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Pentax hack status
  • 62 Replies sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    That site is unfortunatelly abandoned for 3 years and last they mention is M-5 processor

    It is my site.

    They also might migrated to different OS (like canon used vxworx, dryos and then something else)...

    Probability of this is very low.

  • RayeRRayeR

    I looked there and got some realos kernel trial package. There was some binaries/examples and really they didn't contained any readable strings. I wonder if its so well stripped or encrypted some way... I found one string in K-30 FW referencing Fujitsu company (they should making prime M processor for pentax) "Video Image Stabilisation Filtering Library M6-M for Fujitsu v.1.0.6 - CONFIDENTIAL" That site is unfortunatelly abandoned for 3 years and last they mention is M-5 processor running Softune REALOS/FR Ver. 4.0. Also in trial kernel binaries I found that all begins with signature "RP.." (52 50 00 1E) and I found one occurence in K-30 FW but maybe just a coincidence. They also might migrated to different OS (like canon used vxworx, dryos and then something else)...

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @RayeR

    Pentax has very few strings.

    They use REALOS - hre is some old info http://pentax-hack.info/documents/downloads.html

  • RayeRRayeR

    Do you know what operating system Pentax/Ricoh use for their new cams? I cannot find any string that could give me a hint. Even I cannot find any strings releated to C compiler like functions and library names, section names etc. I'm not sure if the new decripter works OK on K-30 and can decrypt entire image.

  • RayeRRayeR

    Hm, seems it's not possible by FW. As I was digging info K-30 use Prime M processor that is optimized for 12bit (faster for movies and live view) processing while K-5 II use Prime II which is 14-bit (slower but HQ).

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @RayeR

    I have no answer to your question. I think no.

  • RayeRRayeR

    BTW do you think it would be on possible Pentax K-30 to extend RAW bit depth from 12 to 14 bits like on K5? I know they have the same CCD but dunno if differs in ADC.

  • RayeRRayeR

    Yes I used this version.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    More recent update is at http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/_media/frmcrypt.zip

    I think you already used it.

  • RayeRRayeR

    Thanks Vitaliy, I'm new to Pentax scene, I just bought K-30 few weeks ago. In the past I had a lot of fun with Canon cams. (old PowerShots running Datalight ROMDOS for that I programmed various extensions, also done language translation, etc.) So I was looking what can be done with Pentax. I found quite promissing website http://www.pentax-hack.info/ but unfortunatelly it's abandoned for 3 years. New Pentax cams has different firmware so this tricks doesn't work. Seems it's still on the beginning. So I was looking for firmware decryptor (I remember like canons was aslo encrypted by some XOR key) and foud your older version of FRMCRYPT.EXE but it didn't recognized K-30 file. I was pointed to this forum and see you made recent update. I tried it with FW 1.04 and it seems decrypted OK, many readable strings inside. Just a question about decomrpession range. In the original file there's readable text footer (128B): "Copyright (C) PENTAX RICOH IMAGING COMPANY,LTD.PENTAX K30" after decrypting I found it at offset 0xF24 and some random bytes ant end. Should it be decrypted entie file or leave the footer? Or does it mean that during decription the whole FW is flipped low address to high address? Then do you kow if it's "safe" to modify such decrypted file or is it protected by some checksum that has to be fixed?

    BTW about debug mode - this can be entered via PK_Teether tool. Then it appears as another page in settings menu where you can browse all strings and images or jou can do AF fine tune in 100um steps (common for all lenses)

    Martin

  • punditpundit

    I have a K5 which is great for stills but even if it was hacked for video (manual mode/higher bitrate etc) I would still have reservations about its use for serious video work. I used both the K5 and GH2 a while back to shoot a live music performance and even tricking the K5 into manual mode the sensor overheats within a few minutes which also seems to degrade the video quality quite badly. In the end most of the K5's footage was unusable and when comparing it to the GH2 the GH2 won hands down... no contest!

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @ohnice

    Just to be clear. I am not working on "Pentax hack".

    All I did recently is updated decryption/encryption tool to support modern cameras

    http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/pentax-tool

    Otherwise it requires interested people.

  • ohnicneohnicne

    I just can thank you so much if you are working on a Pentax hack. I really hope there may me something for the K5 and sisters some day...

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @ohnicne

    Right now I have no idea.

  • ohnicneohnicne

    Hello, would it be possible to modify the video bitrate compression if the firmware is hacked? would this allow the camera to record higher quality footage? I'd be completely amazed about this...

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @AlexWhiter

    Modset is dynamically generated, as I remember.

    Otherwise I need to add modern cameras support to my decrypter. I'll try to do it soon.

  • AlexWhiterAlexWhiter

    Hi there,

    I think I've managed to decrypt the main part of the firmware 1.03 for K-30. I've uploaded it here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/cwayir

    Judging from the string in the file, there really is a debug menu, but I haven't found any mentions of MODSET.xxx, it seems that now AUTORUN.xxx is used instead.

  • userageuserage

    Are you working on trying to hack the Pentaxs'? Or should I start looking at a GH2 :p

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @userage

    Do not worry, I bought K-01 already :-)

  • userageuserage

    If we can get some donations together from Pentax users is there anyway we could kick this thing going? There are many of us who would like a better video mode, and I don't really want to switch brand.

    Plus the price of the K-01 has dropped so low, if we could make improve the video it would be a great cheap camera for low budget productions.

  • maniacstevemaniacsteve

    Hello :)

    I finally found time over the holidays to look into the encryption and it seems that there is again a dynamic 2048 bit key :). I haven't succeeded though in decoding the firmware, I assume that I do start at the wrong places in the file - does someone know the layout of the older .BIN Pentax files and where to start with the decryption?

    I attached the Python source code how I tried to derive the basic 2048 bit XOR key and the dynamic change pattern.

    analyzePentaxCrypt.py.txt
    5K
  • cyclone3dcyclone3d

    I would like the K-01 firmware to be decrypted. Working on some things and having the firmware decrypted would help a lot.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @maniacsteve

    I'll try to look into this and add support to new cameras decryption, if you want towork on them.

  • maniacstevemaniacsteve

    Today a firmware update for the K-30 was released (V1.01 FWDC215B.BIN) - comparing it with the firmware update for the K-01 (V1.01 FWDC214B.BIN) shows that about 25% of the two files are identical :) Assuming that the firmware for the new Pentax Prime M processor (is it the Fujitsu Milbeaut MB91696AM?) is encrypted with a dynamic XOR key like for the older Pentax models and that this key is identical for the K-01 and K-30 this might help a lot in getting the encryption key. Lunch break is over so more to dive into over the weekend... :)

  • hautehaute

    To downgrade K5 v1.13 to other firmware, use this V1.13 patched firmware. It is confirmed. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8SoIuKX9p5SRE5ZLXpvRGpIcFk

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