# LG LAF Protocol This document is a reverse-engineered protocol description for LG Advanced Flash (LAF), the download mode offered by various LG models. It is based on analysis on the `Send_Command.exe` utility and `LGD855_20140526_LGFLASHv160.dll` file and a USB trace using Wireshark and usbmon on Linux. Some commands were found in the `/sbin/lafd` binary. This document uses the following conventions for types: - `\xaa\xbb\xcc\xdd` denotes a byte pattern `aa bb cc dd`. - `0xddccbbaa` denotes a 32-bit integer in hexadecimal format. It represents the same byte pattern as `\xaa\xbb\xcc\xdd`. ## Overview LAF is a simple request/response protocol operating over USB. The USB details are described at the end of the document, the messages are described below. Each message consists of a header, followed by an optional body. The header contains 32-bit DWORDs, integers are encoded in little-endian form: | Offset (hex) | Offset (dec) | Type | Description | ----:| --:| --- | 0x00 | 0 | char[4] | Command | 0x04 | 4 | var | Argument 1 | 0x08 | 8 | var | Argument 2 | 0x0c | 12 | var | Argument 3 | 0x10 | 16 | var | Argument 4 | 0x14 | 20 | int | Body length | 0x18 | 24 | int | CRC-16 | 0x1c | 28 | char[4] | Bit-wise invertion of command at offset 0 Arguments can be integers or character sequences depending on the command. The CRC field is the CRC-16-CCITT calculation (LSB-first) over the header and the body with zeroes in place of CRC. Each request is followed by a response with a matching command field. If an error occurs, the response contains command is `FAIL` with argument 1 being the error code and the original request header as body. ## Commands ### OPEN - Open File Opens a file path. Arguments: - arg1 (response): DWORD file descriptor. Request body: NUL-terminated file path that should be opened for reading or an empty string to open `/dev/block/mmcblk0` in read/write mode. (at most 276 (0x114) bytes?) Non-existing files result in FAIL with error code 0x80000001. ### CLSE - Close File Closes a file descriptor which was returned by the `OPEN` command. Arguments: - arg1: DWORD file descriptor (same in request and response). Note: this allows you to close any file descriptor that are in use by the `lafd` process, not just the one returned by `OPEN`. You can discover the current file descriptors via `ls -l /proc/$pid/fd` where `$pid` is found by `ps | grep lafd`. ### HELO - Hello Arguments: - arg1: DWORD Protocol Version (`\1\0\0\1`) (resp must match req.) - arg2 (response): Minimum Protocol Version (`\0\0\x80\0` was observed) ### CTRL - Control Arguments: - arg1: "RSET" (reboots device), "POFF" (powers device off) or "ONRS" Note: `CTRL(RSET)` with no body is sent by the `Send_Command.exe` utility for the `LEAVE` command. LG Flash DLL waits 5000 milliseconds after this command. ### WRTE - Write File Writes to a file descriptor. Arguments: - arg1: file descriptor (must be open for writing!) - arg2 (request): offset in **blocks** (multiple of 512 bytes). - arg2 (response): offset in **bytes**. Request body: the data to be written. Can be of any size (including 1 or 513). Note: writing to a file descriptor which was opened for reading results in FAIL with code 0x82000002. This command is likely used for writing to partitions. Integer overflow in the response offset is ignored. That is, the block offset 30736384 (0x1d50000) is 0x3aa000000 bytes, but will appear as 0xaa000000. ### READ - Read File Reads from a file descriptor. Arguments: - arg1: file descriptor. - arg2: offset in **blocks** (multiple of 512 bytes). - arg3: requested length in bytes (at most 8MiB). - arg4: "whence" seek mode (see below). Response body: data in file at given offset and requested length. Note: be sure not to read past the end of the file (512 * offset + length), this will hang the communication, requiring a reset (pull out battery)! Arg4 affects the seek mode, values for request: - 0 (`SEEK_SET`) - seek to `512 * offset`. - 1 (`SEEK_CUR`) - read from current position (offset argument is ignored). - 2 (`SEEK_END`) - kind of useless when all offsets are unsigned... - 3 (`SEEK_DATA`) - FAILs with 0x80000001 when used on `/proc/kmsg` or `/dev/block/mmcblk0p44`. Works on a regular file though. The response matches the request (masked with 0x3). If the length is larger than somewhere between 227 MiB and 228 MiB, an 0x80000001 error will be raised (observed with /dev/block/mmcblk0). Requesting lengths larger than 8 MiB however already seem to hang the communication. ### ERSE - Erase Block TRIMs a block (`IOCTL_TRIM_CMD`). Arguments: - arg1: file descriptor (open `/dev/block/mmcblk0` for writing). - arg2: start address (in sectors). - arg3: count (in sectors). - arg4: unknown, set to zero. Request body: none. Note: after sending TRIM, reading the block still returned old values. After a reboot, everything was zeroed out though. ### EXEC - Execute Command Arguments: none Request body: NUL-terminated command. Response body: standard output of the command. The command is probably split on space and then passes to `execve`. In order to see standard error, use variables and globbing, use a command such as: sh -c "$@" -- eval 2>&1