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Re: Possible GPL violation in Canyon CN-WF514 WLAN router: msg#00001

law.gpl.violations.technical

Subject: Re: Possible GPL violation in Canyon CN-WF514 WLAN router

well. a quick check at the file WF514_208.bin in the zip:

-at a glance the file had two parts, vmlinux.bin and webpagessomethingbin.
-the first 12 bytes which seem to be some kind of magic or block type
4 bytes..then maybe some checksum or block length, then data length.
-after that it seemed similar to a gzip header so i just threw the first
12 bytes away and let gzip have a try.. it decompressed a web page...
-after that i threw away the first 0x1000c bytes (start of next gzip like
header which is now inside vmlinux.bin) and it threw out:

-strings test.bin | less produces for example:
/home/EdiLinux/linux-2.4.18-adm/include/linux/dcache.h
apblock
sbpcd
gscd
cm206cd
aztcd
sonycd
cdu535
loop
%lu.%02lu BogoMIPS
No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.
Linux version 2.4.18-MIPS-01.00 (root@RexLinux) #768


it seems to be a linux compiled for a bunch of mips processors.
you can probably find a small filesystem somewhere if you search
for a rom or cramfs or something.

ipt_recent v0.2.3: Stephen Frost <sfrost@xxxxxxxxxxx>.
http://snowman.net/projects/ipt_recent/



> Hi!
>
> (lkml readers please consider replying to me or tech and not to lkml)
>
> I posted [1] on the GPL-violations mailing list, but got no response, so I'll
> try here.
>
> What :
>
> It seems Canyon [2] distributes [3] a firmware update file [4]
> for their CN-WF514 WLAN router that contains the linux kernel
> image. nmap scan guesses the router is running "Linux 2.4.X|2.5.X"
> There is no mention of used GPL software and no source code.
> A direct enquiry to Canyon was responded with :
>
> This product is not using GNU GPL license.
>
> (yes, that's all of it)
>
>
> What I need :
>
> Help disecting the FW package [4]. It is a ZIP archive containing
> a text file and a *.bin file. This *.bin file appears to be some kind
> of another archive, containing two files : webpages-6104ipc.bin
> and vmlinux.bin
> The *.bin archive file begins with the string "WBIP". I guess it uses
> compression, since "strings" does not give out anything useful, except
> the mentioned two filenames.
> There[3] is another firmware update [5] that is in slightly different
> format. "strings" there finds this :
>
> RtosTxImage
> Uncompressing Linux...
> Ok, booting the kernel.
>
>
> Any ideas ?
>
> As this is partly off topic for lkml, I suggest replying to the gpl
> violations mail list.
>
> Here is what I asked Canyon and got the above answer :
>
> Is any software distributed with the CN-WF514 router,
> that is licensed under the GNU General Public License ?
>
> Hm, maybe they thought I'm talking about the acompanying
> CD media ...
>
> Regards,
> David Balazic
>
>
> [1] http://lists.gpl-violations.org/pipermail/tech/2005-December/000052.html
> [2] http://www.canyon-tech.com/
> [3]
> http://www.canyon-tech.com/products/show.cfm/Networking/Net/Wireless_Products_IEEE_802.11g/CN-WF514/Down
> [4]
> http://www.canyon-tech.com/files/Canyon/Networking/WiFi_U/CN-WF514/WF514-208.zip
> [5]
> http://www.canyon-tech.com/files/Canyon/Networking/WiFi_U/CN-WF514/WF514-200713T5.zip
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "xerces8" <xerces8@xxxxxxxx>
> To: tech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2005 16:52:54 +0100
> Subject: Possible GPL violation in Canyon CN-WF514 WLAN router
>
> > Hi!
> >
> > I suspect a GPL violation with the product Canyon CN-WF514 WLAN router [1].
> > There is a firware update file on the web [2] for it.
> > The file is WF514-208.zip [3] and contains a file named WF514_208.bin.
> > Some strings in it are :
> > - WBIP - at offset 0, is this some file format ID ?
> > - webpages-6104ipc.bin , a few bytes later
> > - vmlinux.bin - some more bytes later
> >
> > It appears to be some archive with at least the two above files.
> > It is probably compressed, as ZIP-ing it does not reduce the size.
> >
> > Also, running nmap -O against a running CN-WF514 guesses that it is
> > running linux 2.4.x|2.5.x.
> >
> > Note, that there is another (older) WLAN router made by Canyon, the
> > CN-WF512 [4]. Its page tells, that is uses GPL software and the software
> > (sources) is available for download.
> >
> > What should I do next ?
> > Analyze the FW ?
> > Write them a letter ?
> >
> > Best regards,
> > David Balazic
> >
> > [1]
> > http://www.canyon-tech.com/products/show.cfm/Networking/Net/Wireless_Products_IEEE_802.11g/CN-WF5
> > 14
> > [2]
> > http://www.canyon-tech.com/products/show.cfm/Networking/Net/Wireless_Products_IEEE_802.11g/CN-WF5
> > 14/Down
> > [3]
> > http://www.canyon-tech.com/files/Canyon/Networking/WiFi_U/CN-WF514/WF514-208.zip
> > [4]
> > http://www.canyon-tech.com/products/show.cfm/Net/Wireless_Products_IEEE_802.11g/CN-WF512/
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>




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