Root How secure is a rooted device?

[Rollo_Tomasi]

I have been rooted since shortly after 2.2 dropped and it broke the SiriusXM app. I love having the ability to do so much with the phone .

My question is kind of specific to an application and general to the nature of a rooted device.

I have been playing World of Warcraft for 5 years now and with the always present threat of being hacked and all of my in-game items, characters and account being stolen I added the mobile authenticator app as soon as it was available for Android devices. For those who don't know what this is, it is an app which you add to your in game account and will generate a key which you put in upon login that adds an extra layer of security to your account.

Ever since I have rooted the phone I get a message that says:

Running a non-retail (rooted) version of the Android operating system may compromise the security of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator

My question is, how much risk am I running using a rooted device and is it possible to hack a rooted phone?

I really have no idea how someone would gain control of a mobile device so I wanted to bring the question up here to see if anyone can shed some light on this question.

Thanks in advance.

 

[shadowdude777]

They may be worrying that since you have root access you could inadvertently install malware like a keylogger on your phone which would be able to record your key.

Just speculation, no real basis here other than knowing that getting root access in Linux lets you do a lot more (good and bad... very, very bad).

 

[harriknight]

I play WoW too and I can tell you that the message isn't too important. There might be an added risk to getting a keylogger or something like that, but it's extremely minimal and as long as you're not using your phone to look up porn I think you'll be fine.

There is one down side to it though:
Wiping your data. I just installed a new ROM today and forgot to make a nandroid backup of my old one, so now I have to call up Blizzard and get them to remove it so I can add the new one. Make sure you remember to remove your authenicator before you ever have to do a data wipe so that you can reapply the new one after you're done.

 

[kratos]

The way that root works is that superuser.apk is the control gate. All apps (programs) that want root access must be given access through superuser.apk.

This means that when you run an app (titanium backup for example), you will see a popup that asks if you want to allow root access. You have a set amount of time to respond (I believe it is 15 seconds). If you say no, that app/program will not have root access and cannot do anything that a regular non-root app could (facebook app, pandora app, etc for example). If you say yes, then the app will have root access and can do anything in the root area of your phone.

In general, use root apps that have a good reputation (TiBU, Root Explorer, Set CPU, eyc) and make sure to read the comments. If you use a root app that you did not get from the market, you are on your own since you cannot read comments about it to know if it is safe and does what it says it's supposed to do.

There are a lot of root users on this forum alone and I have never heard of someone who has has a problem with security. Just be safe and make sure that the app you are giving root access to has a good reputation and has a lot of good comments and rating on the market.

Kratos