Latest update for several Huawei & Honor devices adds Anti-Rollback protection

Huawei was once a brand that used to encourage third-party development on its devices but that all changed when the Chinese company announced it won't allow users to unlock the bootloader. More recently, Huawei was in the news for blocking the use of custom launchers on Chinese EMUI 9 versions. These measures, according to Huawei, have been taken to "reduce problems" and "provide better user experience." As another measure to improve user experience and security, Huawei is adding anti-rollback protection to its HI6250 devices (devices powered by Kirin 65* processors) with the January security patch update.

In case you aren't familiar with anti-rollback protection, it is a measure that prevents users from downgrading to a lower software version beyond a certain level. Smartphone companies add anti-rollback protection to their devices to enhance the security and counter shady retailers who sell their devices without authorisation.

Huawei has already updated several of its devices with anti-rollback and now the company is adding the protection to its HI6250 phones. The list of devices getting the update is given below.

Is my device affected?

HI6250 devices include all Huawei and Honor devices that are powered by Kirin 650, 655, 658 and 659. All the HI6250 phones are listed below:

• Honor 5C
• Honor 6X
• Honor 7X (2017)
• Honor 8 Lite
• Honor 9 Lite
• P8 Lite (2017)
• P9 Lite
• P10 Lite
• P20 Lite
• Maimang 6
• Mate9 Lite
• Nova 2
• Nova 2 Plus
• Nova 2i
• Nova 3e
• Huawei P Smart

What does this mean for me?

If you're an average user, you can go about using your phone as you were before. This update further tightens the security of your phone.

For custom ROM users, if you install the latest builds of the stock ROM, you now have to be careful of not using a firmware version below that of the latest update. In case you downgrade to a lower firmware, your phone will get hard bricked.

Custom ROM users are also advised to flash the NVME Patcher to prevent Huawei from unlocking the phone in a future update. The patcher can be downloaded from here.

What do I do if my phone gets bricked?

In such a case, you will have to use the Test Point method to flash the latest firmware. This requires short-circuiting the Test Point resistor to ground and get the PC to recognize the phone in Emergency Download (EDL) mode. There are a lot of tutorials available on the internet for the same but the Test Point method can be tough to carry out since it requires removing the back cover of the phone and exposing the SoC. The easier way out of this would be to take your phone to the service centre.

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.