I can't root my phone because I don't have an image for it (Moto G73) although I'd like to, but for some reason my banking app thinks it's rooted and refuses to work. This happened just after I updated it, it wasn't happening before.
Edit: I'm regretting not getting the Motorola Edge 40 Neo, which also costs £250, but is slightly better in multiple ways, and seems like it has better root support.
They did. It was a project initially called "Boot to Gecko," about a decade ago; and the idea was to make a Linux kernel OS so lightweight that you were running web apps as close to bare metal as possible. There were intended to be no binary apps, only web apps running on open standards; though that didn't necessarily carry through as originally intended.
I agree. I think it was before its time and would be a real boon today.
Yeah, and that's cool, but it is significantly different from the original implementation (or at least the original idea) since it is a keypad-based device. You couldn't really flash it onto an Android handset, for instance, as I understand it.
Did you unlock your bootloader? Some apps just scan for Google Play SafetyNet or in some other way to check whether you unlocked your bootloader or rooted and if they think you do they will vaguely state you are rooted.
Other's concern about your phone being infected are justified and I recommend you to try whether a dedicated root checking app thinks your phone is rooted. These usually don't lie.
Regarding your rooting situation I always rooted the lazy way. Renamed magisk.apk to magisk.zip, flashed it and it always worked for me. But I rooted only 2 phones in my life really and this is not the recommended method by magisk developer.
Does that really work? Because if that works and I can't find an image file, that's the only way. I can still factory reset it after it messes up my device, right?
Uodate: no, it doesn't
Device platform: arm64-v8a
Installing: 27.0 (27000)
Processing zip file
! No boot image found
! Process error
! Installation failed
Did you flash a custom ROM? Maybe it will work with a custom ROM.
EDIT: Your phone uses Mediatek processor, so it's not going to be well supported. I recommend you to stick to locked bootloader and just live with the phone as it is.
I remember when I got a new phone and I could not figure out how I was supposed to get the banking app on my phone so I called the bank and they said oh you just have to remove the app from your old phone.
Weird but ok.
Thing is, what if I don't have the old phone what am I supposed to do then banking app people? The rep really couldn't get her head around the idea that the phone was in at the bottom of a lake.
Then I had to go through this carry-on where I had to send in all sorts of bits of info and then the video of me waving just so they let me install the app again. And that's on top of all of the other security the banking app already has.
Then I had to go through this carry-on where I had to send in all sorts of bits of info and then the video of me waving just so they let me install the app again.
That sounds good. Otherwise anyone could steal your bank account by saying "I lost my phone."
Lineage OS user here, my banking app got an update a while ago that stopped trusting my finger scanner because I'm rooted. Luckily it still allows passwords or else that would be a deal breaker.
*Edit, now that I think about it I'm not even rooted, just an unlocked boot loader.
My bank just merged with another and released a new app. Immediately when trying to log in it said that the app can't be used with developer mode enabled.
With developer mode enabled? I have that enabled, although my error message is about root. With a degoogled stock ROM, you have to have adb to backup system data, it's crazy your bank was blocking that.
For the unaware, here's a concise explanation of the difference from chatgpt:
Banks and credit unions both offer financial services, but there are key differences. Banks are for-profit institutions, owned by shareholders, while credit unions are nonprofit, owned by their members. Credit unions often offer higher interest rates on savings and lower loan rates, but banks typically have a broader range of services and more extensive ATM networks. Your choice may depend on priorities like fees, customer service, and community focus.
This happened to me once when I updated Android. The bank software had a check for a specific version and my version was higher so it thought I was running something weird. I had to wait for the bank to update the app to support the newest android version
maybe a stupid question: But doesn't android sandbox every app? If every app is running in a sandbox, it shouldn't be too hard to pretend your phone isn't rooted.
If they check for a specific version number, like @RagingRobot mentioned, it also shouldn't be a problem. Just set that specific sandbox to return whatever version you want.
I am aware that 'just configure the sandbox' is not really an accessible solution. But a sandbox-config-master would be a great app for rooted phones.
Install TB Checker and use the various detection modes to figure out what the bank app might be picking up on.
They check for a lot of (dumb) things instead of just checking for Play Integrity like they're supposed to. For example it might be detecting an app that could be using root, even if it's not, and assume that means you must be rooted, even though you're not. 🤷
I have too many gripes with banks and how they handle digital interactions.
They're a bunch of dinosaurs, both in what they support and how they support it. They're also in a position where they feel like they can do what they want and you just have to suck it up.
And for the most part, they're right, because all the banks are equally bad. A nontrivial number of the apps are just chrome running in an app window, security is a joke, they make you sign in with your card number which is plainly visible to anyone with eyes that is within a few meters of your card anytime you have it out of your wallet, they restrict your password so you can't use special characters or have it be long enough to actually provide real security, and they limit your 2FA options to SMS. Everything is terrible.
Even when you go into the bank or use the ATM, access is restricted by a fucking FOUR DIGIT NUMERICAL PIN and if you can even use a longer pin code, they don't tell you that and most systems assume your pin is four numbers and won't let you enter any more than that.
God forbid you lose your card, good luck going through the gauntlet of outdated information the bank is going to ask about for you to prove you are who you say you are.
They're all the fucking same and it infuriates me.
Banking tech is still run on FORTRAN and COBAL. It’s ancient and pretty much can’t be upgraded. Until there’s a major push for new technologies across all banking it’ll keep being this bad
They can create interfaces to buffer our experience with their back end (the COBOL running the actual transactions), which is largely what they're doing.
The COBOL back end basically just acts as the service that handles the data that represents the money and accounts.
Not having advanced security options, even as simple as complex passwords to allow clients to access their accounts can be managed by the intermediate layer between the COBOL service and the UI, and there shouldn't be a reason for such limited password length or restrictions on MFA.
The fact that COBOL runs they're back end doesn't excuse the terrible front end, especially on applications for mobile devices.
This has been thrown around as reason why things suck so hard, and bluntly, it's a piss poor excuse if you ask me.
Wasn't there talk about Google deprecating SafetyNet? If this has already happened and your banking app is still relying on it, it could lead to a fslse positive on the root check I believe.
Yes, but not rooted. I could relock it and see if that solves the issue, but the app was opening fine when it was still OEM unlocked for several months until the app was updated yesterday. I didn't want it locked in case I did ever find a custom ROM for my phone and I didn't want to delete all my data.
If you've done an OEM unlock, you effectively already have root access to the device. You could boot a custom recovery right now and modify any system file.
"Rooting" just means using this privilege you already have in order to install a tool into the OS such that you can make use of this privilege while the regular OS is booted.
Go install Magisk and do the safetynet dance. It's a whole thing but should give you a "clean" device from the perspective of unprivileged apps. It's stupid that you have to do this but here we are.
That's a fair point. My old bank which was pretty terrible I never installed their app and found the app just loaded a mobile version of their website so I just used that.
I'll go without a phone before I agree to terms like that. I refuse to go without my permission spoofing and privacy enhancements. I'm not giving them unrestricted access to my data, they'll have to at the very least try harder and waste more money on hackers than usual.
I think there's magisk module that can bypass that but i forgot what's name
3 years ago i unlock bootloader + install custom ROM/Kernel in my mom phone (bc it's still running very ancient android) & install magisk after that i activate the module that can hide magisk presence (forgot what's name) so all e-banking & other payment apps work well
Would not recommend rooting anymore, as many apps that have a financial/banking/CC aspect will stop working. Like this one. Rooting used to serve great purposes & had no drawbacks; now there aren't many perks and many punishments. Even your Snapchat will refuse to work, probably because "you can use Snapchat to send & receive money". No one does, but that doesn't matter.
That sucks & I'm sorry. This (probably) wouldn't have helped with a banking app, which forces you to update frequently, but I do not update apps unless: they are buggy, there's an update I'd really like, or I am forced. Not all updates are good.
This is misinformation in the sense that with Magisk, Magiskhide and its denylist, I haven't seen an app that detects root. Everything works for me even though I'm rooted.
Not saying there aren't cases depending on phone and apps where it couldn't happen, but usually rooting is not a problem.
Oh that's fine, I'm glad it's working for you. I just remember I tried to put some form of Magisk on my rooted S8 Active & it was just a whole thing, I don't think I was successful. My financial stuff, my Samsung wallet, and even Snapchat didn't work.
Next phone & on, I thought about the reasons why I rooted in the first place. Enough of those reasons are resolved, or a non-issue now. I've turned into a more boring, regular adult that streams, surfs web, checks email, calls/texts. I've grown tired of jumping through hoops. 👍🏻 😴 Definitely miss making my battery last forever, though.