The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app • Hacker News Board

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#301

Post by Ritewut » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:33 PM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #113

tux3 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a trend of online banks forcing the use of an app. I can't login to one of my banks' website since last year without using a QR code from their app. Of course they slathered the app with tracking, 'security', and analytics SDKs, so rooted devices are rejected. I had no way to log into this bank account after they made that change, which is simply wonderful. Anyways, they're not yet at the point where they've…

This trend makes me want to find a small town credit union. I chose my current bank because it was one of the few that had proper token based access for 3rd party integration. An overwhelming majority of banks were relying on a 3rd party holding your actual username/password and saying "trust me bro". I wasn't comfortable with that.

I use a small town credit union and its great.

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#302

Post by rixthefox » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:33 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #227

te7447 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That has been the model since day one, since you are using spectrum that, because the end users are not licensed, requires it. Radios in 100% of commercially available phones are locked to prevent user tampering. Why, then, can users be root on PCs that have wifi cards, SDRs or cellular radios?

Wifi? Because it is part 15. That spectrum is less strict. SDRs? Because they are not certified transmitters. They are test RF gear, or a component of a transmitter, not an end-user product. Cellular radios in a PC? You don't get root on those. Same situation as they are in a cell phone: They are licensed-band transmitters, and they are required to be tamper proof to protect the licensee.

Amateur Radio has entered the chat.....

Even as a licensed ham it's getting increasingly difficult to even get hardware that allows utilization of frequencies I'm duly licensed to transmit on in the 2.4 GHz band. Short of building and designing your own transmitters it's become impossible to repurpose hardware like it was before. Our club has aging M2 Rockets from Unifi that were modified for this use that are now decaying and dying. It's unfortunate too because once these stop working that's it. A few club members have been championing GLiNET but same problems. They are relying on older models which weren't as locked down and already show signs of suffering the same fate as the Rockets.

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#303

Post by miloignis » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:33 PM UTC

Helmut10001 wrote: post #106

Fiveplus wrote: post #82

So, if you cannot cryptographically prove to a remote server that your device is running essentially unmodified, vendor-signed software, you are locked out of the economy? The irrefutable part here is that the security model works. Locking down the bootloader and enforcing TEE signatures does stop malware. But it also kills user agency. We are moving to a model where the user is considered the adversary on their own…

As I mentioned in another post: By 2026, you'll need two phones. My current setup: 1) An unmodified iPhone SE (2022 model) with OS support until 2032. This runs all my authentication, banking, health, etc. It is in airplane mode 99% of the time unless I need it. 2) The second is a Pixel 9a with Graphene OS for daily use, routing and internet access. This is expensive, but I found it to be the only viable solution to…

I'm also a big GrapheneOS user, but I'm lucky enough that my banking and authentication apps run fine on GrapheneOS, so no need for a second phone.

If they stopped, I think I would seriously consider swapping banks and whatever else instead of using a different OS.

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#304

Post by Ritewut » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:34 PM UTC

Just let me pair my Yubikey to my bank and use my Yubikey if I need my banking app.

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#305

Post by Spooky23 » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:36 PM UTC

derefr wrote: post #187

zozbot234 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a sensible move. Plus you can just keep your "authentication" phone at home instead of having it on you when you're out for no good reason.

Not if you want to use tap-to-pay systems.

If you have a lot of resources to protect against or known risk, you segment.

For example, do most daily transactions at one bank, and keep the rest at another.

This happens a lot in companies and government - you outsource payable operations to different division of government or a contractor. Hire one to do custody of money, another to process disbursements.

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#306

Post by mschild » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:40 PM UTC

kelvinjps10 wrote: post #260

Helmut10001 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I mentioned in another post: By 2026, you'll need two phones. My current setup: 1) An unmodified iPhone SE (2022 model) with OS support until 2032. This runs all my authentication, banking, health, etc. It is in airplane mode 99% of the time unless I need it. 2) The second is a Pixel 9a with Graphene OS for daily use, routing and internet access. This is expensive, but I found it to be the only viable solution to…

At that point why not just use the bank's website?

Because that needs 2FA to login and guess what the only way to get the code is.

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#307

Post by betaby » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:41 PM UTC

Helmut10001 wrote: post #106

Fiveplus wrote: post #82

So, if you cannot cryptographically prove to a remote server that your device is running essentially unmodified, vendor-signed software, you are locked out of the economy? The irrefutable part here is that the security model works. Locking down the bootloader and enforcing TEE signatures does stop malware. But it also kills user agency. We are moving to a model where the user is considered the adversary on their own…

As I mentioned in another post: By 2026, you'll need two phones. My current setup: 1) An unmodified iPhone SE (2022 model) with OS support until 2032. This runs all my authentication, banking, health, etc. It is in airplane mode 99% of the time unless I need it. 2) The second is a Pixel 9a with Graphene OS for daily use, routing and internet access. This is expensive, but I found it to be the only viable solution to…

Is camera quality the same on rooted and locked Pixel? For example rooted Sony phones have terrible photo / video quality.

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#308

Post by schmuckonwheels » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:41 PM UTC

squibonpig wrote: post #297

schmuckonwheels wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you guys wear cargo pants to carry all these extra devices or are belt clips coming back into style? If I could get away with carrying a tiny device again instead of lugging around a brick I would, but the world has made it as inconvenient as possible not to. A BlackBerry from 15 years ago weighed just over 100g and did 80% of what your modern-day pocket computer can.

I mean, did it do 80% of the stuff? Devices have changed a lot.

It did, and some of the things it was more effective at.

I remember BlackBerry OS 4.x (?) had a built-in password manager app and this was in the mid-2000s. By comparison this was added to iOS 18 in 2024.

What it wasn't good at was things like games and toxic consumer rich media bullshit. The industry saw dollar signs with iOS and Android and never wrote apps for the ecosystem.

Remember the days when Instagram was iOS-only?

But here we are, resigned to typing on glass for the rest of our lives because some hippie burnout thought it was a good idea.

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#309

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:43 PM UTC

The biggest "evil" that has been committed (and is still being committed) against computing has been normalizing this idea of not having root access to a device you supposedly own. That having root access to your computer, and therefore being the ultimate authority over what gets run on it, is bad or risky or dangerous. That "sideloading" is weird and needs a separate name, and is not the normal case of simply loading and running software on your own computer.

Now, we're locking people out of society for having the audacity of wanting to decide what gets run and not run on their computers?

Re: The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app

#310

Post by StrLght » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 7:45 PM UTC

mike_hearn wrote: post #172

dathinab wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> does stop malware. unrelated to phones a lot of (more professional) malware has moved to not persist itself in root space (or at all) as to not leaf traces (instead it will just rely on being able to regain root access as needed every time you reboot with all the juicy parts being in memory only (as in how often do you even roboot your phone)) I think (but am not fully sure) this also applies to phone malware. I.e.…

Yes that's what they are doing. Phones known to have live root exploits are detected and banned.

Who exactly are "they" in this context? Shared documents don't mention anything like that.