[Q] GT-I9300 questions about KNOX before 4.1.2 => 4.3 upgrade

Hi all,

I recently bought a refurbished S3 that's so far running on stock 4.1.2 and showing under download mode:

ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME: GT-I9300
CUSTOM BINARY DOWNLOAD: No
CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official
SYSTEM STATUS: Official

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Now, I find contradictory and/or confusing info regarding its upgrade to 4.3 so your answers to these questions are really appreciated:

1) Does the 4.1.2=>4.3 upgrade install KNOX? I ask cause some threads suggest Samsung never implemented it on I9300s while others say they did...
2) I still didn't do anything on download mode but I did enter it couple of times. Did that increased any counter and/or changed any internal flag? Could this have altered the warranty validity?
3) Regarding 4.3 full stock images and/or patch updates (from OTA/FOTA), I can't find any KNOX related APK but.... how can I tell if its bootloader evil is present or not?
4) From a full 4.3 stock image downloaded from sammobile.com, and if I confirm it has KNOX bootloader, I think it could be possible to decompile the image, remove all KNOX stuff, reassemble the image and finally ODIN flash it. Am I right? In case yes, any advice/recommendation and or better-read-this before attempting to do so?
5) In connection with point 4 above, could I "inject" what is required to root the phone at the same time? What should I add/remove/modify?
6) Regarding

CUSTOM BINARY DOWNLOAD, CURRENT BINARY and SYSTEM STATUS

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are they set on checks performed after each boot or do they change just and only just on actions performed from within recovery and/or dowload mode?

Please note 5 and 6 are somehow related: if checks asked on 6 are *not* done on boot then doing 5 would let me root the phone leaving no trace (I think...)

Just in case, the file structure for the OTA patch update I have is:
where ./recovery/ has:

boomboomer said:

Any search will tell you that the i9300 doesn't have knox, other models of the s3 do.

Go read the sticky thread in general forum for beginners, then how to root with cf auto root -which will invalidate warranty.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

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Thanks mate, that seems to be the root of my confusion.

And just out of curiosity, how can we check whether a bootloader image has KNOX or not?

boomboomer said:

Simple, if it is a bootloader for the i9300 then it doesn't have knox.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

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yes, ok, that's clear since your first post but I'm asking about *any* bootloader, not those that are for the I9300.

I mean, how can we tell "sboot.bin" from version Android X.X.X for Samsung YYYY has Knox on it or not?

rochlind said:

Go read the sticky thread in general forum for beginners!

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I did. But couldn't find any method other than one others suggested, asking other users. However, my idea is to search for binary patterns or strings within the .img and/or .bin. Still haven't enough time to do so but will update once I can.

If you already did so, please share your findings. Or the URL for that...