Let’s be real here. Folks running Linux as thier desktop have a high chance of knowing what they are actually doing. Folks with rooted android phones have a high chance of having watched a 12 year old tell them how to root thier phone on TicTok. Which of these groups is participating in the more risky activity?
I never heard of someone rooting their phone due to a 12 year old on tiktok telling them to
I’m not saying that they did it because a TikTok told them too, I’m saying its because that’s how a lot of the younger generation happens to search.
Just one example:
https://www.businessinsider.com/nearly-half-genz-use-tiktok-instagram-over-google-search-2022-7
I for one, would NOT trust some rando 30 second clickbait video telling me how to root my phone, but you can sure as shit bet that a ton of school aged children are doing that to play some cracked APK they got from a sketchy website because their parents wouldn’t buy them a 99c game.
Those same kids have bank and google pay apps setup on their phone so they can make purchases when they are out and about. I see kids using their phone for vending machine purchases ALL THE TIME.
Edit: Since this is a meme community, little bit of rage bait for ya: All the TikTokers coming out with the downvotes :)
No offense but you sound SO old lol. Tiktok isn’t just full of 12 year old’s and hasn’t been since, well, probably since covid started. With what a shit show standard search engines are these days I don’t blame them for searching what they know. There’s plenty of good info on tiktok that’s being presented by people that know their craft. The short format is nice too because it keeps them from telling their whole life story before they show me what I need to know.
The fact that you’re just basing your whole opinion here on an article kinda says it all really. I would have hoped my generation would outgrow this boomer bullshit but here we are.
Y’all are so worried about using things like Google pay but it’s going to become a standard whether you like it or not. It’s just another way to pay for shit and banks reimburse scammy bullshit just like they do if your card info gets stolen.
To be fair, I jailbroke my iPhone 3GS when I was 13 because I saw someone do it on YouTube.
Can’t tell if this is serious question or not, but for the end user. Lemmy is a bit of a technical microcosm, so while we might not want protection from ourselves, the MAJORITY of people out there are not technically savvy. So while not everyone has a linux workstation (lets assume 2-3% based on some reporting) Android has an approximate 70% worldwide market share. So that means the VAST majority of people running Android probably can’t be trusted to plug in a toaster correctly. This is the same reason there are guiderails on roads with steep embankments.
This is the real problem.
Far too many people with rooted phones having no business with a rooted phone, installing whatever from wherever with no regard to the security implications.
At least people with root on a Linux system, by default, are going to be more knowledgeable in that regard.
maybe it’s just me, but isn’t it quite hard (at least for people not confident doing technical stuff) to root a phone?
like a decade ago the bootloader may have been unlocked by default and for many phones there were exploits so that they could be rooted with an app, but nowadays you would have to:
- unlock the bootloader by installing ADB and fastboot drivers, booting into download mode and run terminal commands that would reset your phone in the process; and for some phones, you would also need to shorten a test point and for quite a few of them nowadays, unlocking the bootloader is impossible
- boot into download mode and flash a custom recovery with fastboot or potentially with Odin or some other proprietary software (or sometimes you can root from download mode)
- for some newer (including Samsung) phones, you also need to disable dm-verity otherwise your phone wouldn’t be able to boot into Android
- boot into recovery mode and finally flash (probably Magisk) an image to root the system
I guess there are usually detailed instructions for this, but I doubt that most people rooting their phones now would be non-techie people who are just watching generic online tutorials. they would most likely stumble upon XDA or other forums that would have proper instructions. and even then, they are not very beginners friendly as they aren’t usually supposed to be followed by people with little to no experience with using the command-line, drivers, how Android phones work internally, etc.
Making my point for me. Those short form videos have very little chance of being right or accurate. They may have you going to some sketchy link and download and app that is supposed to do it for you etc etc.
My point is the people at risk don’t know they are participating in a risky activity. (not if they successfully rooted their phone or not).
ah, okay, that’s fair. in terms of short-form social media that tries to engage you, I’d expect little warning and for children especially to take more risks when encountering this type of content.
Folks with rooted android phones have a high chance of having watched a 12 year old tell them how to root their phone on TicTok.
I was more focused on this, though, because this sentence implied that you could successfully root your phone with short-form, likely phone-generic tutorials when the process nowadays is much more difficult and technical
The last time I rooted my phone, I used a sketchy app I downloaded from megaupload (man, I’m getting old) that may or may not have given that phone superherpes. You are not wrong.
see my reply to @pacoboyd@lemm.ee
Rooted mobile devices are a reasonable signal they been have hacked and security features might be disabled or work as expected.
It just banks, a lot of corporate security polices don’t allow rooted devices, as they could bypass mobile device management policies for devices owned by the company.
With laptops it’s a different story. Whether users have Mac, Linux or Windows, there’s a reasonable chance they have admin access too, so checking for root access is not such a useful signal there.
Rooted mobile devices are a reasonable signal they been have hacked and security features might be disabled or work as expected.
Rooted mobile devices are a reasonable signal that someone wants to actually own what they buy, and corporations want to make sure as few people think that as possible.
Windows/Macos/Linux are designed around the fact that the person managing the device has root access, Android and iOS are designed around noone having root access.
Sure it’s fine to mess around with rooted phone and look what’s inside, but essentially for your daily operations having rooted phone is unnecessary security risk.
Android and iOS are designed around noone having root access.
Yes and I consider that to mean I don’t own the device. And there are plenty of Android forks specifically designed around you having root access.
So just warn the user that it’s their own responsibility and all claims are waived, instead of just saying “no” ?
There is parallel with masking. The bank values the safety of the whole rather than the freedom to root for an individual. You stand to lose only your own bank balance. The bank stands to lose the funds of every rooted phone that contains a banking app exploit targeting them.
I mean, they get that anyway with malware and security exploits. Except that rooted phones usually have a root manager, which asks for permission if an app wants to do more. And i don’t think the root user listening into the app/their own account should be a problem; because in this case the problem is with the banks’ security practice.
Well, at least my bank doesn’t care about root or safety net.
Your bank most likely has an app on mobile. If you have Root and Xposed you can do crazy things to that app (and your phone). You don’t use an app on a PC, you use their website.
Yeah, but that’s on you.
It’s not like you can use a hacked app to give you free money, unless they’re doing something completely absurd like relying on client side security.
It’s not to stop you from abusing their systems but to stop scam victims from being screwed
One easy example is that you can get around the “no screenshots” lock many bank apps use with root, allowing you to potentially expose security vital information to people.
Should those of us who know what we’re doing be allowed? Maybe.
But it’s there to protect the old people who will run the .exe that’s designed to root their phone and then let them hand over data that would otherwise be locked down so that doesn’t happen just because someone called them and said they’re from the bank.
One easy example is that you can get around the “no screenshots” lock many bank apps use with root, allowing you to potentially expose security vital information to people.
Nothing stops a scammer from telling someone to open their bank account, press prntscr on their keyboard, and paste it into their site. You don’t see banks freaking out about that…
because you use the root account on linux occasionally to do one thing but when you’ve got a rooted phone everything is done with the root account
It’s the banking equivalent of turning your device off for aircraft take off and landing.
If you keep doing stupid shit for long enough you can turn it into a religion. Huge profits will follow. It’s also why the unexamined life is no life at all.
