According to two separate sources on the XDA forums, the Droid X is loaded with the now-infamous locked bootloader present in the Milestone. If you’re unfamiliar, this site explains the current methods being deployed to defeat the Milestone, but none have managed to succeed without killing the phone functionality. Motorola locks the bootloader using a proprietary encrypted private key scheme, and without access to Motorola’s encryption method, the hope for unlocking lies in exploits. Currently, an exploit known as the “kexec” method ranks highest in terms of hopes of success.

What does this mean for Droid X users? Custom ROMs and recovery images may be a pipe dream, unless a serious vulnerability is discovered. While the possibility for root access exploits still exists, it seems likely that Motorola has done their homework to ensure that the vulnerability which allowed for rooting of the Milestone has been addressed. Of course, with any new device comes new and potentially exploitable software. In the coming weeks we will undoubtedly see how the hacking and development community fair with the Droid X, or if Motorola’s encryption puts them off enough to avoid the phone altogether.

Credit: XDA forums