19 Aug 2025
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 Detective story: Prototype phone

 I have a prototype phone that I bought quite a while ago. I am not going to
 tell what phone it is, just not yet.

 The phone theoretically can connect to an obsoleted music player application
 for transferring music files. I tried my very best and finally found an old PC
 with Windows XP on it that I can use for a short while.

 After installing the software and plugged the phone in...not detected. Looked
 at the device manager and it showed that the phone was connected through USB,
 but the driver was incorrect. Interesting. Did some Internet search, found a
 few drivers, reinstalled the driver, no luck...

 I tried for a few days and also tested with my work computer, still refused to
 connect. My guess is that this probably is an engineering build and unlike the
 commercial version, the engineers just didn't put in the service to connect to
 the music player.

 Fair enough, I decided to do a port scan and see if there would be any opening
 ports, by chance were exposing some services. I scanned just from port 1-20000
 using nc(1). Interesting, only port 8888 and 8890 were open. I used Lynx to
 try browsing any HTTP pages at the 2 ports, but the connections were not
 closing - Lynx just hanged while saying "receiving data".

 Instinctively, I used telnet(1) to connect to the ports. It seemed the 2 ports
 are actually the same in terms of functionality. I sent my first message:
 "BATT".

 No matter what I typed, the port would echo my message. Some of them, besides
 the echo, gave me some more contents too. Below are the commands I tested:
 
    BATT -> echo + "OK"
    SIGNAL -> echo only
    FILE -> echo only
    ROOT -> echo only
    USER -> echo only
    HELP -> echo only
    MENU -> echo only
    CALENDAR -> echo only
    PHONE -> echo only
    NETWORK -> echo only
    RESET -> echo only
    REBOOT -> echo only
    QUIT -> echo only
    ECHO -> echo only
    BATTERY -> echo + "ERROR"
    STATUS -> echo + "ERROR"
    POWER -> echo only
    MESSAGE -> echo only
    EMAIL -> echo only
    BROWSER -> echo only
    MUSIC -> echo only
    PHOTO -> echo only
    CAMERA -> echo only
    SETTINGS -> echo only
    ALARM -> echo only
    CLOCK -> echo only
    FEED -> echo only
    CONTACT -> echo only
    WEATHER -> echo + "ERROR"
    CALCULATOR -> echo + "ERROR"
    CALENDAR -> echo only
    SEARCH -> echo only
    LOG -> echo only
    POWER OFF -> echo only
    SHUTDOWN -> echo only
    EDIT -> echo only
    SIM -> echo only
    SIM MANAGER -> echo only
    LIST -> echo only
    WRITE -> echo only
    SET -> echo only
    DIR -> echo only
    CLEAR -> echo only
    CLS -> echo only
    SCREEN -> echo only
    SCREEN OFF -> echo only
    SCREEN ON -> echo only
    STATISTICS -> echo + "Ericsson Mobile Platform" + newline + "ERROR"
    SUMMARY -> echo only
    DIAL -> echo only
    CALL -> echo only
    ADMIN -> echo only
    USB -> echo only
    TEST -> echo only
    MAGIC -> echo only
    SSH -> echo only
    TELNET -> echo only
    ERROR -> echo only
    BIN -> echo only
    FIRMWARE -> echo only
    WHAT IS THIS -> echo + "Ericsson Mobile Platform" + newline + "ERROR"
    WHAT -> echo + "OK"
    WHAT THE -> echo + "ERROR"
    WHAT A -> echo + "NO CARRIER"
    WHAT HAPPENED -> echo + "NO CARRIER"
    WHO ARE YOU -> echo only
    WHERE IS IT -> echo only
    HOW COME -> echo only
    WHEN IS IT -> echo only
    WHY IS IT -> echo only
    WHAT ARE -> echo + "NO CARRIER"
    WHAT IF -> echo + "Ericsson Mobile Platform" + newline + "ERROR"
    WHAT WAS IT -> echo + "ERROR"
    WHAT WAS -> echo + "ERROR"
    WHAT HAS -> echo + "NO CARRIER"
    WHATSAPP -> echo + "ERROR"
    WHAT(SPACE) -> echo + "OK"
    WHAT(SPACE x 3) -> echo + "OK"
    WHATSAP -> echo + "ERROR"
    WHATSA -> echo + "ERROR"
    WHATS -> echo + "ERROR"
    WHAT -> echo + "OK"
    WHA -> echo only
    WH -> echo only
    W -> echo only
    HATSAPP -> echo + "ERROR"
    ATSAPP -> echo + "ERROR"
    TSAPP -> echo only
    SAPP -> echo only
    APP -> echo only
    PP -> echo only
    P -> echo only
    BATT -> echo + "OK"
    BAT -> echo + "OK"
    BA -> echo only
    AT -> echo + "OK"
    ATA -> echo + "NO CARRIER"
    ATB -> echo + "ERROR"
    ATC -> echo + "ERROR"
    ATD -> echo + "NO CARRIER"
    ATE -> echo + "OK"
    ATF -> echo + "ERROR"
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .

 For those who are interested, the ports seem to accept AT commands...

 The phone is Microsoft Kin One, sim card version, which never made it to the
 market.