Rooting seems to have some benefits like bypassing API integrity, so I want to know if rooting my phone is a good idea? And is it safe? (By that I mean will I break my device?) I don’t use Google Play Services nor any banking apps (I use the website) and there’s no supported custom ROM for my phone (Xiaomi redmi note 12 S) so I think it might be a solution
Projects like GrapheneOS and LineageOS strongly discourage rooting your device.
From my understanding rooting strongly reduces the security of the OS as it allows for exploits and privilege execution which would otherwise not have been possibly.
Rooting is also detectable by some apps, which will therefore block you from using them.
Strict Google Play Integrity can AFAIK not be spoofed with root on your device from my understanding.
You can hide root from apps tho, including from apps that block root.
Do you have any info on how said security exploits related to rooting work? I have been searching them for some time to look whether to root my device but they just list it as sort of “common sense” instead of listing mitigations and such.
how are we hiding root nowadays in a way that works?
There is very little benefit to rooting these days. It is safer and easier yo just use a custom ROM.
Granted I don’t run modern Android but being on a custom ROM vs OEM stock has nothing to do with whether or not one should root. Being on a custom ROM doesn’t mean you have more control over your device. Where possible I have always been rooted (since Jellybean). Only on rare occasions (device cannot be unlocked) am I not on a custom ROM. I need / want full control over my devices.
I am, however, one of those persons who does not tell someone they should root nor am I one to tell someone they don’t need root. That’s up to the individual and their needs. The old adage that if one has to ask whether or not one should root then the answer is probably no.
Nowadays, it seems like you don’t have to root in order to be able to remove system apps, so don’t root for that reason at least. The methods include using Shizuku and Canta, I think.
I root my Samsung phone because I like the device (S23) and my threat model doesn’t require me to run GMS sandboxed on a Pixel in Graphene OS.
Rooting my phone made it possible to have a firewall and a hosts file to block a lot of telemetry while also running a VPN - unrooted, the firewall or DNS based blocking would take up the OS’s VPN slot.
These are the apps that on my system benefit from - if not completely reliant on - rooting:
