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Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116160393783585567
153•pabs3•2h ago

Comments

jMyles•1h ago
Even though there doesn't seem to be huge mainstream consumer demand for this (although I actually question how well consumer demand for privacy and customization can ever be ascertained when the price signals are corrupted by a market where the winning players are essentially chosen by the state, as is arguably the case with both TSMC and Qualcomm), it still feels like the world simply couldn't go on with both iOS and Android become caged, cheapened, fragile shadows of the visions we once had for them (particularly AOSP).
dietr1ch•1h ago
I think we can only expect the demand for privacy to grow into the future given that people tracking in a trenchcoat schemes are popping up everywhere through governmental and private efforts trying to gather data for ads and control.
windexh8er•45m ago
Not to be flippant but who cares? People don't know there's an option. I've run Graphene for years and will gladly pay a premium for it. Beyond the bolstered security the battery life is exponentially better than a default Android device because of all the constant background traffic that Google doesn't allow any control over that you instantly have a choice with on GrapheneOS.

And as soon as you start showing these things to people they do start to care and ask how. So the fact that the mainstream is ignorant and doesn't care enough yet doesn't matter because it's very likely a much larger segment of users will care when the tech evangelists they trust stop using IOS and Google Android. That's how these things started and that's how they could very well play out in this scenario as well.

dmix•35m ago
Not all markets are trendy B2C stuff. The Motorola press release specifically mentioned B2B/corporate sales where security is important and there's plenty of government, journalist, non-profits/activists, etc usecases on top of the usual corporate locked-down environments like banking.
keerthiko•1h ago
Does anyone know where I can read more about which devices will be supported? GrapheneOS website devices FAQ doesn't list any Motorola devices, and the press release doesn't have much either.
MYEUHD•1h ago
Future Motorola devices (or maybe a subset of them?) will support GrapheneOS

> We're collaborating on future devices

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116159602850585685

wolvoleo•1h ago
There's no details yet, but I was reading it won't likely emerge until 2027 so ostensibly these will be models that are yet to be announced. Might even be models dedicated to grapheneos (and other open source roms as they mentioned here)
catlikesshrimp•1h ago
This project is in hype stage. No work seems to have been done, yet.

Samsung had something as ambitious years ago, but it went nowhere https://www.xda-developers.com/samsung-promised-make-old-pho...

Stay tuned

vbezhenar•58m ago
As I understand that situation, GrapheneOS developers are super picky about hardware they want to support. So out of all android phones they decided to support only Google Pixel because only these phones provide good enough hardware support for security features they want to provide.

So likely no existing Motorola phones are good enough and only new ones, developed in collaboration with GrapheneOS developers, will be suitable.

BLKNSLVR•53m ago
I'm pretty sure strcat was saying on a previous thread that it will only be future models, so nothing in their current line up in guaranteed to be compatible.
ChrisArchitect•1h ago
Related:

Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47214645

lordofgibbons•55m ago
Given that Google has said they'll be delaying source code release for Android to every X months intervals (iirc), how is GrapheneOS planning to handle security updates? Will they just be Google's binary blobs?
zeech•34m ago
Graphene already uses Google's binary blobs (though one can disable them if they want). Info at [0].

[0] https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/27068-grapheneos-security-p...

Zak•54m ago
I'm glad to hear that. That means these devices will be a popular target, perhaps the popular target for alternative operating systems both Android-based and non-Android Linux.
t1234s•50m ago
With Motorola being owned by the Chinese company Lenovo can these new devices be used in secure environments? I remember when Lenovo took over making ThinkPads they were banned in some secure environments because of Lenovo links to CCP.
lacunary•40m ago
what does "secure environment" mean?
mattnewton•30m ago
Not OP but I guess it’s where the threat model includes worrying about the foreign government actors. Like US infrastructure, government contracting or some major tech companies.
zeech•38m ago
Good point. It's a good thing that, say, Google is notoriously independent from the US government, and has never had any ties to it whatsoever.
nitinreddy88•27m ago
You might want to add /s tag to it.
maxloh•36m ago
> Lenovo originated as an offshoot of a state-owned research institute.

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo

abdullahkhalids•30m ago
The true reason you can't trust a Chinese company, and other countries can't trust US companies, is the Western patent regime that allows various companies to sit on patents for absurd amounts of times, preventing others from selling you completely clean hardware on which every piece of software can be replaced.
Charon77•16m ago
The whole point about having an open platform from boot is you don't have to trust it. You run your own code from first power on.

Is it possible that it's backdoored, have a secret opcode / management engine? Probably, but that goes to everyone, as it's not practical to analyze what's in the chip (unless you're decapping them and all)

I don't know what secure environments you're talking about, if it's an airgapped system then you should be secure even when what's inside 'tries to get out'.

tho2i3423400•11m ago
At this point in time, esp. given the raving lunacy of the US White House, those of us outside the "West", wonder the same thing about US companies.
LoganDark•50m ago
Do we know if there there be Widevine L1 keys that aren't deleted on unlock? (Certain phones restore access to L1 on bootloader relock, as long as AVB passes, including with custom keys.)
LelouBil•46m ago
Well, I'll surely be buying a Motorola device when GrapheneOS support lands.

I've been running on several half-working recent android ports to my Xiaomi Mi 9t for many years now.

If I can get a modern phone, modern android, my privacy preserved and a hackable phone (to the extent an unlockable bootloader allows, which isn't a given nowadays, I especially hate how Xiaomi does it), I'm 100% sold.

We'll see when it comes out I guess!

smashah•36m ago
Whatever this device is is at the top of my list for my next phone.
yegle•17m ago
I think Pixel phones are also unlockable/relockable?
H8crilA•13m ago
This is how you can install GrapheneOS on these. Also, if you're wondering how does the security of something like this work: if you change the boot hash then the phone forgets all the hardware-stored secrets, for example the disk encryption keys.
dietr1ch•11m ago
Samsung did restrict side-loading recently,

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47202808

I'm sure that Google will do something like that as soon as it faced the US's carrot and stick they signed-up for.

yooastan•16m ago
A physical keyboard device with GrapheneOS would mog
mmh0000•13m ago
If true. And I put a big if on that.

I WILL be buying their flagship model.

My go to for Graphene has been used Pixels from eBay. Because I can’t give money to Google in good conscience.

Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116160393783585567
159•pabs3•2h ago•34 comments

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