MBA Easy Flash Tool: RIPPED OFF


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8 years 1 month ago #2419 by NexusChicken
Hello everyone,

I was going through the website once again to see if there has been any update, which then got me into a whole session of research trying to see and understand how Kadentech's tool works, and trying to understand the schematics of the logic boards used to interface with the MBA.

When I searched for this term on Google I came across this website.

RebelSimCard.com

They have their own version of the MBA Easy Flash tool that the founder of this site worked so hard to make. They also ripped off and are selling their own starter kit for reading, writing, and flashing EFI chips as well. They are using the exact instructions you find on thaGHO5T's tutorial for reading, verifying, and flashing the EFI chip.

Is there anything that can be done about this? It makes me angry that someone would do this without referencing this site and the hard work that has been put into this mission on behalf of thaGHO5T.

They're even selling "clean" EFI dumps on their site.

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8 years 1 month ago #2420 by CygnusX1
They have the 2015 model clip!!!! I just don't know what to say.

If I helped you buy me a latte!

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8 years 1 month ago #2421 by NexusChicken
What do you mean by the "2015 model clip"? What are you referencing to?

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8 years 1 month ago #2422 by CygnusX1
MBA clip for the 2015 - 2016 models.

If I helped you buy me a latte!

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8 years 1 month ago #2423 by NexusChicken
I recently purchased the EFI removal tool from Kadentech. He included the 2015 clip as well, I would be happy to donate it if needed! :D

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8 years 1 month ago #2424 by cyber16
thaGHO5T will be happy to see it, if not. I'd be willing to look at it and I would return it as well.
Sharing the knowledge leads to folks like the site you linked and folks like Kadentech, at some point its no longer about the margins of profits.

NexusChicken wrote: I recently purchased the EFI removal tool from Kadentech. He included the 2015 clip as well, I would be happy to donate it if needed! :D

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8 years 1 month ago #2425 by lolito
at least that people have the chip available to be bought, any day, not like here. Also phoneunocks.com had another copy of this chip for ever.

And aslo Apple, apple made the original chip and you guys are ripping them of, LOL.

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8 years 1 month ago #2453 by thaGH05T
Apple never made a clip @lolito FYI, I am not sure why you even come here if you passively want to bad mouth us. And to the rest of this I am unsure if it was taken from my site or they just did what i have done. All things considered I am happy that anyone reading this has an alternate source for the clips. I never even released it under a creative commons so it is fair game. I will be posting all gerber files and it will be under licence soon enough for anyone wanting to produce them (hopefully China for cheap ;) )

On that note, I have been working hard to try and design an alternative clip that can be manufactured for the same price if not less than my original. The problem I am running into is MOSTLY money as I have to fund all prototypes myself. Along with that I have to find a way to get all 30 pins of the pre-2015 connector to the connector pins for universal usage. I was trying to produce a universal clip with flex connectors, but no manufacturer will produce the the flex cable on small quantities and there is no source for them. I was also making a universal clip that had three sides, but there are over 100 connections to be made on a board that needs to fit in the palm of your hand, and its just not possible.

FOR ALL OF YOU READING THIS: If you would like FAIR priced clips for all know board models which consist of 3 separate header types that I know of then I need you help! You have two options:
  1. Help fund the universal flex connector solution and I promise to sell them ~at cost
  2. Help fund 3 different clips that will have to be sold separately and be manufactured separately and will be sold ~at cost (which will be close to the original MBA Easy Flash).

Personally I think that we need to be the first to release the flex connectors which will be universal and sold as a unit. Replacement flex will be offered at a fraction of the cost. But, I know you are all eager to get them in your hands so I will let you decide. My clips will be completely universal no matter what pinout is used so keep that in mind when deciding to go with the other guy.

IF ANY OF YOU want to see this project posted and want to contribute hit "Thank You" now to this post and I will post the project for funding ASAP. If I do not get a response from many people I will have to continue to develop them with my own money and at a slower pace. man up and show me how many of you are actually dedicated to the community I have built!
The following user(s) said Thank You: drexxx, sinonhim, , .::iRizwan::., Nonono12, esse86, modemer, Dark_Rye, karan_kumar, reignhell and 2 other people also said thanks.

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8 years 1 month ago #2469 by NexusChicken
I do have a question about your method. Would it be easy for you to do the universal tool? I feel that would be more trouble than you might think since you would need to get the entire thing replaced which would be more costly if it breaks on someone for whatever reason. Whereas with the three tools you'd be able to replace each individually.

Another question is one I've had for years since I've read about this EFI lock. Your "arch nemesis" whose name I shall not type, has already developed a tool that can remove the EFI/iCloud lock from just about any Apple computer from years 2010-2015 except for the 12" Macbook in under 20 seconds. How is he able to get this done so quickly whereas your method takes much longer?

I'm not insulting your method, I'm just genuinely curious. I have one of his tools and I've been trying to understand how microcontrollers work and trying to learn how to use linux in order to be able to reverse engineer how his tool works. Do you think that his method is just a slightly more advanced version of yours?

Look, I understand how much work you've put into this. I've been around ever since this topic started on the hack-mac forums. Then I followed you here. I appreciate your work and can see that you've done many great things with your time and effort. But it just makes me genuinely curious and determined as heck to crack his tool in order to be able to better understand how his method works compared to the one you've developed.

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8 years 1 month ago #2472 by cyber16
Not sure how his works, first I was thinking just maybe he is resetting a unknown bit or two that triggers a password clear the next post. Maybe similar to the tool/file apple uses via the hash
or its zeroing out the password locations once located. No way is it writing a full load.
Sure would be nice to know

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8 years 1 month ago #2475 by thaGH05T
Well, he has placed a few counter measures to make it harder to reverse engineer his tool. Which is fine, I don't care to replicate his work. But, in a nutshell, he is replacing certain areas of the chip and not doing a full read/write. He has some inside knowledge of this and knows a great deal more than I likely ever will. To understand how Apple EFI works, we need to disassemble it using a few known tools with IDA Pro and reverse engineer our asses off. I am no EE, so this has been a slow road for me. That being said, I know enough about it now to be able to create a tool such as his, and I already have a prototype. I will be releasing it as soon as I can get all the bugs worked out. Right now the method I use with the Pi is manual and works. So I have been focusing on designing a cheap and faster programmer that does not require you to buy a pi and wires etc... That and the clips together will offer still a manual way to do this for a much cheaper price than a tool like Kadentech's. Enough with the rambling though, to answer your question in the most direct way:

The three flex headers will cost a considerable amount more to produce, period.
The universal clip is not possible on a single 'small' board with three headers.
Multiple boards will cost you (the customer) three times as much to purchase if you want all three header styles.
I will be releasing a tool to flash the EFI chip within 30 seconds without the need of a computer.

If anyone else has any questions please let me know, and PLEASE let me know if you guys want any of these projects launched as is.

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8 years 1 month ago #2478 by thaGH05T
Hey, can anyone provide a dump from a chip that has been patched by kadentech tool? As well as the dump before it was patched by his tool? I want to compare a few things. I had a few a while ago and didn't really look too far into it, but I have a few questions about it now.

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8 years 1 month ago #2481 by cyber16
What needs to be done is capture what kadentech tool does at the efi chip, maybe attach leads to the chip while using the tool
I'm thinking once the board posts any tracks left my be then reset and gone?

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8 years 1 month ago #2485 by thaGH05T
Well, unless any of you has a logic analyzer or a oscilloscope I think just looking at the files is all I have at the moment.

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8 years 1 month ago - 8 years 1 month ago #2492 by
Would this tool (that will flash the efi in 30 seconds) allow for connecting to pi? I ask this as I had the issue with DEP on my brothers MacBook that ended up needing the serial to be modified.
Also I'd be happy to donate some money towards anything you see fit to use it for. With the help of this site I've learned how to remove an iCloud lock and put this into practice on more than one occasion, so am very grateful and happy to contribute
Last edit: 8 years 1 month ago by .

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8 years 1 month ago #2494 by thaGH05T
Thanks for your support fast.flow, and yes there will be support for a manual process as sometimes things do not go as planned. Most people will not use the functionality, but there will be a way to drop into a shell from serial console.

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8 years 2 weeks ago #2716 by
Excellent stuff. Appreciate the work you put into this stuff and I'll donate what I can today

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8 years 2 weeks ago #2723 by thaGH05T
@fast.flow please understand this new project is for an adapter, not the tool I am working on for future release.

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8 years 2 weeks ago #2733 by
Ghost I'm happy to donate what I can, when I can, for any projects your working on (tbh it won't be much right now as finances are super tight). The help and knowledge I've gained from this forum has helped me out no end.
I have a pi and soic clip which has suited my needs for the couple of mbp's that I've done, but I'd like an adapter that would let me do newer mbp or airs that are done via the header on the motherboard. Am I right in assuming that this is what you mean by your adapter?
If so I'm happy to but one when you have them ready

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8 years 2 weeks ago #2734 by CygnusX1
The sooner we meet the funding amount, the sooner we will have the "Universal Easy Flash" in production. You may donate to the project here.

If I helped you buy me a latte!

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