In recent years, OEMs and network operators have stepped up efforts to prevent the rooting of Android phones. Owners of locked phones often find that, after paying hundreds of dollars for the latest model, their devices are impossible to root or modify and that they’re locked to one particular network operator.

The Samsung Bootloader, or sboot, is the mysterious piece of software that’s responsible for enforcing this draconian limitation. sboot is the gatekeeper of a vast majority of …