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Motorola/Lenovo/NEC#

  • Verdict: ⛔ Avoid!
  • Verdict: 🍅 Terrible! (Unisoc/MTK Legacy)

Kernel sources#

Motorola is one of the manufacturers that provide kernel source code for their devices via official repositories on GitHub. However, they usually have weird build instructions, and will not share them unless you threaten to report to the SFC.

It is recommended to request and download the source code as soon as possible after the device is released to the market, as Motorola may ignore requests for older models over time. For older devices, you can usually get the kernel source by pinging the user asbraga-motorola

Typically, source code becomes available about a month after the issue is opened in the appropriate repository.

Bootloader#

Motorola has three device classes:

  • Qualcomm devices
  • MTK CID
  • MTK Legacy/Unisoc

Qualcomm and MTK CID devices are developed and manufactured by the Motorola main team. MTK Legacy and UNISOC manufacturing process is often delegated to third parties ODMs, mainly their partner Tinno, and sometimes other like Huaqin.

For Qualcomm and MTK CID device, to unlock your bootloader, you have to submit a request on this website, which is pretty bad on its own (wink Huawei). Unisoc devices will never be unlockable, this is not Motorola's fault, Unisoc does not allow unlocking.

In addition, this forum post says that once a device passes a certain age (the age not being specified), the device becomes ineligible.

Motorola also requires the phone to have a stable internet connection for at least a week for the bootloader to be unlocked, this is not mentioned anywhere on the unlock website but has been confirmed by posts on the Motorola development forum.

So how do you know if your device is unlockable? Well...

  • This page says that "Most of our latest devices support our bootloader unlock program."
  • This page says only "Photon Q 4G LTE, DROID RAZR M(Developer Edition), DROID RAZR HD(Developer Edition CDMA-LTE), MOTOROLA RAZR HD (Rest of World -UMTS/LTE), MOTOROLA RAZR HD (Rogers Canada - UMTS/LTE) and MOTOROLA RAZR i are supported by the Bootloader Unlock site." -- Considering these devices are all over 13 years old, this is likely outdated.
  • And from this conversation turistu had with their support: "most of our E devices doesn't support bootloader unlock program. Please see below a list of devices that support the bootloader unlock program : g100, g51 , g71 , g200 , g52 , g82 , g42 , g62 , g32"
  • There's also an unofficial way with CID to check if your device can be unlocked, check here: xdaforums.com
  • Generally, devices from the g3x series and higher can be unlocked, while G2x and lower (including E devices) cannot be unlocked officially.

Once your bootloader is unlocked, Motorola does not allow you to relock, attempting to re-lock will brick your device

Furthermore, on Motorola CID devices a valid cid partition needs to be present in the device to be unlocked or even to be able to boot normally. The unlock data is in fact contained in that partition, and cannot be haltered without getting cid 0xDEAD. In case of a corrupted cid partition, you'll need to bring your device for cid provisioning, where the cid data is regenerated and signed.

On MTK CID devices, it is impossible to unlock using third party tools (like mtkclient or Chimera), because Motorola validates the unlock state contained in seccfg against a stored value in the RPMB region in the flash storage. Furthermore, Motorola disables BROM USBDL by efuse on newer devices (MTK V6 as well), and the stock Download Agent are limited to only allow flashing the bootloader.

Possible bypasses?#

Debug Token#

Motorola CID devices (both Qualcomm and Mediatek ones) have a customized bootloader by Motorola, including their security library mot_sec.

Decompiling the bootloader it is possible to notice how Motorola includes a special virtual partition (it is just part of the cid partition) called debug_token. By issuing fastboot flash debug_token <debug-token-file>, it is theoretically possible to disable all security on the device, including secure boot and more.

This file, though, cannot be obtained, since it is most likely used internally by Motorola development team, and it is verified against the public key.

Keygen#

Many on XDA have wondered if it was possible to develop a keygen. Motorola unlock process (on CID devices only) involves getting the unlock data from the phone using fastboot oem get_unlock_data.

The phone spits out some random data, that can be parsed the following way:

1A23457698214365
5441383930304242443700585431303332000000
140A858731D55F3B5DF78F0F6BB9EAE32A2B8945
3D372B020F0000000000000000000000
  • The first line is the IMEI, with an additional A as padding to reach 16 bytes (IMEI as 15 characters long)
  • The second line is the serial number + phone model
  • The third line is thought to be the phone hash or processor UID
  • The 4th line seem to be flash UID

Unfortunately, Motorola seems to use asymmetric encryption for generating the unlock key, meaning that without a private key it is impossible to make a keygen. On the other hand, the bootloader verifies the key by first generating one on the fly based on the data in CID and hashing it with either HMAC-SHA256 (CID DB v2) or HMAC-SHA1 (CID DB v1), then comparing the hashes of the generated key with the hash of the bytes representation of the provided unlock key.

Non-Lenovo devices#

Even though Motorola has been owned by Lenovo for a while, there are still devices around that aren't made by Lenovo.

Certain G and E series devices#

For some Motorola devices, the firmware is not developed by the company's core team, but simply purchased solutions from various ODMs.

These are exactly the devices that lack any instructions on how to unlock the bootloader or are completely locked, with no way to unlock.

Examples of such devices include the Moto G23, G13, G22, G24, and G24 Power.

Fortunately, enthusiasts have managed to find unofficial ways to unlock these devices, despite the fact that Moto Agents stubbornly deny the existence of such methods:

  • Moto G13/G23 - Decompiled the bootloader, studied the algorithm for unlocking the bootloader and developed a keygen, which is required to get the key to unlock the bootloader.
  • Moto G24/G24 Power - Thanks to Carbonara, allowing privilege excalation in DA mode and a custom bootloader (chouchou), a way to unlock was found

Google Motos (2012-2014)#

For a short while, Google owned Motorola Mobility (from May 2012 to October 2014). Despite Google devices following the normal procedure, Google Motos used the same unlock portal that the modern Lenovo devices use, and of course, Lenovo removed the ability to unlock older devices, so these Google-era Motos are no longer unlockable. This does not include the Nexus 6, see the Google page for Nexus devices.

Independent Motorola (2012 and earlier)#

Devices made before Google purchased Motorola Mobility (May 2012) do not have unlockable bootloaders, the unlock command is removed from Fastboot, and you cannot get the unlock code either. For Motorola's more popular devices from this time, such as the DROID lineup, and pretty much any device with a Texas Instruments SoC, there are usually root exploits, and Hashcode's Safestrap, which allows you to get TWRP and run custom ROMs on a locked bootloader with kexec. These can vary on device to device though, you'll have to check XDA for your specific device. Old Motorola rooting tools usually won't work on modern operating systems, and will require a legacy OS such as Windows 7, OS X El Capitan or Ubuntu 14.04.

Motorola Solutions (radios)#

tldr, Motorola split into two companies in 2011. Motorola Mobility, which made the phones and DVRs and is now owned by Lenovo, and Motorola Solutions, who makes everything else. Solutions has recently started making radios which run Android. Not much is known about these devices, Motorola doesn't even reveal which SoC they use, so nothing is really known about these devices. This datasheet for the MOTOTRBO ION mentions "Root Detection: Standard", which in Moto-speak, means "this device always ships with root detection.", indicating that the bootloader is probably not unlockable on these devices. Via this spreadsheet from Google, you can see the MOTOTRBO ION's codename -- mkz_sdm660_64, which indicates that possibly it uses a Snapdragon 660 SoC, but the MOTOTRBO ION runs Android 13, which seems weirdly new for a 2017 SoC, no it might just be gibberish or something unrelated.

MTKClient + BROM#

Most MTK-based Motorola devices released before 2022 are susceptible to mtkclient auth bypass, and full unlock may require chouchou / Kaeru patches to disable automatic bootloader lock (as seen on Moto E7, codename malta).

However, on devices released after 2022, this method is ineffective as the preloader vulnerability has been patched and the BROM is blocked via eFuse, and attempting to crash the preloader results in a bootloop in the preloader. Devices released before 2024 (and some released during 2024 as well) though are vulnerable to Carbonara, a DA1 memory corruption exploit that allows arbitrary code execution.

Non-Motorola Lenovo devices, NEC devices and some Motorola tablets.#

Lenovo usually does not use the Motorola name on their tablets and gaming-oriented phones, and these are typically branded as Lenovo or NEC. While similar to Motorola's unlock process, these have to be unlocked on the ZUI website, which requires your IMEI, serial number, and email, and they'll send you an unlock-bootloader.img which you flash to the unlock partition in Fastboot to unlock. However, similar to Xiaomi, Lenovo has a quota, which if you surpass, you cannot unlock your bootloader, @MlgmXyysd has created an unofficial unlock portal which may work on recent tablets like Legion Y700 4th Gen. Some Motorola tablets, such as the G62, also use the ZUI website to unlock instead of Motorola's unlock portal. The Lenovo Z5s (and potentially other Lenovo devices) do not verify the unlock-bootloader.img, and therefore you can flash the unlock-bootloader.img [from any Z5s]:Z5s unlock to unlock a Z5s.

Moto used confusion! It seems pretty effective...

Motorola's Bootloader Unlocking Legal Agreement includes a particularly concerning clause attempting to restrict the owner's rights after unlocking the bootloader.

The 4th clause of the agreement states:

User is unlocking the Device and/or altering the Device's software or operating system for his/her own personal use; User agrees not to transfer (i.e. sell, lease, or otherwise receive compensation from any third party for the right to use, possess, or operate such Device) such Device to any third party;

This clause attempts to prohibit the user from selling, leasing, or otherwise transferring their own device after unlocking the bootloader. Such a restriction directly conflicts with established legal principles safeguarding ownership rights, namely the First-Sale Doctrine and the Exhaustion Doctrine, which grant the owner the right to resell or dispose of property they have lawfully acquired. While the legal validity of this clause is highly questionable and likely unenforceable, its inclusion in the agreement is still a point of concern.

Additional info provided by Ivy / Lost-Entrepreneur439.
CID info provided by FPSensor.
Unofficial ways to unlock "Moto G13/G23/G24/G24 Power" bootloader provided by DiabloSat & Shomy.
Additional info for Motorola CID devices and mtkclient provided by Shomy.
Legal agreement info provided by FaridZelli.
Lenovo branded and NEC unlock information provided by CakesTwix and Calyx Hikari.
Authored by melontini.