this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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GrapheneOS says Google is making life harder for rival operating systems and devices (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 1 day ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[โ€“] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Root access is tricky because it can be less secure overall but I guess this is dependent on your use case.

I think you can still do it but you have to edit the rom beforehand so yeah not out of the box.

[โ€“] qqq@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I once again cannot disagree more strongly. This is the BS that has been pushed by the mobile phone world. It couldn't be more wrong. Well designed root access to your own device would dramatically increase its security for those who chose to use it.

Here are a few things you simply cannot do on a phone and would be considered terrible in any other context:

  • Control system, root level services running on your device. The idea that you can't do this is a security nightmare. It is the single most basic security tenant I can think of that is grossly violated. You have no control over your device's attack surface
  • Control privileged non-root applications
  • Control network traffic. You have no low level control over your device's firewall without root. You want egress rules? Sorry.
  • Linux namespaces. You literally are banned from accessing the single greatest Linux security feature since UIDs and GIDs. Network namespace isolation? You can't do it. UID remapping? Nah. Mount namespaces? Nope.
  • SELinux policy. Android relies heavily on SELinux and you have no control over it at all.
  • Device handling. There was a great root exploit a long time ago with just a plugged in USB that would have never existed on devices that sanely disabled automounting.

There is so much more. I can't even imagine calling a device I had no root access to "secure" in a personal threat model. Business? Sure. Personal? God no. Not even close.

This is in addition to the privacy benefits.