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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday September 06 2017, @02:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the dunk-it-in-milk dept.

Google is using the boiling frog method to exclude power users and custom ROMS from android.

A new feature in Android 8.0 Oreo, called "Rollback Protection" and included in the "Verified Boot" changes, will prevent a device from booting should it be rolled back to an earlier firmware. The detailed information is here.

As it rejects an image if its "rollback index" is inferior than the one in "tamper evident storage", any attempts to install a previous version of the official, signed ROM will make the device unbootable. Much like iOS (without the rollback grace period) or the extinct Lumias. It is explained in the recommended boot workflow and notes below, together with some other "smart" ideas.

Now, this might seem like a good idea at first, but let's just just imagine this on a PC. It would mean no easy roll back from windows 10 to 7 after a forced installation, and doing that or installing linux would mean a unreasonably complex bootloader unlocking, with all your data wiped. Add safetynet to the mix, and you would also be blocked from watching netflix or accessing your banking sites if you dared to install linux or rollback windows.

To add insult to injury, unlocked devices will stop booting for at least 10 seconds to show some paternalist message on how unlocking is bad for your health - "If the device has a screen and buttons (for example if it's a phone) the warning is to be shown for at least 10 seconds before the boot process continues."

Now, and knowing that most if not all android bootloaders have vulnerabilities/backdoors, how can this be defended, even with the "security/think of the children" approach? This has no advantages other than making it hard for users to install ROMs or to revert to a previous official ROM to restore missing functionality.


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  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday September 06 2017, @03:25PM (1 child)

    by Pino P (4721) on Wednesday September 06 2017, @03:25PM (#564162) Journal

    I think the purported idea is that when the user buys a used Android device and performs a factory reset, the device is actually reset. Otherwise, the previous owner could put in a fake reset routine that leaves spyware chosen by the previous owner installed on the device. The peace of mind associated with "reset means reset" benefits Android device owners.

    The anti-downgrade is to appease major movie and television distributors so that they don't withdraw works that they control from Google Play. This benefits Android device owners through not having to additionally buy and carry an iPod touch on which to buy or rent movies on iTunes Store.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 06 2017, @03:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 06 2017, @03:55PM (#564173)

    ... in a world of consumers.

    Sit quietly, and watch another miniseries, mkay?