After adventuring into the meanders of the jailbreak of an Ipod Touch at the age of 11, our young devoted find himself excited by this new challenge : the one offered by the purchase of his first smartphone at his 15 years old. Quickly, he will realized all the limitations of its Samsung Galaxy S3.

His curiosity, combined with that of one of his school mate, they went into the research of accessing the root of this device, calling all their interest.

The installation of Odin (an open kernel), after the injection of ClockWorkMod (a customized recovery), moments later, our duo have their slightly different phone. Quickly following with the device rooting operation and the CyanogenMod discovery as well as Xposed who open a world of possibility.

Introduction

The project

To root a smartphone means to really take possession of it. To buy a smartphone only mean hardware owning, GAFAM got full power on the software, hand in hand with manufacturers and cell phone network provider etc...

The majority of this product buyers are using this tool has it is served, key in hand, with a lot of abuse and unspoken ; while the insider who care about his right to property and privacy will instinctly slide to the roots of what has become an extension of ourselves.

My work

Everything start with the desire to enjoy, to explore, to discover the jailbreak of an Ipod Touchat the age of 11, I start at 15 years old the root of the little green man, also named Android, on my first smartphone (a Samsung Galaxy S3).

Years continued with the root of all my following devices (Samsung Galaxy Note 3, few Redmi Note Pro ...), then I came with a great solution according with my values via a Google Pixel 7 (yeah, I am talking about the evil Google) that I de-google-ise thanks to the custom OS GrapheneOS.

Troughout those experiences, which have not been without a few drops of sweat and few bricks and bootloops, I have learned how the hardware and the software of a smartphone operate and interact. I also understand the deep desire for power and control of the various actors in this sector, along with solutions for defending against this plague.

Skills

Training course and technological watch
  • Self-thaught training discovery, then mastering
  • Regular technological watch to learn and understand how the current and future systems work
  • Learning how to follow a global procedure, then how to master and debug its specific application
Engineering
  • Fundamental research (Theorical work to understand and learn how Android works and how the component architecture of a smartphone is build)
  • Applied research (Theoretical work on understanding and learning the root)
  • Development ( Practical work on the application of root, customisation and solutions)

Usage case (real examples)

Private life rights
  • Application control (sandboxing and partitioning) with regard to access to the Internet and other applications (protection against intrusive telemetry)
  • Ads blocking
Private propery rights
  • Bloatwares uninstallation
Customization
  • Model falsification to gain access to unintended functionalities
  • Application patching for use of known vulnerabilities
  • Miscellaneous tweaking (bootscreen, launcher, font, theme, UI)
  • Overclocking and underclocking, optimizing the use of energy by components including the battery
Keywords

OEM and provider unlocking, privileges elevation, custom ROM, fine tunning