Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#291

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:46 AM UTC

futune wrote: post #68

tensegrist wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iirc grapheneos can't be rooted unless you do your own build

That's the bizarre thing about this hn discussion... A lot of people referencing rooted phones, but to the best of my knowledge GrapheneOS is almost never rooted?

There's only root if people make a userdebug build with user-accessible root or make a derivative of GrapheneOS with major modifications. The production builds don't have uncontained root since it would greatly roll back the security model. Only a few core processes run as a limited subset of root.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#292

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:47 AM UTC

hd4 wrote: post #13

did you re-lock the bootloader?

It's because PayPal shipped an update with incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure app spawning. It can be worked around with the per-app secure app spawning toggle until they fix it.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#293

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:47 AM UTC

gib444 wrote: post #5

With or without Google Play Services running?

It's because PayPal shipped an update with incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure app spawning. It can be worked around with the per-app secure app spawning toggle until they fix it.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#294

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:48 AM UTC

hkt wrote: post #225

This happened to me with Starling Bank's app years ago. I have since conceded defeat. What is pernicious is how some of these services are unusable without an app, while also bossing the user around about what operating system they can use. Starling left me without any access to any of my bank accounts at the time (2022 or so) so now I use very old school online banking now to avoid this situation ever occurring agai…

PayPal still works on GrapheneOS.

It's because PayPal shipped an update with incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure app spawning. It can be worked around with the per-app secure app spawning toggle until they fix it.

Starling Bank app still works on GrapheneOS too. See here:

https://github.com/PrivSec-dev/banking-apps-compat-report/is...

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#295

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:48 AM UTC

12ahs71 wrote: post #141

[flagged]

It's because PayPal shipped an update with incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure app spawning. It can be worked around with the per-app secure app spawning toggle until they fix it.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#296

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:48 AM UTC

7r33 wrote: post #42

P10F, 2026081301, Aurora Store, secondary profile, flawless. Try harder.

It's because PayPal shipped an update with incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure app spawning. It can be worked around with the per-app secure app spawning toggle until they fix it.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#297

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:49 AM UTC

1970-01-01 wrote: post #162

Funny how PayPal don't trust you to safely handle root but they will trust you to pay thousands in loans, credit, etc. What a joke.

PayPal still works on GrapheneOS.

It's because PayPal shipped an update with incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure app spawning. It can be worked around with the per-app secure app spawning toggle until they fix it.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#298

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:50 AM UTC

ethagnawl wrote: post #154

Does the website still work?

Yes, but PayPal's app still works on GrapheneOS too.

It's because PayPal shipped an update with incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure app spawning. It can be worked around with the per-app secure app spawning toggle until they fix it.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#299

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:51 AM UTC

bookofjoe wrote: post #143

I would bet that fewer than 1/1,000 non-HN users have ANY clue what it means to root a device. I sure don't!

GrapheneOS doesn't involve rooting a device. It's a privacy and security focused OS for hardware with official support for using another OS.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#300

Post by grapheneos » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 3:55 AM UTC

axegon_ wrote: post #17

This is arguably the most irritating thing with just about every largecorp developer: "os that hasn't been updated in 6 years? Sure boss!". Os that is built specifically around security and privacy with daily updates: "No, you can't do that". Annoying - yes. Safe way to make sure I will stop being your customer - also YES!

PayPal app still works on GrapheneOS.

It's because PayPal shipped an update with incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure app spawning. It can be worked around with the per-app secure app spawning toggle until they fix it.

The first thing to try when an app doesn't work is trying the per-app exploit protection compatibility mode. That sets all the per-app exploit protection toggles to the compatibility mode. If that works which is likely the problem, it can be narrowed down.

Nearly all Android apps are compatible with GrapheneOS. The exception are around 10% of banking and government apps which use the Play Integrity API to ban using a non-Google-approved device or OS. That's visible to users on GrapheneOS via a Play Integrity API usage notification. After the first use by an app, GrapheneOS provides a menu for blocking using the Play Integrity API which sometimes gets apps working because many don't enforce it working. It's not fully reliable and can have downtime so apps often don't enforce providing a result.