Using the Android USB Driver to Extract Data as USB Mass Storage Device
Due to a harware failure I was searching for a conventient and efficient way to copy all internal storage of a mostly broken, powered off, hardware locked, encrypted phone. The only things still working to interact with the phone were the USB connector and power on/volume keys. It was not possible to use the touch screen, extract any partition data via fastboot, access the ADB interface, connect via WIFI or use any other common remote access methods. It might have been possible to just screw it open and reattach the display cable, replace the display or see if OTG support would allow plugging of a keyboard or mouse. But those high-tech tools (tiny screw driver, OTG-cable, keyboard) were not at hand, but a notebook and software was.
As a result of solving this problem the software way a simple program to inject as initrd into ABOOT to regain full control of the phone was developed. The main advantage of this solution is to get a near forensic quality snapshot of the complete storage including the partition table, boot image, recovery images, all firmware update slots without running the target system, a replacement system with ADB or any other generic tools.
While the hardware of the Motorola phone was mostly broken, the power and volume-down button were still working. Therefore it was possible to switch on the phone and enter the fastboot mode. Thus the phone hardware became visible via USB to interact with it using the fastboot tools [FastBoot].
