Backdoor with root access found from OnePlus phones

Re:Backdoor with root access found from OnePlus phones by nucleardog on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @11:45AM (#15696629)

Not sure specifically how you installed PA, but, generally, that would look something like:

    1. Unlock bootloader
    2. Install aftermarket recovery (CWM or TWRP)
    3. Install new ROM (PA)

Now that you've done 1 and 2 (usually the difficult parts), you really just need to repeat step 3 with a different ROM.

Assuming you have TWRP installed, LineageOS has instructions for your specific situation (installing from recovery) at: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/oneplus3/install#installi...

If you have CWM or something else, it should be relatively easy to translate the instructions to your specific situation. If you have trouble, you can just start from the beginning of that document for instructions to install TWRP instead.

If you want Google Apps (gmail, etc) installed, you'll need to download that from here: http://opengapps.org/ (ARM64, 7.1) and treat that as your "additional packages" for the purposes of those instructions.

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Re:Backdoor with root access found from OnePlus phones by jesse_m on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @12:49PM (#15697362)

I just started messing with LineageOS on my Moto G4. Make sure you make a backup of the stock image so you can flash it back if something goes wrong with your cell network settings. I didn't and now I only have 3G and have been procrastinating flashing the stock everything and starting over.

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Re:Backdoor with root access found from OnePlus phones by nucleardog on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @02:52PM (#15698519)

For the OnePlus hardware the stock system images are all available for download from OnePlus themselves: http://downloads.oneplus.net/

Most OEMs should have some sort of downloads available. If that fails, you can generally find a thread on the xda forums that has links to download the stock ROM and other files (though then not directly from the OEM, so there's some element of trust/risk there).

(In your case, it looks like Motorola hosts the G4 images at: http://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bo...)

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Re:Backdoor with root access found from OnePlus phones by dopamean on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @12:03PM (#15696857)

I have TWRP installed. Thanks for the links. It looks like this will be simpler than I thought. I'm a little paranoid about bricking my phone as I only bought it a year ago and I'd have to have to get another.

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Re:Backdoor with root access found from OnePlus phones by nucleardog on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @12:14PM (#15696989)

It's generally really hard to truly brick a phone these days.

People throw around the term like it's lost all meaning - usually when someone says they "bricked" their device, they're meaning that "it was moderately inconvenient to recover and I lost my data". Not that it's a literal brick that they now put in the garbage bin.

If you've got recovery, you've got an easy path to getting it up and running again. Just reflash your ROM, a different ROM, a stock ROM, whatever.

If you hose your recovery, you boot your phone into fastboot/odin/heimdall/etc mode which is built into the phone's firmware. From there, you can still flash images to the internal partitions to replace your recovery/system/anything else.

I don't wanna be the guy that doesn't include the "there's always risk" warning on his instructions, but if you're just flashing back and forth between ROMs the worst I'd ever expect you to mess up is wiping your internal storage and photos by accident.

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Re:Backdoor with root access found from OnePlus phones by dopamean on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @01:45PM (#15697921)

Fantastic. Thanks for the info. Like I said, the last time I had done this was a few years ago when the risk of "bricking" a device seemed a bit more real. I'm glad to know that getting TWRP installed was a good move.

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