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Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

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Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#111

Post by gruez »

ACCount36 wrote: post #92
ranger207 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is impossible to protect data on rooted phones What makes securing rooted phones different from securing rooted PCs?

Phones are portable, and thus more likely to suffer from a physical attack. But that's about it. It is, and always was a flimsy excuse to the strip user of control over his own device. "Secure Boot" isn't actually there to protect the device from an attacker. It's there to "protect" the device from its own user. It's used to "secure" DRM schemes and App Store revenue streams.

>"Secure Boot" isn't actually there to protect the device from an attacker. It's there to "protect" the device from its own user. It's used to "secure" DRM schemes and App Store revenue streams.

1. Basically all the serious DRMs (eg. widevine L1) rely on the content being encrypted all the way to the display itself. The OS, secure boot or not, never sees the content in cleartext, because decryption happens in a secure enclave and is immediately encrypted to the display using HDCP.

2. The "app store revenue stream" excuse doesn't really make sense, because you can easily install third party apps on Android, even though nearly all phones have locked bootloaders.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#112

Post by microtonal »

aeblyve wrote: post #23

The writing's been on the wall for custom ROMs in general for a while, so I've been starting to think about a mobile phone vendor I could actually have a decent business relationship with. I.e. use their stock ROM and be fairly happy with it. Any opinions? Samsung was a candidate for their somewhat unified ecosystem. Maybe even apple.

Samsung carries a lot of advertising crap, tracking, etc. Pretty much every phones is going to be worse than Pixel in that respect, since you get Google's tracking + whatever pile of crap the vendor added (which in the end they all seem to do).

So it's basically:

Pixel with GrapheneOS > iPhone >> Google Pixel with PixelOS

I wouldn't recommend anything else. Theoretically Fairphone + e/OS may have been an option, but the security is crap.

I guess there is Sony, you could even install Sailfish OS, no experience though.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#113

Post by seanw444 »

ranger207 wrote: post #86
nunez wrote: post #79

As someone who roots single-purpose Android devices, this is one of those things that sucks big-time but makes total sense. The only reason one would unlock a bootloader is to root the system partition. It is impossible to protect data on rooted phones and makes data exfiltration attacks significantly easier to do. This is a huge problem for banking and music apps that absolutely rely on this capability. Samsung is,…

> It is impossible to protect data on rooted phones What makes securing rooted phones different from securing rooted PCs?

Nothing. They just perceive the users as more stupid and incapable of handling their personal property properly.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#114

Post by dawnerd »

ranger207 wrote: post #86
nunez wrote: post #79

As someone who roots single-purpose Android devices, this is one of those things that sucks big-time but makes total sense. The only reason one would unlock a bootloader is to root the system partition. It is impossible to protect data on rooted phones and makes data exfiltration attacks significantly easier to do. This is a huge problem for banking and music apps that absolutely rely on this capability. Samsung is,…

> It is impossible to protect data on rooted phones What makes securing rooted phones different from securing rooted PCs?

I don’t get this too. Laptops are just as portable but don’t have this limitation (yet). This argument that it’s to protect banking and music apps is silly, those products work fine on pcs while maintaining security.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#115

Post by Ambroos »

piperswe wrote: post #102
Ambroos wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still really like Sony phones. Excellent hardware. They have no online services they are trying to push, they just want you to buy their phones. As a result, the stock software is very clean Google Android without much extra. But they're not available in every region, and quite expensive. Used to have very short software support but now they do 4 major Android version updates / 6 years of security updates. You get…

Though for Americans, Sony sadly doesn't release their phones in the USA anymore

The last few years it's been tougher and tougher to get them. Even in Europe you can now only buy them directly from Sony, and Amazon in a few countries. Sony is not selling them via any other retailers or operators at all from this year onwards.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#116

Post by jjani »

dotancohen wrote: post #74
jjani wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which of their phones have all of these?

Other than the side mounted fingerprint meter, I replaced my Note 10 Lite with another Note 10 Lite because it had all the other features.

Yup, and it was released 6 years ago and is no longer getting security updates.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#117

Post by jjani »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #75
jjani wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which of their phones have all of these?

https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a06-13265.php This year, no NFC. https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a15-12637.php Last year, but they removed 3.5mm this year That I know, in Latin America, they don't have all that anymore. And there is only one left with 3.5mm.

That's what I expected, especially the 3.5 mention made me suspicious.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#118

Post by Sunspark »

sn0n wrote: post #4

dont worry, samsung knows only 300 people will actually care. As for me, I already swore off Samdung for their whole Samsung account bs and apps they bundle and won't let me remove (or disable).

Some of the Samsung apps are better than alternatives. Google is not the best at everything.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#119

Post by tracker1 »

rickdeckard wrote: post #101
293984j29384 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is first and foremost an advertising company. They're going to do whatever makes them the most profit. It always had razor wire fences unfortunately.

I'd argue that they are not merely an advertising company, they are an "attention facilitating company", taking and curating attention of large groups of users and making it systematically available to other parties, acting as middleman. You know, like Apple... > [A] is first and foremost a [B] company. They're going to do whatever makes them the most profit. This is the definition of any commercial business.

I have to disagree... while most "corporations" are chartered in such a way that shareholder value is maximized, you can put other provisions and leadership goals into a corporate charter, and privately owned businesses can have much more leeway in terms of structure and goals.

Many NPOs are corporations/companies legally, but their founding structure isn't to maximize shareholder profits/value. Beyond this, most businesses have two operating models, one is for maximum stock price, which increases the value, but that remains static without trade and/or to provide dividends from profits, which tends to keep stock values more level. With the latter, a business might not be chasing a 20% growth every year, but a healthy margin and predictable dividends to shareholders.

IANAL, this is not legal advice... but if you start a company, and want to emphasize values beyond pure growth/value, then what I would do is definitely talk to a good corporate attorney and tune the founding charter documents to that effect.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#120

Post by Zak »

worldsavior wrote: post #64
Zak wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few, and far fewer than in the early days of Android. It's odd that a company Samsung's size would care about this.

No I'm talking about what you said about someone not buying their phone because of bootloader locking. Majority of the majority don't care about the bootloader, so is Samsung.

My point isn't that it will cost them sales in an amount they care about.

My point is that someone at Samsung made an active choice to remove unlocking, presumably thinking that choice would bring some benefit to Samsung's business. I'm curious as to what they believe that benefit to be.

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