Every Android device geek at some point of time thinks to place mischief with his phone. These mischief basically include Rooting the Android Device, Unlocking the device's bootloader, Installing softwares and apps that are not on Google Play and Enabling USB Debugging on the device.
If you do these tweaks on android device then it can work wonders, but there are reasons - security reasons - why these tweaks aren't enabled by default on the device.
If you do these tweaks on android device then it can work wonders, but there are reasons - security reasons - why these tweaks aren't enabled by default on the device.
With every tweak you perform on your android device you also peel off a security layer from you device. So it is very much necessary to understand the consequences.
Rooting - The most favorite tweak of every Android geek
Every app on the android device is isolated from one another. So there is no communication between two different apps. This is why even if some malicious software application tries to access the confidential data from some part of you device or app on your device it cannot get those data.
But when your phone is rooted you can give root level access (superuser privileges) to any application and thus it can access any kind of data from anywhere on your device. So never give any app a trust access to everything if your device is root access enabled.
USB Debugging
With USB Debugging enabled, you can do things like recording videos of you device screen. When enabled, the device will start accepting commands from any computer to whose USB port the device is plugged in. Theoretically, even a malicious charging port can easily compromise the device's security if the device is USB Debugging enabled and you press accept on the security prompt.
This problem was particularly seen in older versions of android, where no security prompt will be shown if you plugged the device into USB port. But in newer versions of android, even if the device is USB Debugging enabled andyou plug it into USB port, you will always see a security prompt and it won't work any further until you accept the prompt.
Never accept the security prompt if it popped up when you didn't expect it to appear there. And by the way, the method of using the USB charging port to tamper the device is known as 'Juice Jacking'.
Unlock Bootloader
With a locked Bootloader there is an assurance that the attacker can't just access your device by bypassing its security by using a custom ROM. Suppose if your device is stolen and you have a PIN for your device then they can't simply access your device if your device have Locked Bootloader.
But, if it has unlocked bootloader, they can simply install their own android ROM can bypass all the security setting, including you device PIN. This is why if you try to unlock the Bootloader of Nexus device it will delete the entire data from it.
What if you want to use custom ROM on your device? Well, in that case you may unlock the bootloader, install the custom ROM and then re-lock the bootloader.
Unknown/Untrusted Sources
With the use of Unknown source option you can install apps which are not from Google Play. You may like to download apps, games etc. in .APK format from other website like Amazon App Store and later install the app on devide using the .apk setup.
You should always consider on disabling this option once you have completed installing the app using .apk file. However, it is always recommended to use only those apps which are available on Google Play.
With these tweaks of course we can do something more with our android device then the usual. But it is necessary to take consequences into consideration. If you understand the risk and still want to go for it the you surely can. Please do share your views in the comments below.
Photo courtesy: How-to-geek.com