Android 7.0 Smartphones To Have Strictly Enforced Verified Boot With Forward Error Correction

[Lucian Armasu]

The Android team detailed how a new security feature (strictly enforced verified boot with forward error correction) will protect Android devices from boot-level malware.

Android 7.0 Smartphones To Have Strictly Enforced Verified Boot With Forward Error Correction : Read more

 

[epdm2be]

As I predicted long ago. Over time Android will be as closed as every other smartphone or other OS. With all the loss of freedom that we took for granted now.

 

[ddpruitt]

As I predicted long ago. Over time Android will be as closed as every other smartphone or other OS. With all the loss of freedom that we took for granted now.

How exactly is this closing the system? All they're doing is verifying that the system partition contains what it the manufacturer put on there and hasn't been changed by something like a rootkit. Rooting a device requires unlocking the bootloader anyway, which usually wipes the device and disables the checks.

 

[randomizer]

As I predicted long ago. Over time Android will be as closed as every other smartphone or other OS. With all the loss of freedom that we took for granted now.

It's quasi-proprietary so of course it's going to be closed up.

 

[house70]

Wow. Two misinformed comments already. Did you guys even know how the root is maintained? Or, even better, did you even read the part of the article where it explains how root will be achieved, even with these checks in place?

The only thing this will block will be un-authorized rooting processes that use exploits to achieve root, possibly without even the owner's consent. Only via consent (a.k.a. unlocking bootloader) rooting will be maintained. A good step forward, IMO. Remember the websites that promised root just by clicking on a link? Gone. And that's a good thing. If you want to root your phone (I use to do that all the time, but nowadays, with the plethora of customizations that Android offers, not needed anymore), you will still be able to do it, but you really have to be willing to do it and know what you're doing. Amateurs will be deterred, and that's another good thing.

 

[tsnor]

Can you say a bit more about how forward error correction is used? (Is this when a cache line is fetched the hardware can determine if there is a single bit error and correct it, but this could also be when a program is read into memory it is scanned to see if the disk copy is corrupt, and then repaired with the FEC code)

 

[house70]

As I predicted long ago. Over time Android will be as closed as every other smartphone or other OS. With all the loss of freedom that we took for granted now.

With all the options to customize your phone, launchers, widgets, animations, homescreens, app drawers, default apps for various functions, etc. available, I very much doubt that ALL this will be made unavailable to public. How can you tell an Android from an iPhone? Just by looking at the home screen and realizing that iPhones look all the same, whereas Android devices are individually customized. If you look under the skin you'll see that you can pretty much select what apps should be launched by default for various functions. These will never be eliminated by Google. I don't see any loss here.

 

[wifiburger]

meh, makes no difference to me, the quality of android os from factory is really good lately ,
can't say much about custom mods, I tried alot of them and they lack polish / always broken,