Bootloader
Definition
Firmware that runs immediately after power-on to verify, load, and hand control to the operating system. A locked bootloader refuses to execute unsigned or modified OS images, blocking many physical acquisition approaches that depend on booting custom recovery software.
Related terms
- Chip-off acquisition
- A physical extraction method in which the flash memory chip is desoldered from the device's circuit board and read directly with specialised...
- EDL mode (Emergency Download mode)
- A Qualcomm diagnostic protocol embedded in the Primary Boot Loader (PBL) that activates before the main OS and accepts raw memory read...
- File-based encryption (FBE)
- An Android encryption model introduced in Android 7.0 in which each file is encrypted with a separate key derived from the user...
- Full-disk encryption (FDE)
- A storage protection model in which the entire partition is encrypted with a key derived from the user's passcode and hardware-bound identifiers....
- NAND flash
- The type of non-volatile memory used in all modern mobile device storage. Data is written to pages grouped into blocks; erasure operates...
Explained in
- Physical Acquisition TechniquesFirmware that runs immediately after power-on to verify, load, and hand control to the operating system. A locked bootloader refuses to execute unsigned or mod...