(untitled)

Which android rom should I flash on my phone? There isn't any easy to read, well documented article about this topic, and I absolutely do not want to fuarrrk this up, as it could permanently damage my phone. Has anyone here done it? If so, which rom and how easy was to do it?

>which rom If you're just starting out I would definitely recommend lineageos. It has the widest range of supported devices. The experience of using it is just android without Google for the most part. On my last phone I ran stripped down Google play services but on my current one I don't run any Google stuff. If you want something in the middle there's the microG project. If you happen to have a compatible device (basically, a pixel phone) you may want to run grapheneos instead. It's a hardened privacy-focused android fork that seems a bit more serious and polished than lineage but I cant really say more because I've never used it myself. >and how easy was to do it Very easy, because I have a unlocked dev/international phone that lets me flash recovery. If you're trying to do this with a carrier phone, or one by an OEM that doesn't provide you a way to unlock the bootloader, it's a lot more difficult.

Whatever Rajesh and Kapoor published on XDA thread for your device. There's not much choice unless you know how to build a kernel with missing firmware and outdated drivers better than they do.

Unlocking bootloader and flashing an custom rom made by random dudes on the internet is not secure at all.

If you have a phone from the Pixel line, then try either RattlesnakeOS or GrapheneOS. With RattlesnakeOS you provision an AWS EC2 instance to compile each update and sign it using your own unique signing keys allowing you to install it and lock the bootloader. It's the more versatile option of the two but arguably less secure (Still has a heavy security focus though). GrapheneOS goes all the way toward the security end of the usability-security continuum. Remote attestation, hardened malloc, the works.

>>11870 >buy a zogphone without expandable storage, backdoored baseband cpu without IMEI change option and no removable battery from zogcorp1 >rent processor time at zogcorp2's mainframe for outrageous money to compile code that's been compiled thousands of times before you without even making amendments to it to justify the compilation >install flavor of the month homescreen decorations distribution with application firewall and techbro buzzwords instead of freedom

>>11869 Unless it is open source.

>>11873 Open source does not equal security. Unlocking bootloader removes verified boot and weakens SELinux policies that are highly important on protecting Android system against malicious software.

I have an old phone i would like to flash. The problem is it has only 2gb of memory. Does anyone know of lightweight hacker roms? I dont need any special functionality, but some cli tools and maybe some sort of sniffer would be nice. It should support heimdal i think. I have another more modern phone, but i still havent managed to root it, i have a rooting tool but its not very reliable.

>>11876 >cli tools Check out termux Idk if there's a specific ROM that does what you want but you should be able to piece something together with apps from fdroid, termux and cross compiling soykaf for arm yourself.

GrapheneOS, if you have a Pixel. >>11859 This is terrible for security. If your phone doesn't support graphene the best thing to do is buy a pixel and flash graphene.

>>11879 Is it any worse for security than running Linux on a PC? Assuming you arent running an especially hardened distro like qubes I mean.

>>11875 >Open source does not equal security. True >Unlocking bootloader removes verified boot and weakens SELinux policies that are highly important on protecting Android system against malicious software. Not really. That stuff is there to protect apps like Samsung Pay from tampering by you, not to protect you from malware. The latter is how they sell the idea on users though, so don't feel bad about your ignorance because you were duped.

LineageOS with microg. Lineagos is the most usable rom in 2020, but if you put gapps on it there's no point. That's where microg comes in. GrapheneOs is MorE SecUre but it's not usable and the biggest privacy threat on android is google, not people trying to take control of your phone.

>>11940 >microg Why? It still uses Google servers right? I just run lineageos with no Google services at all and it works just fine.

>>11940 I'm in the market for a new Android phone, so I went to the LineageOS devices page to see what newer, low-end, removable-battery phones are now supported. Slim pickin's. Is LineageOS dying? Seems like there would at least be a version for something as popular as a Moto E6, but nope. Wtf?

>>11929 > Not Really Yes Really. SELinux is critical to Android's security. So much so that several CPU-related vulnerabilities can be thwarted by the SEL policies. For example this: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/snapdragon-chip-flaws-put-1-billion-android-phones-at-risk-of-data-theft/ Does not affect GrapheneOS because of their SELinux hardening.

>>11929 >>11949 To add on to that, not having verified boot and an unlocked bootloader means anyone can load any malicious firmware onto your device. That stuff is there for a reason - you're allowed to unlock it but it does pose a security risk. By keeping it unlocked and not using verified boot it ruins a fundemental part of android's security model. The problem is verified boot requires specific infrastructure for signed builds. There are a handful of custom ROMs out there which do support verified boot. I'd suggest maybe looking into them.

>>11947 The phones thatLeineageOS "officially" supports and the phones for which it has been compiled overlap only very narrowly. Check your phone on xda-developers. >>11858 I use LineageOS but if you're using a phone, get ready for the ZOG. Yeah, it won't explicitly give your data to google, but you have to use other services, and other applications, which is always a pain. Plus the jostling with Magisk / microG / Google Play Store Certification and you'll just end up using F-Droid for everything. It's not pretty but you might be tempteddd to not do it because you can't run just one or two "essential" applications. I'd suggest buying a second phone and turning it off when you don't need it.

>>11957 >To add on to that, not having verified boot and an unlocked bootloader means anyone can load any malicious firmware onto your device. Yes, people are going to run up and take my phone out of my pocket and install malicious firmware in front of my eyes. Very serious threat.

>>11949 Unless I'm misunderstanding this, that exploit impacted regular android phones, not just ones with unlocked bootloaders, no? More of a testiment to the quality of graphene than the dangers of rooting.

>install chink app like toktik or alix/laz >copy a text inside the messaging app or any app with text box >"chink app has accessed (write) the clipboard" >copy a text about iphone >shows iphone ads >copy your coinshit >??? Android 4.2 >installing an app shows all permission >famous social app shows literal seven pages of permissions to access calendar, call log, some unintelligible soykaf >apps with camera access can use camera while app is minimized >storage has no permission >no way to control permissions 4.4 >show less permission just because >no change really aside from bloatware app cache >forces you to buy 8gb/16gb/32gb phone or use ext. sd as internal with root apps 5.0 >frp lock, need to login to google account after factory reset >lots of headache in OS >install the same app as the one in 4.2 and it says "no permissions needed" >broken sd cards with native internal soykaf >everything's white now >cyanogenmod's permission manager went into upstream 6.0 >camera/mic permissions although granting permissions as "allow forever" lets them use it any time they want >show less permission again just because >social/soykaf apps are likely already installed as system app with system level permission anyways >oh, you noticed, the apps could access the files? so we started to enforce storage permissions so here's a broken native file manager and inability to access sd cards properly. 7.1~ >oh some security experts starts running their mouth and doing actual tests, better disallow apps from accessing camera/mic in minimize mode with the exception of assistant apps. haha take schizo, meds 8.0 >let's give them dark/light mode just like that cookie/chip 9.0 >corona bluetooth tracing soykaf 10.0 >this entire time, the clipboard was accessible by every app if it's running. some apps like to just paste what you had copied for no reason but it's in the TOS so it's your fault 11.0 ??? wontfix probably. there's lots of issues still. maybe if security experts start running their mouths again with the clipboard this time...

>>11972 OTA updates are a thing. Apps can also alter your firmware if a new exploit comes to light. All unlikely, yes. My point being you would never know if your device's firmware was altered.

>>11975 > Unless I'm misunderstanding this, that exploit impacted regular android phones, not just ones with unlocked bootloaders, no? More of a testiment to the quality of graphene than the dangers of rooting. Correct. My point about that was to not discount SELinux, not about bootloader unlocking