Since their launch, the Samsung Vibrant and Samsung Captivate have had to be on a plan with T-Mobile and AT&T respectively. It now seems that this is no longer the case, as Dagentooboy of XDA-Developers has discovered that the Galaxy S unlock codes are easier to get to than many people thought.
Instead of being kept safe in a remote server back in the dark caves of Samsung, the Galaxy’s codes are simply kept in a .BAK file on the device. This can be found with a simple hex editor and are able to key right in when inserting a new SIM card to the device.
Engadget has tested the workaround on both the Vibrant and Captivate and they say that this method does indeed work. They were able to get it up and running in as little as 5 minutes.
Amazingly, they are saying that the Vibrant was able to connect to the 3G network and get a 2Mbps connection to the network. On a more negative note, this was not the case for the Captivate, being restricted to only EDGE speeds with T-Mobile.
All this can easily be reversed as well, no need to worry about warranty being voided with this exploit. As the code can simply be put back onto the device the same way it was initially done, and lock the phone right back up.