I am a long term GrapheneOS user and would like to talk about it. r/privacy on the redditland blocks custom OS discussions which I think is very bad for user privacy, and I hope this post will be useful to anyone who are in the hunt for better privacy.
Nowadays smartphones are a much bigger threats to our privacy and Desktop systems, and unfortunately manufacturers has designed them to be locked down devices with no user freedom. You can’t just “install Linux” on most smartphones and it is horrible. And most preloaded systems spy on us like crazy. That was why I specifically bought a pixel and loaded GOS onto it.
According to https://grapheneos.org/features , they start from base AOSP’s latest version, imptoves upon it’s security and significantly hardens it. There’s hardened_malloc to.prevent against exploitation, disabling lots of debugging features, disabling USB-c data, hardening the Linux kernel and system apps etc. They even block accessing the hardware identifiers of the phone so that apps cannot detect whqt phone you’re using. That means with Tor and zero permissions given, apps are anonymous.
Compatibility with apps are best in Custom ROMs but there are still that can’t work, especially if they enforce device integrity. Very few apps usually enforce that tho. Also their community isn’t the friendliest but you can get help. Just don’t try and engage too much or have too many debates.
Anyone else here use GrapheneOS, or any other privacy ROMs? What is your experience? Do you disagree on any point? Let’s have a discussion!
I post someone’s comment on a controversial topic about google and GOS. I saved it because that’s exactly how I feel.
Step 1 of installing GrapheneOS for de-googling your life: Buy a Google Pixel phone
Look - I know, I know. I get it. Google allows you to unlock the bootloader while maintaining the phone’s unique and excellent hardware security features. The argument makes sense. It is compelling. Other manufacturers do not give you this freedom. I am not arguing about that. I have a Pixel phone running GrapheneOS myself.
However… It is just so very obviously ironic that one needs to trust Google’s hardware and purchase a Google product to de-google their life through GrapheneOS. I think that it is a perfectly valid position for someone to raise their eyebrows, laugh, and remain skeptical of the concept either because they do not want to support Google at all, or because they simply will not trust Google’s hardware.
The reason why I think that this is “controversial” is because I have seen multiple instances of someone pointing out the irony, followed by someone getting defensive about it and making use of the technical security arguments in an attempt to patch up the irony.
GrapheneOS is for not only privacy but also security. Ironic or sad, google chips are safer. https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
I think buying a Pixel phone second hand solves this issue and reduces a little e-waste at the same time.
This. I never buy a Pixel new.
Yeah it’s ironic but what is the alternative? At least we CAN remove Google’s known spyware from the device, and there’s no evidence of firmware level spying. If you get Samsung, or some chinese crap, you can’t remove Google period, and you might get spied by the manufacturer as a cherry on top. There is no way to have a perfect solution, well unless Samsung starts to provide Custom ROM support or something.
I’m using a Fairphone with /e/os. No Google at all.
Not hardened though. I was heavily considering fairphone but over the back and forth between them discussing with Graphene developers, their hardware is not secure enough yet for graphene to be made for the fairphones. If and when fairphones are on graphene then I will definitely buy them.
Also, even though I commend their phone, the accessories for earbuds and headphones certainly bring up some questions as to their intentions.
It’s because Graphene is not a custom ROM. /e/os is. Graphene is just an OS on top of the ROM, and Fairphone doesn’t update their ROM often enough.
This is a complete non-issue though if you use a custom ROM like LineageOS or /e/os.
No. The issue is with hardware secure elements in how cryptographically intensive workloads are done
https://www.androidauthority.com/titan-m2-google-3261547/
Unfortunately the fairphone falls quite behind in this and relies on software salt and hash that can be exploited.
Buying a used pixel and installing Graphene OS is absolutely a more secure platform than any AOSP based open source bootloader unlocked ROM.
This was not given as reason by the devs why graphene is not on Fairphone. The delayed security updates were.
It’s a holistic statement that doesn’t factor into this.
If your objective is to punish Google, or to have nothing to do with Google. I completely agree with you using a pixel phone just doesn’t make any sense. You shouldn’t do it
If your objective is to have the most security possible… Then you should install graphene on a Pixel phone.
This is exactly why I don’t have graphene os, the irony of having to support google is too much for me call me paranoid but i also dont trust them with the hardware piece either lol. I’ve been running lineage os without gapps and its honestly great, updates and patches are every few weeks, super stable and awesome.
I assume you’re using it with bootloader unlocked. The issue is somehow some malware injects your phone and roots it, it can just install itself as a system service and just live there and you’ll never know. The security feature that protects against it is disabled once bootloader is unlocked.
Also I’ve heard that LineageOS has not all security updates present since some firmware updates needs to be provided by the specific manufacturer. For Pixel, Google provides it and GOS uses it.
Yes, a lot of people in this thread should look up the difference between a hardware based secure element and a salted hash.
With the lack of any other viable option, I struggle to see the point of the arguement.
Using it since many years on many Pixels and loving it.
Main pros: zero bloat, efficient, highly secure and highly private (about as private and secure as it can get on any smartphone), and it’s an Android without any of Android’s typical weaknesses (privacy issues, bloat, etc.). You get to utilize the advantages of Google (its security) and completely avoid the disadvantages (its many privacy issues). You get to use all the advantages of an Android mobile OS while completely avoiding all of its disadvantages. It’s like getting your cake and eating it too. You’re much better off in terms of security and privacy than almost(?) all other smartphone users. According to leaked documents, Cellebrite for example can’t crack GrapheneOS on Pixels at all. They can crack almost any other smartphone if they have physical access to it. Most smartphones are really easy for them to crack. iPhones may pose some trouble depending on model/OS. And Graphene on Pixel is the literal brick wall. And even on top of that it has tons of great security features, like auto-reboot after X hours of inactivity, charge-only-mode for USB-C when locked, distress/duress PIN entry to immediately wipe the phone, many things like that. On the privacy side it’s looking great as well: Some folks have analyzed Graphene’s network traffic and there’s zero privacy issues from the OS or its built-in apps. And the few connections it does make (for updates and so on) are all documented and work exactly like they documented them, and they only transmit the exact least amount of necessary data without anything beyond that (guess what - that’s super rare). And on top of that there’s even more great privacy features, some of which are invisible but well thought-out, for example any SUPL request goes through a Graphene proxy server first (configurable) which strips all personally-identifiable data from the request and then redirects it to your provider’s SUPL server (which is most likely Google’s SUPL server in the end). I’m seriously impressed by the quality of the GrapheneOS project. Maybe you don’t realize how good and rare such things are nowadays. Also the documentation is very good and actually answers most of your questions and doesn’t contain any marketing blurb. The social media feeds and forums are a great source of info as well. On top of all that it’s even easy to install GrapheneOS.
Main cons: it’s only available on Google Pixel phones, so if you truly despise Google and don’t want to buy or use anything from them, it’s not the right device/OS for you (or maybe buy it used?). However, the reason GrapheneOS is on Pixel is purely a technical one: Pixels do offer very high hardware based security already (probably the most, although iPhones have good hardware-based security as well. As is known, Apple tends to be produce good quality hardware, not quite so good software) as well as a very high degree of “platform neutrality”, i.e. it’s supported by Google to flash a different OS on it or use more advanced tools like adb without any sort of tinkering or unnecessary danger involved. Also you don’t have to register to unlock your phone or anything, you only need to be online once to enable the OEM unlocking feature (I think this is because Google needs your IMEI to check whether the phone is carrier-locked (cannot ever be OEM unlocked) or can be unlocked, and they will immediately receive some device data including the IMEI as soon as you go online with the preinstalled Android OS once [of course they will receive some more device data than just the IMEI]), so it’s best to not insert your SIM yet (and not do anything with the preinstalled OS) before you’ve installed GrapheneOS on your new Pixel. Do the OEM unlocking step on WiFi only, best on a public WiFi so Google has much less of a chance to identify you based on your IP or related data. Then install Graphene, then insert your SIM and start using your new phone. Other cons exist but they’re rare or pretty much irrelevant in daily use. If you have to hear them, read an older post by me about some potential downsides: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/19867254/12069767
I’m pretty sure that every Android Lemmy user has a Custom ROM installed on their device. Currently daily driving GrapheneOS on my Pixel 7 Pro.
I feel called out…
Not me unfortunately … I used to have a Samsung Galaxy S9+ with an unofficial port of LineageOS. Nowadays I’m using a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra with the stock OS.
Maybe a Pixel should be my next phone, so that I get proper support for most custom ROMs.
Sending this from Lineage OS 21 ^^
I am. It’s good. Don’t have any issues just huge compliments to the team.
I’ve been using it for just over 2 years now and am very happy with it. I am curious about CalyxOS though. While I don’t think I’d switch I’d be interested in a technical deep dive comparison between the 2.
Ive used it for around a year and a half and never had any issues. My banking app stopped working after about 8 months but I just log in via a browser and it hasn’t effected my life at all.
For anyone considering the move here is a list of bank apps and their current working status as I know that is a big consideration people worry over.
My banking app recently stopped working on graphene too. Mildly annoying.
I personally don’t even find it that annoying as it takes around 30 seconds more to log in via a browser for me and I barely ever use it anyway. I’m more annoyed that my bank has the audacity to think they can dictate what I use on my phone citing “login blocked due to custom ROM” or something similar when I last tried to use the app.
Fuck banks.
The UBL app isn’t listed, hope it’ll work 🙏
You can always give it a run and add a report. Also, if it doesn’t work, give the app devs feedback that it is preventing you from using it. It might not be much but we can at least try to make our voices heard.
Well, I’m saying this because I’m interested in running GrapheneOS on my next phone. (It doesn’t support my current one)
Pixel 6a with GrapheneOS here. Been using for about a year and a half, and loving it.
Exact same setup here! Almost no problems. Also loving it
I don’t like the fingerpront sensor. Other than that it works great for me.
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How do you like it on the tablet? I’ve been using CyanogenMod and LineageOS the longest time. Waiting for a Pixel tablet sellout.
i really want to make the switch but need to figure out how to steal a pixel phone bc i sure as hell ain’t paying for one
Buy used
Yep. Been using it for about 2 years now. So far no issues except amazon prime but they gave me adds sufficiently annoying that i finally got around to setting up jellyfin. Been able to solve pretty much all my issues with dr gpt.
Every time i see someone posting about a new mobile phone exploit i get immense joy scrolling down through comments and finding someone posting the fact that graphene patched it 3 years ago and recommended a patch to google who have yet to implement it into base android.
Cellebrite and the new Grayjack or something both has zero ways to crack a GOS phone 🔥
A simple search will tell you a ton of people here use GrapheneOS and other custom ROMs. Are you karma farming?
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/android/distributions/#aosp-derivatives
https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
I am a GOS user, it just works, so I don’t really think about it. It’s very nice to have storage and contact scopes.
My only complaint is I can’t share a VPN over hotspot or tethering, which is very useful for a travel router device (to make all traffic look like it’s coming from the phone). (Lineage and calyxos have this)
Really? I use rethink to filter my dns and that uses a local vpn and that works since ive configured it to not connect to internet unless through that vpn. U can then configure rethink to proxy via wireguard, orbot, or socks.
I’m not sure I understand your architecture.
Let’s say I’m traveling. I have two phones and one laptop
One of the phones has a SIM, unlimited data for the phone, and no data available for tethering. The Sim phone has a VPN
In your use case, how do I get other phone, and the laptop to use the VPN?
Ahh i see ur issue. I have my sim in my grapheneos with a vpn that i can then shair via hotspot. Ur trying to use a non graphene with a vpn that u then use to hopspot ur graphene and laptop? Id say thats an issue with ur non graphene phone cant shair a vpn via hotspot?
The graphene phone has the SIM card.
Now how does that phone share a VPN connection with the laptop? Or another phone that’s not graphene?
And my requirement for my scenario is, the upstream carrier cannot tell that the traffic is not coming from the graphene phone
So simply turning hotspot on on the graphene phone as well as the vpn then it will send all traffic over the vpn. Are u having issues with the carrier detecting ttl and thus blocking hotspot traffic cos as of present there is no fix for that.
Thank you for explaining your architecture. I understand now.
carrier detecting ttl and thus blocking hotspot traffic
There is a fix for that, sharing the VPN over the hotspot like in calyxos or lineageos.
graphene will route all hotspot traffic over the vpn so idk why it isnt changing ttl.
What about the network permission?
Network permission is godly. App you need or want but don’t trust that shouldn’t be allowed to phone home? Fixed.
I wonder why such a powerful permission isn’t available to everyone 🤦♂️
U can completly block an app from internet as an app permission.
I wonder why this is not a permission available in the Android OS itself 🤷♂️
We b9th know why lol
Because fuck google? I know why and fuck google
I have the pleasure of using GrapheneOS. I can’t imagine using anything else. It was also the first (widely used) custom Android distribution to adopt Android 15. As far as I can tell, almost no others support Android 15 yet.
Last 4 or so phones have all been GrapheneOS (I’m not buying new phones all the time to be clear; I use phones till they break; I’m just a long-time user) and yeah I’ve really had no problems to speak of. I currently have a separate profile with Play services for certain apps, and also just to isolate non-privacy-respecting apps that I have to have installed for whatever reason.
Almost all the apps I use are FOSS apps who are aware that a significant amount of their userbase will be using various AOSP forks so I’ve not run into any app compatibility issues. Even back when I used banking apps, I’d used 4 different banks’ apps on GrapheneOS and all of them worked completely fine. Now I don’t have a banking app because I won’t install proprietary software unless I actually have to for some reason, and I can bank on the web just fine.
I had daily drove it for years, but recently started testing the water with iOS. Still have GOS on my secondary devices though.
