[iforgotpassword]

In this case it wasn't even a firmware update that bricked the device. Just some meta data that told the device how to behave. So a factory reset should still have deleted that stupid XML file from the flash storage, which would totally have fixed the issue. Even with all the paranoia they could have had about reverting to an old firmware version and breaking copy protection through exploits. Just wipe the freaking flash storage and keep the current firmware.

[kelnos]

The one issue I can see with this if the original firmware has an outdated TLS trust store, reverting to the original firmware might make it impossible to update it via normal means. Whether or not this is good or bad is an exercise left up to the reader.

[toast0]

Samsung runs their own CA with a long expiration, so at least they aren't affected by trust store issues. Amazon had an issue with this on Kindles though, if you didn't online update your Kindle in time, you have to do an offline update -- i think that one might have been sha-2 signatueres rather than a CA expiration though --- not sure.