Hi,
The general consensus amongst the Android community is that rooting is detrimental to privacy. In a sense, I agree with them since privilege escalation because of human error becomes a much bigger threat if the user has root access.
Android has a big privacy problem encapsulated in one word: “baseband”. Your modem and other hardware running in your device don’t run FOSS firmware and are likely actively malicious towards your privacy.
I am a Linux user, and I understand that concepts do not necessarily transfer well between the two. With that in mind:
- If I wanted to be absolutely certain that sensistive hardware like Camera, Microphone and Modem were truly off, would shutting them off as root hold any real significance?
- I do not know what the equivalent of Intel ME is called in the Android space, but I doubt that a highly complex OS is running beneath general Android as we know it. I think it’s just the firmware of the individual device that we need to worry about.
- Is it possible to replace the bootloader on some Android devices/prevent it from loading unwanted firmware?
With Google taking Android behind closed doors, I suspect we will start seeing some suspicious snippets of code here and there with questionable purpose, but which might be missed by FOSS volunteers because of the sheer volume of work that is. I’m thinking of ways we can try to evade this blatant grab of our personal data.
it is not at all detrimental to privacy. it may be to security. different things.
of course, until you install something that uses root and mines data. but there are plenty of tools working with root that don’t do that.
you most probably can’t switch off sensors even with root, effectively. that needs a hardware based switch that just cuts power to the sensor, and requires your physical action to turn it back on.
Intel ME on android is ARM TrustZone, I think, or at least probably that’s the closest, but take this with a grain of salt.
afaik the modem often relies on a linux based system
Thank you. This was exactly the response I was looking for.
Is it possible to set a password for sudo on Android? I’ve never seen anyone talk about it.
Sucks that I can’t control sensors with root. Sensors are my biggest fear on all phones.
Ah yeah, ARM TrustZone. I had forgotten about that.
Well, shit.
on android you don’t use sudo, or if it is possible, it is not the usual way. usually there is an app that controls access, and when something wants to start a new program with the
sucommand (switch user), the app pops up a prompt about whether you want to allow it. this prompt can be implemented terribly insecurely or not (or rather the “backend” of it really).the most common root solution nowadays is Magisk. it only modifies the bootloader. it is open source. if you look up how it works, its like a sophisticated malware, but handing control to you
you can’t for the modem. but for other apps, you can, if that’s worth anything. to me it does, because some sensors are not gated by a permission (gyroscope, compass, magnetometer, proximity sensor, light sensor)
what android version do you have? on newer ones there’s a developer setting to allow to have a “sensors off” quick settings tile
if you don’t need the modem, you may be able to safely wipe the partition holding its firmware. but look it up if it is safe for your phone! it should be, but who knows. also, make a backup! not 1, but 3!! it holds identifiers like the IMEI, and if you lose that… you can’t really just think up a new one, or the carrier may ban you and another poor soul