
Android Developers Blog: It’s not “rooting”, it’s openness - twapi
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-not-rooting-its-openness.html
======
mmastrac
This article nails it. Myself and the other folks who make up the Unrevoked
team are basically searching for security exploits on the devices we support.
We can't reveal these to the carriers, the phone manufacturers or the Android
team because they'll be fixed in the next release and we'll invest the time to
find another one. __* Each additional exploit is marginally more difficult
than the last to find.

We'd much prefer to abandon our rooting efforts entirely and have the market
flooded with phones that have the equivalent of "fastboot oem unlock", or have
easy ways to flash custom ROMs like the Dell Streak (no signature required),
the original Droid and some of Samsung's devices. The energy we spend working
on root could be better applied in finding and fixing the security holes that
exist on the Android platform.

Until then we'll keep poking holes in the security of HTC devices (our focus)
and make them work as hard as possible to figure out which holes we've
exploited to keep the rooting window open as long as possible. We'll also keep
recommending that people put their money on open devices like the Nexus One
and the Nexus S.

 __* The exception to this was the skyagent hole, where HTC and Sprint shipped
a suid-root program that would give any program you installed full control of
your device. We notified them of the problem, then shipped a root based on it
shortly after:

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/34024714/Skyagent-Protocol-
Descrip...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/34024714/Skyagent-Protocol-Description)

[http://unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php/public/unrevoked1_dis...](http://unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php/public/unrevoked1_disclosure)

~~~
leif
In a more perfect world, the general public would understand the important
distinction between malicious "hackers" and you guys. Keep up the good work.

What do you tell your laymen friends and family that you do? Do you call it
hacking? Security analysis? Something else?

~~~
mmastrac
Usually "phone hacking". "Security research" is what goes on my resume. :)

~~~
jrockway
This is the best kind of security research. Sometimes people think security
research is unethical, but there is no ethical question here: should a user
sitting in front of his own device be able to use it for anything he wants?
The answer is "of course".

As a user of an unlocked Evo, I want to thank you for doing this work. It
makes my life more enjoyable!

~~~
StavrosK
Also, it's legal.

~~~
jrockway
There's absolutely nothing illegal about downloading the SSH source code,
finding a buffer overflow, and releasing code that demonstrates that that
buffer overflow gets you root. The downside is that a lot of kiddies will use
this information to cause mayhem.

When you do the same to the phone, there is much less mayhem. But there's
absolutely nothing illegal about the first scenario.

~~~
StavrosK
Oh, I wasn't comparing, I was just remarking that Apple et al can no longer
claim illegality of jailbreaking/rooting as a scare tactic.

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mcritz
> _Unfortunately, until carriers and manufacturers provide an easy method to
> legitimately unlock devices, there will be a natural tension between the
> rooting and security communities. We can only hope that carriers and
> manufacturers will recognize this, and not force users to choose between
> device openness and security._

I don’t see that as likely. In fact, Android’s “openness” can lead to
maliciousness on the part of carriers and phone makers against their users. I
cite Android phones that come from carriers with unremovable junkware & phones
that have hardware encryption that prevents user rooting.

~~~
yanw
That practice is being offset by the sheer number and variety of Android
devices, consumers are buying the more ‘open’ handsets and thus signaling the
demand for them.

~~~
ugh
_“Consumers are buying the more ‘open’ handsets and thus signaling the demand
for them.”_

Are they? What is your source for that?

~~~
guelo
I imagine the quantity is small but there is some percentage of buyers, such
as myself, that make sure there is an root exploit available before I buy a
phone.

~~~
CaptainZapp
I know it's not fashionable nowadays, but I, for my part stick to Nokia
phones.

"Rootability" is not an accident there, but part of the design.

This, of course is unless your (subsidized) phone is locked down to hell and
then some. This is much less a problem in Europe, since you can always buy the
unlocked phone and as a matter of fact, with the exception of pre-paid phones,
even subsidized phones are not SIM-locked (you sign a contract anyway) and I
never had one loaded with un- removable crap-ware.

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zmmmmm
Nice to see a clear statement from Google that they believe all manufacturers
should ship a way to unlock their phones. It's largely symbolic since it is
out of Google's hands but at least Google is making their view heard for what
it is worth.

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barredo
I really didn't understand the article. Can someone explain it?

~~~
brown9-2
An engineer on the Android Security Team objects to people claiming they've
"rooted the Nexus S" by installing a custom ROM on it when all they've done is
taken advantage of a feature named "fastboot_oem_unlock" which allows you to
install a custom ROM.

~~~
jrockway
Actually "fastboot oem unlock" is the command you type into your computer to
unlock the phone. "unlock" is the feature name :)

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elblanco
It'd feel more open if they actively designed the OS to make it hard to lock
down, thus requiring rooting.

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brisance
What is Google's position on phones being rooted for the sole purpose of
acquiring pirated apps? From where I'm sitting it seems Google is not doing
anything to discourage this and is implicitly saying that the ad-driven
revenue model is the way to go, natch.

~~~
orangecat
Probably the same as my position on buying a wrench for the sole purpose of
assaulting people with it.

~~~
CountSessine
I wonder how many Home Depot customers go on to kill people with wrenches
compared to how many iPhone & Android rooters/jailbreakers go on to pirate
apps? And no, I'm not talking about the average HN'er - rather every Uncle
Dick in my family who doesn't know sh*t about tech but is only too happy to
tell me about all the 'free' apps he's downloaded now that he jailbreaked his
crummy iPhone.

Sorry - it's a question that's worth asking. If everyone was assaulting each
other with wrenches, we'd declare martial law - the constitution isn't a
suicide pact. If Android is the hottest smartphone OS in the US right now (and
it is), why are the app attachment rates so low?

As a console game developer whose friends have developed iOS and Android apps
that have seen huge download and play numbers (as measured by leaderboard
submissions) but have seen almost no purchases, I have zero interest in
developing for either platform.

~~~
orangecat
I'm a developer with a paid app in the Android Market. If my only choices were
to accept rampant piracy or to prohibit users from having control over their
own hardware, I'd take the first without hesitation.

Of course that's a false dilemma; my app is earning several hundred dollars a
month with zero marketing and zero copy protection. The vast majority of apps
are not going to be Angry Birds-scale hits, and that's true with or without
piracy.

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yuhong
Why don't Google just make Android GPLv3?

