Blackphone gets rooted in 5 minutes

Blackphone, the Android-powered smartphone that boasts security and privacy as its top features, was rooted at the DEF CON Hacking Conference in just five minutes.

If you’re reading about the Blackphone for the first time, it’s a Tegra 4i-powered smartphone that runs PrivatOS – a security-focused mobile OS based on Android KitKat. Blackphone describes their smartphone as “an unparalleled product ideal for information workers, executives, public figures, and anyone else unwilling to give up their privacy.”

blackphone_1

That claim just got challenged as Justin Case, aka @TeamAndIRC, found a way to gain root access on the Blackphone in just five minutes. In addition to that feat, Case was able to do it without unlocking the phone’s bootloader.

Simply put, Case was able to gain access to parts of the phone that users are not supposed to have access to. For a smartphone that specializes on privacy and security, that’s quite an issue. According to Case, the exploit is now partially fixed and not exploitable without user intent.

Of course, expect the $629 Blackphone to be updated to fully patch things up and further enhance its security features. But after this root incident, it kinda makes you wonder if Android, or any mobile platform, will ever be totally “secure”.

{via}

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21 Responses

  1. Avatar for Paul Paul says:

    I dont want to be mamaru pero 2.3 gingerbread i already solved that before they released it in 4.0.
    adb_enabled is just a few keys from the shell command. madali lang yan. sh commands.

  2. Avatar for drew drew says:

    ngkakandarapa ngayon yung mga dev ng blackphone. hahaha habang open source yung android may paraan talaga yan pra iexploit yung os.

  3. Avatar for SpiderWak SpiderWak says:

    everything is vulnerable in the net

  4. Avatar for lushiwara lushiwara says:

    mas malupit ka @shutter. ako inabot ng 5min 10.01 sec :))

  5. Avatar for shutter shutter says:

    Lupit ni Case, ako inabot ng 5mins 10 secs bago ko na root. :))

  6. Avatar for duterte duterte says:

    blackberry and windows phone hack it in 5 minutes

  7. Avatar for Easy E Easy E says:

    Blackberry FTW. Ito nalang ang pinanghahawakan ng BB, ang tindi ng security. Remember na ang binibida ng blackphone ay security daw pero madaling na-root. So nonsense, ang mahal mahal pa.

  8. Avatar for Evo Garcia Evo Garcia says:

    Maganda yan kapag nasa bar ako para lapitin ako ng mga boys.

  9. Avatar for John Chen John Chen says:

    “But after this root incident, it kinda makes you wonder if Android, or any mobile platform, will ever be totally “secure”.”

    Not with BlackBerry. Sorry.

    • Avatar for Justin Justin says:

      Oo nga, eh. Sobrang secure ng Blackberry… kasi walang gumagamit. Hehe..

    • Avatar for Oona Oona says:

      Just because you’re not using it doesn’t mean walang gumagamit. Whether we like it or not, we are using either a company issued Blackberry or iPhone. And yes, if you’ve ever used a Blackberry, you should know that it is so annoyingly secured.

    • Avatar for Blackburied Blackburied says:

      Justin +1

      Oona = in denial! :P

  10. Avatar for archie archie says:

    Android was never 100% secure. That’s the exchange for being an open sourced OS. Some companies that value privacy still prefer issuing feature phones to their employees.

    • Avatar for Evo Garcia Evo Garcia says:

      Pare, magiging compatible tayo kapag pareho tayong may ganyan. I love you bhe.

    • Avatar for derp derp says:

      ^ this!

    • Avatar for Cio Cio says:

      To say that Android is not secure because it is open source is uneducated. Just because other operating systems are closed source does not mean that they are more secure than Android. Improper implementation of security algorithms is one of the causes of security loopholes. Feature phones don’t compare with smartphones, you do not need more security for phones that you use for texts and calls.

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