Private Tonie-Box (version 3200) with teddyCloud

On 29.12.2023 I found an interesting video on YouTube called "37C3 - Toniebox Reverse Engineering". Because both of my children have their own box, I was quite hyped to try it out. My older daughter is not using her box that often, so I wanted to use it to try out the custom bootloader and the teddyCloud mentioned in the video. This post is a write-down/writeup of all the steps I did to get my version ready to run. This is not meant to be a full how-to on all the steps for people without a technical background.

Links / Copyright

Nothing of the following code, etc. shown by me, is made by me. I just want to give an overview of how I did set up everything without going into the technical details of how it was created. You can find all the original information here:

• https://gt-blog.de/toniebox-hacking-how-to-get-started/
• https://toniebox-reverse-engineering.github.io/
• https://github.com/toniebox-reverse-engineering/

How to get started

Note: I did all this on my Windows 11 pc. So if you use something else it may differ. Also, both of my boxes are the 3200 version.

Requirements

• Python 3.12
• GIT client
• cc3200tool
• Custom Bootloader ⇾ Download the zip file
• SerialToUsb-Adapter

cc3200tool installation

Open a PowerShell window in a location you like to store all the relevant stuff I used c:\src\toniebox\ and type in the following commands to install the tool.

git clone http://github.com/toniebox-reverse-engineering/cc3200tool.git
cd cc3200tool
pip3 install .

After installing the tool you should be able to start it by typing cc3200tool into your console window.

Open the box

To open the box, put it down on solid ground (no carpet) and push it hard down. Then turn it to the left while pushing. You should hear a noise when it opens up.

Soldering

Yes, for this solution with the teddyCloud you have to do some soldering or buy the adapter mentioned on one of the pages above. I did not want to wait for an adapter and the mentioned one was quite expensive, so I chose the "solder some wires onto a board" route. I am not the best solderer and the solder points are very small - but I still managed to do it. Additional information can be found in the official wiki.

Pin 9 is connectet to Pin 3

TX and RX are swapped on the flasher

Hot glue to hold everything in place

After soldering all the wires to the board, you must use a SerialToUsb-Adapter to flash the firmware. After I had made the backup, I used some hot glue to make sure nothing would break off or connect when I put it back together. The wiring should be:

Note: Do not forget to disconnect Pin 9 from Pin 3 after you are done

Flashing the bootloader

Open a PowerShell inside the unzipped bootloader folder. In my case, hbng-bootloader.release_v0.9.3b. Do not skip the backup part! In between the commands you have to reset the chip by connecting Pin 4 to Pin 5 → RST to GND.

# Note: Check for the right port in your device manager

# Backup all files
# Important do NOT skip this step!
cc3200tool -p COM4 read_all_files backup/ read_flash backup.bin

# Download firmware images
cc3200tool -p COM4 read_file /sys/mcuimg1.bin mcuimg1.bin read_file /sys/mcuimg2.bin mcuimg2.bin read_file /sys/mcuimg3.bin mcuimg3.bin

# Flash new bootloader
cc3200tool -p COM4 read_file /sys/mcuimg.bin mcuimg.bin write_file mcuimg.bin /sys/pre-img.bin write_file flash/sys/mcuimg.bin /sys/mcuimg.bin

teddyCloud setup

Now we have to set up our teddyCloud server to generate the required certificates for the box. In my case, I used a simple Linux machine with some space and no use of port 80 and 443. Here is my docker-compose file located at /data/docker/teddycloud:

version: '3'
services:
  teddycloud:
    container_name: teddycloud
    hostname: teddycloud
    image: ghcr.io/toniebox-reverse-engineering/teddycloud:develop
    ports:
      - 80:80 #optional
      - 443:443 #Port is needed for the connection for the box
    volumes:
      - /data/docker/teddyCloud/certs:/teddycloud/certs
      - /data/docker/teddyCloud/config:/teddycloud/config
      - /data/docker/teddyCloud/content:/teddycloud/data/content
      - /data/docker/teddyCloud/library:/teddycloud/data/library
      - /data/docker/teddyCloud/firmware:/teddycloud/data/firmware
    restart: unless-stopped

Additionally, I had to do the following things inside the teddyCloud folder:

# Not if you are not running as root - use sudo!

# Create folders
mkdir -p /data/docker/teddyCloud/certs/client
mkdir -p /data/docker/teddyCloud/certs/server

# Upload the client files from the box-backup
# Do this step on your local machine not the remote machine
scp <path_to_box_backup>/cert/*.der <username>@<ip>:/data/docker/teddyCloud/certs/client/

# Set all files to 755
chown -R 755 /data/docker/teddycloud/*

# Start teddyCloud
docker compose up

# Check for the running teddyCloud in your browser http://<ip>:80 -> Port 443 will not work in your browser because of the certificate required to authorize.

While the container is starting up, it will generate the server certificates you need on your box. You can copy them to your local machine with the following command and then upload them to the box:

# copy cert from server
scp <username>@<ip>:/data/docker/teddyCloud/certs/server/ca.der c:\src\toniebox

# flash cert to box
cc3200tool -p COM4 write_file ca.der /cert/c2.der

Prepare the SD-Card

You must remove the glue/gum that is in front of the SD-card slot by carefully pulling it off. Then you can push the metal thing forward and open up the cardholder.

After you get the SD card you can copy the revvox-folder that is within the bootloader folder onto your card. Then I made the following changes to the ngCfg.json file to get the teddyCloud connection setup:

{
    "general": {
        "activeImg": "ofw2",
        ....
    },
    "ofw1": {
        ...
    },
    "ofw2": {
        "checkHash": true,
        "hashFile": false,
        "watchdog": true,
        "ofwFix": true,
        "ofwSimBL": true,
        "patches": ["altCa.305", "altUrl.305"]
    },
    ...
}

Note: If you have a fritz box you can use the patch mentioned here instead of the altURL.305 patch.

DNS settings

For the box to connect to your teddyCloud instance you need to set up some DNS changes in your local network. This part highly depends on your local hardware. For me, it was a simple entry into adguard-home/pi-hole to get the rewrite for the URLs: prod.revvox and rtnl.revvox to my server IP.

Final thoughts

In the end, I did manage to patch both boxes for my use at home but it was a lot of reading and searching so I think it is hard to do all the steps for people with a non-technical background. If you have any questions about my post and how I did the things – just write a comment. For questions about the firmware and so on, please join the Telegram group of the project.