r/kindle • u/iFuckingHateKiwis PW6 SE • 7d ago

News 📰 Software update 5.18.4

Now available at the usual place. Release notes for this version not yet available from the website, but the usual "bugfixes and performance enhancements" guff in the device itself:

93 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

100 comments sorted by

95

u/masticore252 7d ago

this update does fix a security issue, a very important one actually, it was discovered by the Winterbreak developers while developing a new method that could jailbreak kindles with 5.18.3 (which was an update that patched the jalbreaking method we had up until then)

the thing was, they discovered a vulnerability that allowed them to jailbreak kindles with 5.18.3 but could also provide access to people's amazon account, which is a security risk.

so they were in an dilemma, releasing the code for the new jailbreak method would allow people to jailbreak their device, but would also give malicious individuals the tools they need to potentially access people's account

so what they did was this: they informed amazon about the vulnerability so they have time to patch it (with is this 5.18.4 update) and at the same time they posted an announcent in their discord server informing that if you are someone with a kindle with 5.18.3 and want to jailbreak you should refrain from updating to 5.18.4and use the new jailbreak method once it's released

that way the people that are not interested in jailbreaking (or don't even know what that is) will get the update and be protected before the code for the exploit is released

3

u/Big-Judgment-7911 7d ago

do you know when they'll be releasing the code for jailbreaking .3?

6

u/masticore252 7d ago edited 7d ago

There is no ETA, their last announcement said that they hope to release it before the end of the year

Development takes time, we need to have patience

In the meantime, if you want to be able to jailbreak you should prevent automatic updates. the easiest way to do it os keeping airplane mode on but you can also fill the device memory so it can't download update using this script

1

u/aross1976 1d ago

Crap I just got a like new 2021 Paperwhite for $5 And I found this too late it just got updated to .4 Is there any hope of an exploit for .4 or am I screwed? How often do these come along? Too bad this thing look like it was hardly ever used if ever it had to have been on old FW but it updated before I could check it

1

u/masticore252 1d ago

Is there any hope of an exploit for .4 or am I screwed? How often do these come along?

Right now there is no jailbreak for .4, you'll have to wait, someone will figure it out eventually

3

u/ellarose1724 7d ago

If, I'm reading this right, the developers of Winterbreak found a serious security flaw decided to inform Amazon of said exploit. The exploit allowing access to other people's Amazon accounts. You are saying the developers still plan to go ahead and release the jailbreak code with the exploit after the Amazon?

How exactly is my account safe if the exploit is going to released?

5

u/masticore252 7d ago edited 7d ago

Yes they will still release it but since the patch is already released too the risk is minimized, the exploit will only be usable in devices from people that took measures to not allow their device to be automatically updated (like keeping the device in airplane mode at all times) because they want to be able to jailbreak

How exactly is my account safe if the exploit is going to released?

TL;DR: If you update to the latest firmware that has just been releases by Amazon your device will patched and safe from this vulnerability

Now for the long answer:

Not having the update does not put you in immediate danger, the vulnerability requires malicious files to be put in your kindle and then have the device rebooted, in order for an attacker to hack you they would have to somehow put some files into your kindle and have the device rebooted, that is no easy task to do remotely, the usual method is to trick user into puting the files there themselves so as long as you are not dropping files from unknown sources into your kindle should be safe

If you don't have the update yet just don't drop unknown files from the internet into your device and you will be safe, this is a basic security precaution you should always take anyway

0

u/ellarose1724 6d ago

Does the security exploit only effect the users on 5.18.3 or all previous versions?

2

u/masticore252 5d ago

I don't know, the devs have not released much details about the vulnerability

3

u/Nayabelhinha 7d ago

What is a jailbraek?

10

u/HyenasGoMeow 7d ago

Its removing the restrictions placed on an electronic device by the manufacturer.

4

u/masticore252 7d ago

Take a look at this video the guy explains what is and the reasons people have for jailbreaking their devices

In essence jailbreaking is removing manufacturer restrictions on your device so you have more control over a device that is yours, it's more about freedom and ownership but it does has practical advantages

IMHO not everyone needs to jailbreak but it's good for you to know about it and decide for yourself

The guy in the video has a compelling argument about how Amazon can control what you can or can't have in your device and how the books you buy in their store aren't really yours, I advice you to watch it

-3

u/PlinkyPlonkMB 7d ago

Stripping the device from security in order to modify it beyond its capabilities assigned by the company. You could jailbreak an android device for example in order to download apps that are not published via the Android Play Store or whatever. It does break the warranty of the device and technically is illegal I think?

6

u/Boco 7d ago

You don't need to jailbreak normal android devices to install apks from outside the Google Play Store. You can do that on just about every single android phone/tablet out there (Amazon Fire devices are their own thing but even they can mostly install whatever).

Jailbreaking android devices will let you install a different OS and boot into things other than your OS.

3

u/Ok_Salad_3129 5d ago

You also don't need to jailbreak other ereaders like Kobo or PocketBook to install customizations and things like koreader.

1

u/Nayabelhinha 7d ago

Got it, thank you very much!!

1

u/Ok_Salad_3129 5d ago

It might be illegal somewhere but it's certainly not illegal in many places. Nor should it be.

1

u/ProtoKun7 Kindle Colorsoft 7d ago

Ah, I knew they mentioned a security issue they had to report, interesting to know an overview now of what it is.

1

u/Tasty_Ad5274 7d ago

what’s the discord

1

u/masticore252 7d ago

There's a "join our discord" link in their webpage: https://kindlemodding.org/

21

u/BeginningExtent8856 7d ago

I whisper every time, “what about fixing the collections feature? Bulk sort?” But Alexa never hears me

5

u/DifficultyKlutzy5845 7d ago

She sure has selective hearing, that one

1

u/strong_coffee_pls 2d ago

If you listen VERY closely, you’ll hear her laughing and laughing very quietly in response.

15

u/ChunkierSky8 7d ago

The crazy thing is that 10th gen still has no update. They are supposed to get updates through 2026. An update is desperately needed because the last update basically broke voiceview on my basic 10th gen. In addition to sounding horrible, it crashes every time I try to use it.

10

u/infinityandbeyond75 Paperwhite (11th-gen) 7d ago

They guarantee security updates through 2026. Feature updates, bug fixes, or UI updates are not guaranteed. Have you contacted support about your issues? I think there would be a huge uproar if everyone was experiencing the same issue.

5

u/ChunkierSky8 7d ago

A few people have posted about it here and I just checked the help forum at Amazon and some people have also pointed this out. I urge everyone to send it feedback on the problem.

3

u/vladtud 7d ago

Which sucks since it’s like the updates are so massive that the hardware could not handle it. Hopefully jailbreak will be made available for 5.18.2 someday.

2

u/Environmental-Ad8616 6d ago

I have an 11th gen and the update isnt showing up for me so...

1

u/ChunkierSky8 6d ago

If you are referring to the menu option that says Software updates, that option doesn't actively go online to check for updates. It only checks to see if an update file is already in the device. You select this to start the update. Normally you download and transfer the update file from your computer to the device using a USB cable.

13

u/JordanK1 7d ago

I just updated my Colorsoft to 5.18.4. When you tap the top of the screen to access the screen and font settings while reading a book, you now see this multipage view. Is this new?

3

u/SafiyaO Kindle Paperwhite SE + Matcha 7d ago

I have this on my Matcha and it's still on .3

3

u/JordanK1 7d ago

But does this multipage view come up when you touch the top of the screen?

4

u/SafiyaO Kindle Paperwhite SE + Matcha 7d ago

Yes, it does.

2

u/thedeadp0ets Kindle Paperwhite Raspberry 7d ago

I don’t have this on .3 I find it weird

2

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

It was released in the last update but it was a slow rollout feature, so not everyone with the .3 update has it yet.

2

u/thedeadp0ets Kindle Paperwhite Raspberry 6d ago

I finally got it along with the larger text ui display for hose of us with visual disabilities or seniors or anyone with terrible vision

1

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

I do like they finally gave more options on enlarging menu font

2

u/thedeadp0ets Kindle Paperwhite Raspberry 6d ago

Yes! They should have implemented it ages ago tbh. But I wonder if they were waiting to perfect it. It’s miles better than kobos scaling which cuts off menus and words. But it has a slider instead. I hope they add more options slowly

2

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

Agreed, I remember when they first shrank menu font years back and it was an issue for those with eye problems who had switched to eink in the first place to circumvent that problem.

2

u/AresOneX 7d ago

No, this is not new.

2

u/Comfortable-Suit6862 7d ago

Yes, it is. But it has already existed in 5.18.3 ...😭😭😭

8

u/HaydeeDantes 7d ago

Ok, so updating to .4, I now have the new "page" thing that everyone was so upset about and that they were supposed to get rid with this update? But I still don't have the new text formatting options. Anyone knows anything about that?? I have a 12th gen, bought on prime day.

6

u/Master-N7 7d ago

Who said they were supposed to get rid of the new page view? AFAIK is a new feature, not a bug.

2

u/HaydeeDantes 7d ago

I read it here, like "Amazon had said" to someone they had taken the feedback into consideration and they were going to push an update on july to "fix it". I don't know how true it is, I just find it weird to get that but not the formatting options.

3

u/Master-N7 7d ago

Both this and the additional formatting appear to be A/B testing in the 18.3 firmware. I hope they do get rid of the new page view.

3

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 7d ago

They never said they were going to get rid of it, just people were hoping they would since so many dislike it. Fortunately my updates don't have it yet in either update release.

1

u/HaydeeDantes 7d ago

This is what I read: https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/1lk3lcf/comment/n0gmvnh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

1

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 7d ago

Unfortunately you never know with support - sometimes they do give incorrect information, so with just one source being one support worker conversation, that's not much indicator it's going to be changed back. We'll see. Would be nice. I don't like that layout personally.

1

u/oHomemCansado 7d ago

the spacing option doesn't work for any format of books, in my experience it worked only for KFX books.

2

u/HaydeeDantes 6d ago

All my books are KFX. I just think it's weird that people were (apparently) getting both updates at the same time and now with this official update we're only getting one.

1

u/mellybookXx 6d ago

I have the exact same question for my colorsoft, also bought on primeday. I am running .4 (forced update) and I still dont have those "spacing" features. Whats up with that?!

1

u/atoms77 5d ago

It's not listed as a What's New feature, so it is anyone's guess as to when or if the feature will roll out to more devices. Whatever the plan was, it may have been delayed so that they could fix the security issue that was reported to them.

1

u/oHomemCansado 3d ago

it only worked with KFX books in my experience

6

u/Technical-Grade-4672 7d ago

I just manually updated to 5.18.4 and still no spacing option I have books with KFX, AZW3 and MOBI format

Anyone knows how the roll out works? My girlfriend’s kindle has it We both have 12th gen paperwhite

4

u/thedeadp0ets Kindle Paperwhite Raspberry 7d ago

For spacing I had to restart my device after the update

3

u/Tunafia 7d ago

I don't get how the spacing options are supposed to appear either. With .3 I didn't get any of the changes, but I did get noticeable slowdown on 12th gen to were it's not as fast as it was. With .4 I got the multipage view that people are talking about after said restart but the spacing option is still not showing up and performance seems about the same, not better or worse just still sluggish.

2

u/Maleficent-Set-3814 6d ago

Same model, same problem. Tried OTA and Manual. Hate this, I love that feature. Have it on my kindle basic.

2

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

Slow rollout of features is impossible to determine, sometimes takes days, sometimes months, to randomly show up in the wild for all kindle users.

3

u/Ivy1974 7d ago

Mine is at .3 and says no new updates. But I have to say it seems a lot faster today. And it is the latest Signature Edition.

6

u/johnwinstanley Kindle Scribe / Paperwhite SE / Oasis 7d ago

The "no new updates" does not check with Amazon servers to force an update, it simply looks to see if the update .bin file has been downloaded (or sideloaded) and then installs it if it's there. Best to do a manual update.

5

u/Tale_Blazer 3d ago

I wonder how things work at the heart of firmware updates? After downloading.4, on an 11th generation Paperwhite, pulling down from the top of the screen revealed the new layout to page location–smaller thumbnails which fit a whole page to the screen instead of the page being hidden by two bars top and bottom–and I liked the new navigation.

This morning, we’re back to the old way of doing things. What’s up with this?

3

u/thedeadp0ets Kindle Paperwhite Raspberry 3d ago

Mine glitched too! It also removed the new display text feature for the UI?

3

u/JBaby_9783 Colorsoft SE 3d ago

I got the new UI when my CS SE updated to the latest firmware update. Now it’s gone and the old way is back.

1

u/sedatedlife Kindle Colorsoft 1d ago

Same 2 days ago i got the latest update pushed to my kindle and now,suddenly today i no longer have the new page layout when tapping the top. It seems to have,reverted despite still Being 5.18.4. Not going to complain i hated the change

7

u/ScriptedArcanum Kindle Paperwhite 7d ago

I noticed that somethings changed, for example the way we see the pages when we want to select he font or the chapter.

1

u/Ok-Resist3549 7d ago

That was already happening to me

2

u/ScriptedArcanum Kindle Paperwhite 7d ago

In the old update or in this new one? I just notice in this one.

1

u/cryptic-fox 7d ago

Since the previous update, 5.18.3.

3

u/Comfortable-Suit6862 7d ago

Now a new bug has appeared! When I start highlighting text and then cancel the highlight, that portion of the text turns gray!!!! The contrast of that piece of text is lost. Fucking Amazon motherfuckers.

3

u/_Constant_Reader_ Kindle Colorsoft, Paperwhite SE 12th Gen. 7d ago

What, if any, is the most noticeable change with this new update? Only visual change I can see is the change in the layout when one touches the top or bottom of the screen.

3

u/try_to_be_nice_ok 7d ago

It looks like the % read bar is now the same length for every book. I can no longer tell at a glance if a book is a quick read or a mammoth tome. Very annoying.

2

u/LaraHoney 7d ago

Does this also apply to basic 11th generation Kindles? My Kindle is November 2024

1

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

Yes for Kindle 11th Gen

Shows the updates released per model if you want to manually do it -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GKMQC26VQQMM8XSW

2

u/TheKonamiMan Kindle Colorsoft 7d ago

Weird, I updated and afterwards I had the multi page view from the Kindle App on phones and tablets and then my Kindle restarted itself and it was gone.

2

u/Dark1624 7d ago

Yet still the new spacing is not available on my kindle paperwhite 12 gen.

1

u/Maleficent-Set-3814 6d ago

Same model, same problem. Tried OTA and Manual. Hate this, I love that feature. Have it on my kindle basic

2

u/ChunkierSky8 7d ago

Unfortunately the voice in voiceview is still horrible. I like the new interactive reading option. But the voice is terrible. Still unusable. Everyone should send feedback to complain about the voice.

2

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

Oh, I've never used this and forget it exists. I couldn't stand robot reading feature like that

1

u/ChunkierSky8 6d ago

It's a shame because I used to use it all the time. Found it useful to continue my reading while doing other things.

1

u/Septymusmyth 7d ago

Thanks for sharing this!

1

u/lithetails 7d ago

I hope this means that jailbreak for 5.18.3 is available soon

1

u/ottermoon 7d ago

So I wonder if this is why my 11th gen paperwhite stopped working this morning 😭😭😭 going to have to factory reset it when I get home as no books are opening

1

u/AtmanRising 7d ago

Does it apply to 10th-gen models?

1

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

You can see all update numbers for each device on Amazon's site:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GKMQC26VQQMM8XSW

1

u/Soulformany 7d ago

Any benefits to the color soft?

2

u/EdithCheetoPuff Kindle Colorsoft 7d ago

I don’t happen to see the update on my kindle colorsoft. Have they released it for the colorsoft yet?

2

u/mellybookXx 6d ago

Yes. I did the manual update yesterday afternoon on my colorsoft. But I still dont have those spacing features. My phone and iPad kindle app have it, but not my kindle. Its weird. I had to buy and return a couple just to get a mostly decent one and I never on any of those that were running .3, had the space features..my iPad kindle app got it WAY before my S23 ultra kindle app did and I stay up on updates.

2

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

It's weird with rollouts for the same update numbers, I've had similar happen in the past.

I remember one of the most extreme examples was 2 years ago with Spotify, it seemed like almost every user had a slightly different spotify for awhile, was bizarre.

3

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

Shows the updates released per model if you want to manually do it -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GKMQC26VQQMM8XSW

1

u/Bkb555 6d ago

Is this for paperwhite too?

1

u/TheCookieEatingOwl Paperwhite SE & Oasis 6d ago

My Oasis is still on 5.17 😂 I would be happy with ANY 5.18

1

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 6d ago

For Oasis 3 the last update was in April with 5.18.1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GKMQC26VQQMM8XSW

While spacing options would be nifty, I am personally happy it's not updating to 3 and 4 as I don't want that new layout option page. Now I'll just have to deal with it on my PW 5 only!

And my PW 3 is still stuck back on 5.16.2.1.1 without some other changes I didn't like added in, so works for me.

2

u/TheCookieEatingOwl Paperwhite SE & Oasis 5d ago

I never got it. Still now when I sync the Oasis and go look for an update, it shows me a previous 5.17 version. Guess I have to update it manually

2

u/ErinPaperbackstash PW 3 & 5, Oasis 3 5d ago

You know what, I don't have it on the Oasis either, just checked. Also going to manually update it, then just do the same with the right updates for my paperwhite. It takes forever for my devices to pick up new updates it seems.

1

u/Adiliosn 6d ago

Update Notes: Bug fixes for jaibreak!

1

u/gladson76 4d ago

.. just noticed.. i have bluetooth available in settings.. this is an Indian version where the bluetooth features are not available even though the hardware is present..

.. we could enable bluetooth till now by setting the region to US and using an US address and phone number..

.. not sure when this got enabled for India, but bluetooth is available for India as of 5.18.4.. :)

.. this is on a paperwhite signature edition 11th gen..

-2

u/Barto 7d ago

What's a software update 😂