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Root Why don't manufacturers

bfldworker

bfldworker

Android Enthusiast
I have a question. Why don't smartphone manufacturers supply root methods for their phones? I know the public reasons, protects customers, prevent customers from destorying their phones, so on and so forth.

However, they are acutely aware that there is a very large group of people who prefer having rooted devices, who want custom roms, who what to do things their way and be damned with the warrenty.

You would figure that these companies, especially companies that make incredibly popular phones like LG, Samsung, Motorola, HTC and etc that also have to thank the "hacker" community for a large part of their income would supply rooting methods for their phones. With of course the requisite warnings about what could happen if they screwed it up.
 
a few responses I respect:


http://pocketnow.com/2013/04/12/avoid-rooting-your-android

May Keep You From Getting Wanted Updates
Depending on how you go about rooting your device, you might end up preventing yourself from getting updates from your OEM or carrier in the future. To some this is a “feature” rather than a “detractor”. To others, they could be missing out on new features and enhancements — not to mention critical security patches.

Root, on its own, won’t likely block updates. Replacing your Recovery Image or flashing a custom ROM, however, will most assuredly interfere with the typical upgrade cycle.

May Void Your Warranty
Some carriers and some OEMs won’t even talk to you if you go to them with troubles and they discover that your device is rooted. Not even I have been immune from this. I know, shocking, isn’t it?

Back in December 2011 I was playing with a new ROM, and loving the fact that I’d been able to hack Google Wallet onto my phone. Long story short: I locked my Secure Element and have been unable to use Google Wallet on that device ever since. I called Google to see what could be done to fix the problem. They were happy and helpful, until it came up that I had rooted my phone. At that point they were done. It was broken and they weren’t going to do anything to even try to fix it. To this day they still haven’t.

That’s not too much of a problem for me. I was still able to use my device — just not Google Wallet. Ultimately I got a new device, and learned my lesson about the Secure Element.

Might Let the “Bad Guys” in
Once your device has been rooted you’re always just a button-press away from letting some “bad” program do some “bad” thing on your device. On unrooted versions of Android, if a piece of software somehow ends up on your phone it usually just sends texts or make phone calls to “premium numbers” so the bad guys can drain your account. Without being able to attain root permissions, the extent of what they can do is severely limited — as it should be.

I’ve pointed out in the past that malicious software could theoretically exploit a vulnerability and obtain root on its own, but to my knowledge no apps have done this yet — excluding the apps that are specifically designed to obtain root for you.​
 
Next Up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooting_(Android_OS)

Industry reaction
Until 2010, tablet and smartphone manufacturers, as well as mobile carriers, were mainly unsupportive of third-party firmware development. Manufacturers had expressed concern about improper functioning of devices running unofficial software[17] and related support costs. Moreover, firmwares such as OmniROM and CyanogenMod sometimes offer features for which carriers would otherwise charge a premium, such as tethering. Due to that, technical obstacles such as locked bootloaders and restricted access to root permissions have commonly been introduced in many devices. For example, in late December 2011, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, Inc. began pushing automatic, over-the-air firmware updates, 1.4.1 to Nook Tablets and 6.2.1 to Kindle Fires, that removed one method to gain root access to the devices. The Nook Tablet 1.4.1 update also removed users' ability to sideloadapps from sources other than the official Barnes & Noble app store (without modding).[18][19]

However, as community-developed software began to grow popular in the late 2009 to early 2010,[20][21] and following a statement by the Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress (US) allowing the use of "jailbroken" mobile devices,[22] manufacturers and carriers have softened their position regarding CyanogenMod and other unofficial firmware distributions. Some manufacturers, including HTC,[23] Samsung,[24] Motorola[25] and Sony Mobile Communications,[26] even actively provide support and encourage development.

In 2011, the need to circumvent hardware restrictions to install unofficial firmware lessened as an increasing number of devices shipped with unlocked or unlockable bootloaders, similar to the Nexus series of phones. Device manufacturer HTC has announced that it would support aftermarket software developers by making the bootloaders of all new devices unlockable.[17] However, carriers, such as Verizon Wireless and more recently AT&T, have continuously blocked OEMs, such as HTC and Motorola, from releasing retail devices with unlocked bootloaders, opting instead for "developer edition" devices that are only sold unsubsidized and off-contract. These are similar in practice to Nexus devices, but for apremium and with no contract discounts.

In 2014, Samsung released a security service called Knox, which is a tool that prevents all modifying of system and boot files, and any attempts set an eFuse to 0x1, permanently voiding the warranty.[27]

Legality
International treaties have influenced the development of laws affecting rooting. The 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty requires nations party to the treaties to enact laws against DRM circumvention. The American implementation is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which includes a process for establishing exemptions for non-copyright-infringing purposes such as rooting. The 2001 European Copyright Directive implemented the treaty in Europe, requiring member states of theEuropean Union to implement legal protections for technological protection measures. The Copyright Directive includes exceptions to allow breaking those measures for non-copyright-infringing purposes, such as to run alternative software,[28] but member states vary on the implementation of the directive.​
 
Lastly

http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/2...u-should-or-shouldnt-root-your-android-device

The advantages of rooting
Gaining root access on Android is akin to running Windows as an administrator. You have full access to the system directory and can make changes to the way the OS operates. As part of rooting, you install usage manager (SuperSU is the main one right now). These tools are basically the gatekeeper of root access on your phone. When an app requests root, you have to approve it using the root manager.

So what can you do with root specifically? Let’s say there’s a system app that you really don’t like seeing, but it can’t be disabled through the standard method. With root you can run an app like Titanium Backup to delete or permanently hide the app. Titanium can also be used to manually back up all the data for an app or game so you can restore it to another phone. Want to remotely access and control your phone? That’s another thing you need root to do. Ad-blocking software on Android also needs root access, as it modifies the Android hosts file to block known ad servers. Then there’s the multi-headed beast known as the Xposed Framework. Root access is needed to deploy Xposed in the system, but from that point forward Xposed doesn’t need to ask for root to do things like modify the UI and add new system-level features. It took a little time to get Xposed working on Lollipop, but the developer has finally produced some mostly stable builds.

The risks of rooting
Rooting your phone or tablet gives you complete control over the system, and that power can be misused if you’re not careful. Android is designed in such a way that it’s hard to break things with a limited user profile. A superuser, however, can really trash things by installing the wrong app or making changes to system files. The security model of Android is also compromised to a certain degree, as root apps have much more access to your system. Again, you need to be careful what you install.

Root methods are sometimes messy and dangerous in their own right. You might brick your device simply trying to root it, and you’ve probably (technically) voided your warranty doing so. Depending on the company, you might still be able to get a device repaired if you damage it attempting a root, but that’s not a guarantee.

As of Android 5.0 Lollipop, Nexus device system updates will only work on completely stock unrooted devices. This is because of a change to the way Android processes the OTA file. Updates now patch the entire system directory as a single blob, so any changes or extra files (i.e. root) will throw off the verification and the update will abort.

On other phones and tablets, virtually every OTA update you get will wipe out root and block the method from working again. If having root access is really important to you, you might be left waiting on older buggy software while you beg for a new root method or a modded OS update.

Why is rooting so much harder than it used to be?
If you’ve been using Android for a while, you’ve probably noticed gaining root access on most devices is much harder than it once was. There were exploits years back that could root almost any Android device in a few minutes, but that’s much less common now. The last essentially universal exploit was Towelroot in mid-2014, but Google patched that rather quickly.

The reason these exploits are patched so quickly now is that having active exploits on your system is actually a bad thing for most users. These are security holes that can be utilized by malware to take over a device remotely and steal data. Google and the device makers are being responsible when they shut down root methods after they are disclosed.

Android is more secure, and it takes more work to break that security in a way that can grant root access. As a result of this cat-and-mouse game, root exploits are often pretty involved. You might have to push files to your device over USB, enter terminal commands, and flash modified files.

The effort needed to find, test, and develop exploits of this nature is a big part of the reason some popular devices (like the Galaxy S6, for example) don’t even have root right now. That’s not to say there aren’t exploits in these devices, but they’re far too valuable to be given away freely to the community. If you peruse XDA, you might come across one of the many root bounty threads where users pledge thousands of dollars to anyone who can offer a working root method for a phone. This works sometimes, but it’s notoriously hard to collect on these bounties and a few thousand dollars isn’t actually terribly much for a solid exploit.

Anyone who does security testing and research on Android will tell you there’s real demand for non-public exploits among security and forensics firms. A modder could make several times the theoretical value of a root bounty on XDA by selling an exploit to one of these companies. A universal exploit like we had back in the day could be worth tens of thousands easily. Most people just won’t give that away for a pittance.

​
 
Excellent and very comprehensive replies there, @Seraph08! :)

I'd also add, that there are really relatively few folks that root in comparison to the folks that don't. So our numbers probably don't represent a large target market for the carriers and manufacturers to do anything that would / could make a profit for them vs. the risk / reward of supporting folks that end-up with unusable devices as a result of their rooting efforts.

I also (still) think that a large majority of folks that root are really putting themselves at risk not for security-related issues, but from lost functionality (i.e., soft-bricks, bootlooping, hard-bricks, lost files, etc...) because they don't truly know the risks or consequences of their rooting actions.

That devices are locked-down and secured also helps the carriers and manufacturers from having to support folks that have these type of issues that are really the responsibility of the owner/user and not the carrier or manufacturer--that's a big cost incentive in an of itself.

Finally, big companies like Samsung and Google also want their devices to be used/consumed by corporations and having a very high level of security is understandably at the top of their list (i.e., their exposure is not limited to a single individual).

:)
 
bfldworker said:
have to thank the "hacker" community
Click to expand...

The definition of a "hacker" as said by Merriam Webster.

1. an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer
2. a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system

white_hat1_400x400.png


Android developers are without a doubt some of the best hackers I've had the pleasure to do work with. ​
 
OK, I didn't expect that response. But it is good to know. I understand wanting to protect the product they sell. But for frak sake, don't make rooting impossible, or near impossible.
 
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bfldworker said:
I actually blame AT&T. They have been more anti open source, among other things, then any other carrier. T-Mobile has been very Open Source friendly. Verizon and Sprint fall in the middle.
Click to expand...
Verizon locks almost every bootloader on every phone....how is that open source friendly? Sprint pretty much keeps the phones stock as they come along with T-Mobile. As a general rule of thumb the bigger the company the more control they want over everything. That's how they got to be so big in the first place. The smaller the company the more they are willing to compromise. Also Google isn't overly fond of rooting either because it can stop one of their main cash flows. Advertisements. If you are not using Google products or apps you are really no use to google no matter if you have an android phone or not.
 
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timmyh318 said:
Verizon locks almost every bootloader on every phone....how is that open source friendly? Sprint pretty much keeps the phones stock as they come along with T-Mobile. As a general rule of thumb the bigger the company the more control they want over everything. That's how they got to be so big in the first place. The smaller the company the more they are willing to compromise. Also Google isn't overly fond of rooting either because it can stop one of their main cash flows. Advertisements. If you are not using Google products or apps you are really no use to google no matter if you have an android phone or not.
Click to expand...


I never said VZW was open source friendly. I said they fall in the middle. I find rooting their phones and unlocking the bootloaders on VZW labled phones difficult but not impossible.
 
bfldworker said:
You would figure that these companies, especially companies that make incredibly popular phones like LG, Samsung, Motorola, HTC and etc that also have to thank the "hacker" community for a large part of their income would supply rooting methods for their phones. With of course the requisite warnings about what could happen if they screwed it up.
Click to expand...

Fwiw, HTC, Sony & Motorola technically do provide ways to root their devices -

http://www.htcdev.com/
https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bootloader/unlock-your-device-a
http://developer.sonymobile.com/unlockbootloader/unlock-yourboot-loader/

And LG allow certain variants of the G4 to be unlocked.

A lot of the time, the finger of blame should be pointed at the network, not the manufacturer. Also, networks over here (the UK) are much less against it than the likes of Verizon, AT&T etc.
 
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