Possible GPL violation in Canyon CN-WF514 WLAN router

[Markus Mikkolainen]

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 at 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 at snowman.net>.  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 at butn.net>
> To: tech at lists.gpl-violations.org
> 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/
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
>