The future of rooting in Android

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean was announced late last month, making SELinux the security system for Android. Some are worried about rooting, as the access will be made differently with the new security. Root Explorer is now requesting Superuser access. SELinux is a security system that offers control on who can do what, going beyond the normal user vs root user. With it, you can launch a process as root, but it will only do what SELinux allows it to do. A way to do so is connecting the Android smartphone / tablet to a computer and using the command line to run commands as root using adb, the Android Debug Bridge.

While the first variant is a little complicated, as you’d have to be connected to a computer every time and also type commands for every task, there’s still a second way, which requires use of a SU (super user) daemon. This process is started up when the Android is started, sits quietly in the background while waiting for it to be called, does its job and then goes back to sitting in the dark, as our source announces. This way is similar to the normal root access but is also the most debated method.

Nexus Bootloader

There’s also a problem with the second way, that being the need of a modified boot image that can only be acquired by flashing a custom firmware, something like CyanogenMod (CM 10 and above). This might be a problem for “Stock” Android systems users, who currently use nothing more than a rooting app. Google’s intentions regarding improvements are unknown, still the company might address the issues, either by requiring root for less things or by building a solution into Android itself. However, gaining root access might require flashing custom firmware in the future.