Nokia E90/S60v3 - Unsigned Certificate Woes - A plea for any Symbian OS/S60v3 autists who haven't died of old age yet

[Baguette Child]

To anyone who found this via googling solutions to S60 hacking, the answer is located here. I'd like to express my thanks to herefortheactualthreads and lord xenu for their contributions, as well as the Russian assholes on IRC who provided me a functional copy of tmquarantine and general documentation on Symbian 9.2's Trend Mobile Security that allowed me to bypass a bunch of hurdles. I'd buy all of you fuckers drinks if I wasn't on the other side of the world.

Spoiler: Original Post

Kiwibros, I fucked up and ruined a good thing. This is a True and Honest plea for help for anyone here who knows about breaking old Symbian phones or who might have some old .sis files laying around on a drive somewhere.

Back in 2017 I was able to enable the installation of unsigned software on my old Nokia E90 Communicator (S60v3). This allowed me, among other things, to bring it up to date with a SHA-256 compatible web browser (Opera Mini), allowing it to browse the handful of old style forums I still frequent for various niche hobbies. This is literally all I ask from the internet. It was beautiful. The E90 was just the things I actually want on a mobile device: A keyboard of passable quality, the ability to SSH into my work machine, an email client that didn't suck donkey balls, and abso-fucking-lutely nothing else. For years now I've avoided having to put up with Google or Apple's nonsense for more than brief periods and that's exactly how I like it.

Two weeks ago I was forced to reflash the phone during a replacement of the camera module that went wrong. I assumed I could just use the same references and downloads as last time to reinstall everything I needed- I did keep the links bookmarked after all... But I committed the cardinal sin of not archiving the content. I didn't keep copies of the firmware and networking updates. Several of the instructional posts detailing step by step how to hack the device to allowed unsigned software have been deleted or no longer exist. Knowledge was lost and I don't know how to get it back.

A friend of mine on a non-English forum was able to provide me the .sis for the networking upgrade/firmware revisions but said it's been so long he doesn't know much about any of this anymore. I know it's a long shot that anyone here still gives a shit enough to have the Drakkarious .sis or another similar hack laying around, but I'm out of options.

TLDR; I need a means of hacking/bypassing the signed certificate check Symbian performs before allowing the installation of software packages. The norton one currently obtainable via google results never did work with my device; even with the system time and date correctly set. Possibly because of differences in the localized variant sold in the Russian speaking parts of the world. I'm not sure. Previously in 2017 the method I had used was called Drakkarious2.01FP1.sis but all links to obtain this file lead back to two download services that have ceased operations.

I really like this device. I don't want it to become another piece of land waste when I know it's still possible for it to keep on keeping on. Modern Android phones are *so fucking boring* and Google is the antichrist. I don't want a faster processor or modern apps. I just want to keep pretending it's not the 2020s for a little bit longer.

If you have any information or knowledge that might point me in the right direction, please, pretty please, do share it.

 

[herefortheactualthreads]

i googled "bypassing the signed certificate check symbian" and this is what they came up.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25155497/signing-of-symbian-app-is-there-any-way-now

Edit: my bad, didnt see that you already did that, i will dig deeper.

Edit 2: theres also this app on the same link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RYWgU5mB4xrb_-IHwi0aw8zJucDbJ2ye/view

this might tickle your autism as well: https://www.25yearsofprogramming.co...okia-s60-v3-with-full-system-permissions.html

and this one: https://s2.org/~pekangas/creating_symbian_certificates.html

https://gauravssnl.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/hacking-nokia-symbian-s60-v3v5-phone-to-remove-certificate-error-issue/

https://www.megaleecher.net/Fix_Certificate_Errors

 

[Lord Xenu]

Maybe try the Maemo forums? It's likely that if you make an account and post there someone has hoarded it. It's not Symbian focused but plenty of users collect Nokia hardware and certain users have a lot of software archived.

Have you tried this SecMan software? It's available here and looks like it may do the trick.

 

[Baguette Child]

this might tickle your autism as well: https://www.25yearsofprogramming.co...okia-s60-v3-with-full-system-permissions.html

and this one: https://s2.org/~pekangas/creating_symbian_certificates.html

So the method in the wordpress blog you linked uses trend mobile security in the same role as norton; Neither seem to work anymore. They were confirmed working as late as 2020 but no one I've been able to talk to has gotten them to work since. No one seems to really know why.

The two I quoted from your post are new to me though! I'll dig into those and update you guys if anything happens. The 25yearsofprogramming link actually looks promising. Thanks for replying!!

 

[Baguette Child]

Maybe try the Maemo forums? It's likely that if you make an account and post there someone has hoarded it. It's not Symbian focused but plenty of users collect Nokia hardware and certain users have a lot of software archived.

Have you tried this SecMan software? It's available here and looks like it may do the trick.
View attachment 5986578

I'll give this one a try too, since I haven't seen SecMan before, but my experience with Phoneky's Symbian apps relating to hacking the certificate verification have been unsuccessful so far. A lot of the ones posted on there are nonfunctional or poorly written.

The maemo forums sound like they've got at least a chance of someone with information hanging around on there, so I'll give that a shot!

 

[CaptainAutism69]

Can't help you, but I feel you bro...this baby here is the last phone I owned, that I could truely say I loved.

 

[Baguette Child]

Can't help you, but I feel you bro...this baby here is the last phone I owned, that I could truely say I loved.
View attachment 5986671

Nokia's design language from that era was just fantastic. I get why the communicator style fell out of popularity with the broader consumer market, but it was perfect for the people who really fell into that niche userbase. I just can't find it in me to love the candy bar phones the same way. Not even my foray into mobile Linux phones gave me the same comfortable feeling I'd get from using my E90.

 

[CaptainAutism69]

Nokia's design language from that era was just fantastic. I get why the communicator style fell out of popularity with the broader consumer market, but it was perfect for the people who really fell into that niche userbase. I just can't find it in me to love the candy bar phones the same way. Not even my foray into mobile Linux phones gave me the same comfortable feeling I'd get from using my E90.

Two words....physical. keyboard.
click click click, it just worked!

 

[Baguette Child]

Progress Notes;

Spoiler: Certificate Signing with Freesissigner

Progress was made! By playing around with dates on my phone I was able to install freesissigner. It's retarded and took a lot of patience but what finally worked through trial and error was setting the date to 2060 (lol), restarting, and then setting the date to 15/5/2009.


The software runs fine, but the cert.cert and key.key files it came with by default weren't working. I managed to acquire a cert.cert/key.key from someone who dabbled in writing games for S60v3, and am now able to sign software. Games and basic user shit like my telnet client can be installed just fine with my certificates as long as the phone date is set to 15/5/2009.


Both Operamini.sis and NetworkingImprovements.sis (the two things I'm going through all this for) are now throwing a different error message at a different stage in the install process, saying that they can't let these install "from an untrustworthy provider." This may mean I need to get a different cert.cert/key.key for anything that touches deeper parts of the system than just shitty phone games.


Interestingly, however, my certificates DID convince the norton hack .sis to install correctly. Which is further than I'd previously gotten with that file. I can run it; But it just throws a "Please buy a new license" message when I attempt the method by editing settings through the norton software. I'm going to play around with this more tonight after work and will report back if anything changes.

Spoiler: Trend Security Mobile/Wordpress

Attempted to look into guaravssnl's wordpress blog about using Trend Security in place of Norton. However, his post originally included files that are no longer available and cannot be found elsewhere. I'm crossing this one off my list.

Spoiler: SecMan Method

After careful testing, I can confirm this method is not going to work for my device. I think it may work for the N GAGE still, but even after signing it myself and getting the software to install, it isn't capable of actually running. I tried a few different means of encouraging it along but the E90 doesn't seem capable of using this appropriately. This one can be crossed off the list too.

Spoiler: Hex Editing Method/25yearsofprogramming

Spent a few hours digging into this hack. Outside of playing with how I sign certificates I believe this is possibly the most likely way to succeed in the current year, but I'd like to hold off on trying it live with my unit until I've exhausted other options. There's a lot of potential for fucking up things worse than they already are. However, props to herefortheactualthreads for linking this; I hadn't seen it before and will come back to it as a last resort.

 

[Baked Al-Aqsa]

Nigga, have you seriously been browsing the farms

On this???

 

[Baguette Child]

Nigga, have you seriously been browsing the farms
View attachment 5988044
On this???

Yessir, yes I have. And I'll fucking do it again one way or another.

 

[Baked Al-Aqsa]

Yessir, yes I have. And I'll fucking do it again one way or another.

 

[crowabunga]

A month ago I was trying to run a game through WINE; I don't remember the exact issue (something to do with the game launcher not understanding 'modern' post-2000s quantities of RAM), or steps I needed to take to get it working, but it relied on a patcher tool linked to - but not hosted on - the WineHQ wiki. My asshole was the size of a pin seeing that ancient link, but I got lucky; still, I kept the patcher tool. Now I think I need to go back and archive the webpage too, as if I'd remember what circumstances that tool should be used in!

I don't remember who all said it, or where, or how many times, but the notion that "the internet is forever" is nothing but dimwit shorthand for "don't dox yourself" (except anymore they can't even manage that). No, historians will look back on this era the same way we look back on papyrus, except instead of our papyrus lasting "only" a few centuries, we got to witness our papyrus decay within a fraction of our own lifetimes to link rot as individually hosted enthusiast websites went dark, admins culled old files to save server space, threads were deleted, or else the pages just disappeared beneath a deluge of SEO shit. I can't even begin to guess how much we've lost, as the level of specifity once possible when searching for knowledge hid the absolute size of the pool: how can you witness the sum of knowledge when the machine would pick out exactly what was needed? Only as the search results get bad and the old links go dark do I even begin to grasp at just how much must be disappearing overall.

I wish I had something constructive to add regarding your project, but I do want to share my general concerns brought forth by this issue, and hope that the knowledge still exists out there, somewhere, to see your Nokia working to your specifications again. You go out there and win, man.

 

[Baguette Child]

Progress Notes 2: Electric Boogaloo

Spoiler: From Russia With Love

Had a major breakthrough last night, courtesy of a random ass Russian-filled IRC called Nokia Fanatics filled with fuckers who make my own passion for these sort of devices look like nothing. I now have in my possession a functional signed copy of Trend Mobile Security and the tmquarantine files to go with it. Using this I have successfully installed x-plor and the rom patcher .sis, however I've hit a new snag.

Spoiler: The Final Problem

Rompatcher cannot install the patches without an associated file called installserver.exe being present in C:/sys/bin. I have this file. However, my attempt to change the read/write permissions on that directory so it can be moved have failed. It's stopping me cold.

If I can find a way to deal with the read/write perms and move the file to the appropriate location, rompatcher should be able to do its thing and I'll be golden. This is the final boss of the whole ordeal. I'm so close now to getting the sneedmachine back in action.

So, so close now. I've kept copious amounts of notes so that I can do an appropriate writeup later.

 

[Baguette Child]

Mission Accomplished



We are so back. I have verified the reproducibility of my process. I can access my news websites of choice, 4chan, and just barely load the farms using the browser's lite mode with images disabled. Never again will S60v3 users be denied their God-given right to shitpost. Step by step writeup and file uploads for archival purposes to follow after I finish celebratory drinking. Truly this is a great victory for the forces of autism.

 

[Almighty Space Duck]

Congrats on getting the phone sorted, your trials with the E90 has been a real blast from the past. I was a 9300i man myself before moving to the HTC s710/30/40.

Spoiler: Pl

In the previous life I did Nokia warranty work. Started when the N70 was the new hotness and stopped when it was clear that Nokia were fucked and their failure to move away from Symbian to Android was going to be the end of them.
I still have nightmares about the N76 and the cases peeling meaning we would have to do full rebuilds of them per a Service Bulletin. What fiddly little bastards they were to work on.

S80 really was something special. Had a small group a clients whose 9300/9300i/9500/9500i I kept going for years after Nokia dropped support for them. A lot tried the E90 but couldn’t get on with the loss going from S80 to S60.

 

[Baguette Child]

I took my time posting this. I've split it into two posts due to length. This is a five phase procedure and should be simple enough for even retards like me to follow.

Spoiler: Final Progress Notes

I wanted to test and simplify the process as much as possible, and have altered the associated files appropriately to do so. I also broadened my sample size beyond my own E90 to ensure compatibility with most S60v3 devices. At this time I cannot confirm compatibility of any of this one way or the other with S60v5 but highly doubt it would function; I may revisit this in the future, as there are some pretty cool old phones under that umbrella I might want to play around with.

For any far future autists who stumble upon this while trying to fix their S60 devices: any questions you have may be directed to me by posting on my Kiwi Farms user page. I will respond. I'm not going anywhere and I have retained local copies of all files and notes I took during my struggle to get this working. If the attached archives here disappear for whatever reason I can gladly provide them again on request.

Spoiler: Prelude and Disclaimer

I have reproduced the process multiple times to verify to the best of my knowledge that the following is correct and (should) work for most S60v3 mobile devices produced by Nokia. However, as my primary device is running on the Russian language sales region firmware (which I suspect but cannot prove contributed to some early setbacks) nothing is guaranteed. Please note I do not take responsibility for any damage or loss of data for anyone attempting to hack their S60v3 device. If you are not confident that you know what you are doing, please don't come back and blame me.

Make sure you download the first of the two archives attached to this post before you begin; It contains all the essential files for this process. The steps should be followed exactly as I have written without stopping inbetween in order to control for anything I did not encounter during testing.

Spoiler: Phase 1

> Set your phone date to 15/5/2060.
> Restart your phone.

> Set your phone date to 15/5/2009.
> Restart your phone.

Spoiler: Phase 2

> Install the x-plore file manager provided in the archive.
> If asked by x-plore to check for updates, say no.
> In x-plore, go to Menu>Tool>Config>and check all option boxes.
> Close and restart x-plore.

> Using x-plore, move the tmquarantine folder and contents provided in the archive to C:/ (root directory)
> Close x-plore and restart your phone.

Spoiler: Phase 3.0

> Set your phone date to 15/5/2012.
> Restart your phone.

> Install the copy of Trend Mobile Security that I have provided in the archive. Do not use other copies of Trend Mobile or Norton or any other antivirus hack .sis available elsewhere; I had to make alterations to this version to make it function under current year conditions, and cannot guarantee that other copies will not affect your outcome.

> If asked to restart your phone at this step, select no. Do not restart until after we reach the uninstall step in the next phase for Trend Mobile Security. This is important and can cause bootlooping if not heeded.

Spoiler: Phase 3.5

> In the Trend Mobile Security application, go to Options>Quarantine>Restore All.
> This will "restore" the contents of the previously moved tmquarantine folder into the locked c:/sys/bin folder that we will need later, granting you access to previously locked down parts of the filesystem.

> Close out of Trend Mobile Security.
> Uninstall Trend Mobile Security and all associated packages under the application manager.

> Restart your phone only after uninstalling Trend Mobile Security.

 

[Baguette Child]

Spoiler: Phase 4.0

> Install rompatcher from the .sis file provided in the archive.

> Apply the "Open4AllRP+" patch.
> You do not need to apply the "install server" patch. This was nonfunctional in all attempts; We are going to handle this step manually.

> Using x-plore, move the installserver.exe file provided in the archive so that it is located at c:/sys/bin/installserver.exe. This is important. Don't fuck it up.

Spoiler: Phase 4.5

> Rompatcher should be left installed. I would enable "auto" under options for the "Open4AllRP+" patch, just to make sure nothing fucky happens to cause it to go awry. But if you want to uninstall rompatcher make sure you keep the .sis handy in case you need to correct an issue in the future.

> You may now install whatever the fuck you want on this device without regard for certificates or dates. If all you want is to install games or non-internet related applications you may stop here. Otherwise proceed to Phase 5 to get a functional web browser.
> In either case, restart your phone.

Spoiler: Phase 5

> Using x-plore, move networking_improvements.sis to c:/ (if you try to install it from the MMC chaos ensues.)
> Install the networking_improvements.sis file provided in the archive. It should appear to reach 50% on the installation progress before failing; This is "normal". Newer SHA compatibility and other modern internet improvements should still be correctly enabled as is required for Opera Mini.

> Restart your phone.

> Install Opera Mini from the .sis provided. This is the correct version for 95% of S60v3 devices including the E90. Please note that some websites requiring captcha or other "advanced" security methods may still not cooperate with your device; The farms, for instance, is hit or miss as to whether or not I can pass the DDOS retardation phase. Typically I will have to restart my browser and try again five or six times before being allowed through.


> You are now free to shitpost to your hearts content on mobile hardware older than half the Kiwifarms userbase. Enjoy just a tiny taste of what doing shit online via mobile felt like in 2008.

Spoiler: Optional packages for your consideration

> Included in the "Optional Symbian Software" archive is a program called FreeSigner. I have added new cert.cert and key.key files to the installer that may be used to sign software for (sometimes/maybe/possible) use on non-hacked devices if you so choose. Doesn't always work but useful to keep around in case for whatever fucking reason this bullshit OS still refuses to install something. I haven't encountered anything doing so after the hack is successfully completed but Symbian is a mysterious beast.

> Also included is Putty, a fairly robust telnet client that I use routinely to SSH into my work machines. Pairs well with the E90's full keyboard. It can also be used for text-based gaming such as MUDs/MUCKs/etc if you enjoy suffering and don't mind poor optimization for that use case. I've signed it with FreeSigner so it should potentially work even without the hack up to 15/5/2035.

> The rest of the .sis in the optional archive are compatible games that I think are pretty baller, including a very nice version of the vBag GBA emulator that works excellently even in landscape mode on the E90. Below I'll include cracked registration codes you can use with the astraware brand ones to make it think you've paid for them; Westward (56083000), Boardgames (56084999), Casino (56089324), and Solitare (56068001).

 

[Baguette Child]

One final post to cap off this whole thread. (please forgive the triple post)

This whole project has really driven home how easily things become lost over time to link rot and changing internet landscapes. The early 2010s were, in the grand scheme of things, not that incredibly long ago. Back then everyone who had these devices assumed that because Symbian related materials were fairly prolific that they would remain prolific in the future; But this has not been the case. Filehosts die. Links cease to function. Users with information change accounts or leave sites.

This time the only casualty would have been one fucking moron (me) and his manky old phone. But how many much more significant documents and pieces of software are left to suffer this same fate? Save everything you touch. Archive anything you use. Don't trust links to stay links. Local storage is the answer.

S80 really was something special. Had a small group a clients whose 9300/9300i/9500/9500i I kept going for years after Nokia dropped support for them.

One of these days I really want to get myself a 9500 model. A friend had one and the keyboard was incredibly pleasant to type on, I can see why your clients didn't want to switch.


I feel the same about modern smartphone platforms vs my S60 device- I really do think the E90 was something special, and nothing I've seen come out since (from a hardware perspective) has been able to fill the void. I do a lot of typing day to day and I just can't comfortably do that on a touch screen interface. But I'm kind of a fossil in that regard lol. I don't think in the current era of online communications most average consumers type longer documents at all anymore, so I understand why the industry shifted away from communicator devices. Still makes me sad though.

 

[Spruce Supremacist]

But how many much more significant documents and pieces of software are left to suffer this same fate?

Ah yes, the joys of trying to work on your fancy German car and the forums that are still alive all have expired photobucket images or have gone through forum engine revamps where things don't show up properly anymore because locally stored images were wiped.

I remember trying to dabble in GoldSrc map making for Counter-Strike 1.6 back in mid 2010s and already there were major problems finding info since many websites that hosted tutorials were down and not archived, not to mention search engines back then already started sucking major balls, at least for stuff that was older than late 00s.

I do a lot of typing day to day and I just can't comfortably do that on a touch screen interface. But I'm kind of a fossil in that regard lol.

Amen to that. Back in the day the only compromise I could live with were touch-resistive touchscreens, instead of touch-capacitive ones, since at least they gave an illusion of pressing down on a button. My last Nokia was the 5230. No amount of cope will convince me that touchscreen typing is an acceptable design choice.