alt Hacker NewsWhat do OnePlus gain from this? Can someone explain me what are the advantages of OnePlus doing all this? A failed update resulting in motherboard replacement? More money, more shareholders are happy?
I still sometimes ponder if oneplus green line fiasco is a failed hardware fuse type thing that got accidentally triggered during software update. (Insert I can't prove meme here).
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Their low-level bootloader code contains a vulnerability that allows an attacker with physical access to boot an OS of their choice.
Android's normal bootloader unlock procedure allows for doing so, but ensures that the data partition (or the encryption keys therefore) are wiped so that a border guard at the airport can't just Cellebrite the phone open.
Without downgrade protection, the low-level recovery protocol built into Qualcomm chips would permit the attacker to load an old, vulnerable version of the software, which has been properly signed and everything, and still exploit it. By preventing downgrades through eFuses, this avenue of attack can be prevented.
This does not actually prevent running custom ROMs, necessarily. This does prevent older custom ROMs. Custom ROMs developed with the new bootloader/firmware/etc should still boot fine.
This is why the linked article states:
> The community recommendation is that users who have updated should not flash any custom ROM until developers explicitly announce support for fused devices with the new firmware base.
Once ROM developers update their ROMs, the custom ROM situation should be fine again.
> What do OnePlus gain from this? Can someone explain me what are the advantages of OnePlus doing all this?
They don't want the hardware to be under your control. In the mind of tech executives, selling hardware does not make enough money, the user must stay captive to the stock OS where "software as a service" can be sold, and data about the user can be extracted.
It is the same concept on an iPhone, you have 7 days to downgrade, then it is permanently impossible. Not for technical reasons, but because of an arbitrary lock (achieved through signature).
OnePlus just chose the hardware way, versus Apple the signature way
Whether for OnePlus or Apple, there should definitively be a way to let users sign and run the operating system of their choice, like any other software.
(still hating this iOS 26, and the fact that even after losing all my data and downgrading back iOS 18 it refused to re-sync my Apple Watch until iOS 26 was installed again, shitty company policy)
My understanding is there was a bug that let you wipe and re-enable a phone that had been disabled due to theft. This prevents a downgrade attack. It's in OnePlus's interest to make their phones less appealing for theft, or, in their interest to comply with requirements to be disableable from carriers, Google, etc.