="true"

3. I've changed the file once to see if it worked after that I used the Enable SSH at boot option and did a reboot.

4. (See 3. , still would like to know where you would write these commands ?)

5. Done

6. Done on Linux Mint, it says its connected

7. This website gives me 4 passwords mario fiona3a0 fionaf97 fionaf974 (The first time I requested the passwords I didn't capitalize the Letters in my serial number, I did so after which gave me these passwords)

8. When I type ssh root@192.168.15.244 it will ask me for the root password but none of the provided passwords from 7. seem to be working (I get this message Permission denied, please try again.)

Any idea what I'm doing wrong ?

https://phoenixnap.com/kb/ssh-permission-denied-publickey
It might have something to do with the permission of your authorized_keys

USB device name

Just a heads up for anyone in the future: Sometimes, especially on newer systems, the device name is a weird name like enxee4900000000 (instead of usb0). I think this is because of PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames.

Configure Network interface in Ubuntu

For anyone wondering what "Manually configure the device IPv4" exacly means, here the instructions for Ubuntu. (Tested on Ubuntu 22.04)

• Open your network settings
• Open "USB Ethernet" settings
• In the "IPv4" tab:
• Set "IPv4 Method" to "Manual"
• Under "Addresses", set "Address" to 192.168.15.201 and "Netmask" to 255.255.255.0
• Click "Apply"
• Restart the connection by disabling it and re-enabling it

ssh root@192.168.15.244

This assumes the public keys are stored, in OpenSSH format, in usbnet/etc/authorized_keys.

@cyrillkuettel @Inc0n @equinix5 Yeah, nothing is working for me. I have tried the 4 passwords from the password generator site. It still keeps me asking for a password when trying to ssh into my Kindle PW Sig. Edition.

Any idea what other things to try?

The password tool did not work for me. I had to put my public key in usbnet/etc/authorized_keys, as far as I remember.

Do you have a new(ish) device? They tend to be quit tricky for this stuff. I can highly recommend mobileread threads like this one, they have extensive writeups of information. I can also recommend posting a question there in the Kindle Developer's Corner . These people can help you, they know everything about this sort of stuff.

@cyrillkuettel Thanks for the quick reply!

Yeah it's Amazon's newest Kindle. I actually had that exact tab from Mobileread open, but couldn't get it to work. I also didn't see authorized_keys folder or files named that on my Kindle.

I'm actually trying to find a solution how to upload files from KOReader to Dropbox (download obviously no problem). One user seems to have developed a quick & dirty solution here on Github.

So since I have no idea how to get his solution up & running I thought I'd try the whole syncthing, which requires USBNetwork hack, SSH and so forth.

Once you can log in as root via shared keys, you can set password using command passwd