Motorola Droid X not so explosive after all

Reports that the Motorola Droid X, the successor-to-be after the Motorola Droid has a intergrated security system, coined “eFuse” that supposedly renders the device unusable if the user tampers with the device, has been dismissed by Motorola as an “misunderstanding”.

According to their press release (available at Engadget), the Motorola Droid X does not purposely blow up the device, rendering it unusable, instead, the boot loader code (used to boot the phone into Android) forces the device into a recovery mode, which results in the phone being able to restored to working order via flashing an official supported Android ROM onto the device.

Motorola states that their intentions is not to prevent users from being adventurous with their hardware, instead to “protect the end user and their data, along with the device security”. As quoted from Motorola’s statements: “If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed.“ …and… “Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats.”

While this could be a slap in the face for Android Developers and people who like to tinker with their devices (aka device hackers), it has already sparked petitions from end-users attempting to stop Motorola using the eFuse technology and allow custom made software (in this case, ROMs) to be loaded onto end-user devices. The question also exists, why is the protection there when Android has no viruses targeting it’s platform?

It will be a matter of time before the Droid X gets hacked and this protection system disabled, but for now, it will give developers a starting point in writing exploits to crack open Motorola’s hardware.

Sources:
Engadget, http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/16/motorola-responds-to-droid-x-bootloader-controversy-says-efuse/2
Computer World, http://blogs.computerworld.com/16551/motorola_droid_x
Photo Credit: Computer World.