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Comment by heavyset_go | Hacker News Reader

Even phones from Motorola require you to literally ask permission to unlock your bootloader via a form on their website, which they then unlock remotely or you enter some generated code.

Other manufacturers do the same, where you have to wait a period of like 45 days before being able to unlock, and then have to ask permission on their website to unlock your bootloader.

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And good lock unlocking anything over 5 years old because the updated website doesn't support what you've got. Been there, it sucks.

To be fair, for "anything over 5 years old" you can probably find a privilege escalation exploit.

the question is not "being able to", the question is "being able to with a reasonable effort".

wandering the web to find an exploit is way beyond my spare time.

That might get you root but not a bootloader unlock.

There are privilege escalation CVEs in bootloader code too. I remember unlocking some very early locked bootloaders this way in the early days of android.

So much rarer now. Its getting more and more locked down unfortunately.

A lack of security vulnerabilities isn't really a matter of being "locked down" but rather "not broken"

Many of them are actually not bootloader locked.

iiuc the OG Verizon Pixel has an unlockable bootloader, but the operating system doesn't let you unlock it, meaning root access should allow unlocking the bootloader.

some devices have a legitimately locked bootloader, which means you're SOL.

Do tell me when you find one for unlocking the bootloader of an LG G6, been looking for one for a few years now :)

A 1st gen Verizon Moto X bootloader unlock would be nice as well.

iiuc that is because malicious actors were buying phones in bulk, flashing them with backdoored/malicious operating systems, then re-selling them to people.

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