Posts by Skanda Hazarika- XDA Developers

How to (maybe) bypass SafetyNet hardware attestation on devices with an unlocked bootloader

Skanda Hazarika January 30, 2021

Over the last couple of years, the challenge of bypassing SafetyNet Attestation has evolved from a simple cat and mouse game between Google and the modding community to a burgeoning battle chock full of obscure barriers. Thanks to the rise of hardware-backed attestation techniques, it is very difficult to bypass the boot image integrity verification...

OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T seeing work for mainline Linux kernel support

Skanda Hazarika January 30, 2021

One of the perks of buying a OnePlus smartphone is the aftermarket development support. The company is generally known for its timely kernel source code releases (they have been slow at publishing sources a couple of times) and promotion of custom ROMs for EOL devices among other things, which makes it a fan favorite in...

Android 11 Update Tracker: List of major phones getting the latest release!

Skanda Hazarika January 29, 2021

It’s that time of year again when Google releases the new version of its mobile operating system, and after a long few months of beta testing, the American tech giant is finally rolling out the stable version of Android 11. But of course, it’s not just Pixel users who are getting this update. A range...

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite, Galaxy M21, and Galaxy F41 get updated to Android 11 with One UI 3.0

Skanda Hazarika January 28, 2021

In the past, software updates from Samsung have lagged many months behind the official release of a new Android OS version. Luckily, the Korean OEM nowadays seems to be speeding up its release cycle a lot. The company has already upgraded a bunch of devices from its portfolio to Android 11 with One UI 3.0,...

Samsung Galaxy S20 series receives updates with February 2021 security patches

Skanda Hazarika January 28, 2021

Google has a tradition of rolling out Android security patches for the Pixel series of smartphones on the first Monday of each month, which means we only have a few days to go before the Android security bulletin (ASB) of February 2021 goes live. But it doesn’t mean other OEMs can’t beat Google at their...

PSA: If your PC runs Linux, you should update Sudo now

Skanda Hazarika January 27, 2021

Despite the fact that tens of thousands of contributors actively pore over the source code of the Linux kernel and various Unix utilities looking for security flaws, it's not unheard of for serious bugs to go unnoticed. Just a day ago, the folks over at Qualys revealed a new heap-based buffer overflow attack vector that...

Kernel sources for the Samsung Galaxy S21, Redmi Note 9T, and Sony Xperia 1 II’s Android 11 release are now available

Skanda Hazarika January 27, 2021

Android is built on top of the Linux kernel, which means the OEMs are obliged to provide the source code, upon request, of any Linux kernel binaries they distribute on devices they sell. Most vendors nowadays release the sources within a short period of their devices hitting the market, fulfilling their legal obligation of the...

Always-on Display can be enabled on OnePlus 7/7T series devices with Android 11 – Here’s how

Skanda Hazarika January 25, 2021

Always-on Display has been a feature on several smartphones for a long time. Ironically, OnePlus devices never had a proper AOD implementation until the release of OxygenOS 11. The company, however, decided not to include this popular feature in the first Android 11-based Open Beta builds for the OnePlus 7 and 7T series that were...

OnePlus Nord’s second OxygenOS 11 beta brings January 2021 security patches

Skanda Hazarika January 25, 2021

It has only been about three weeks since the first Android 11-based OxygenOS Open Beta update arrived for the OnePlus Nord. Keeping the update train rolling, the company is now sending out another Open Beta update to the mid-ranger 5G smartphone. The new build might not be a huge update in terms of new features,...

Sony Xperia 5 II, Xperia XZ1 series and Xiaomi Mi Note 2 receive Android 11 custom ROMs

Skanda Hazarika January 22, 2021

The custom ROM‌ development scene is in full swing over on the XDA‌ forums. Ever since Google published the Android 11 source code, aftermarket developers have been relentlessly working toward making the latest flavor of Android accessible to more and more devices. The Redmi K20 Pro/Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro was the first phone to receive...

Download: POCO X2 is getting its Android 11 update with MIUI 12

Skanda Hazarika January 22, 2021

Launched back in February last year, the POCO X2 (our review) offers some solid specifications, such as a capable Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G SoC, a 4,500mAh battery with 27W fast charging support, and a 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor as the primary rear camera. The factory-installed operating system on the phone was MIUI 11 on top of...

Here’s why the Termux app is no longer receiving updates on Google Play

Skanda Hazarika January 22, 2021

As many of you may well be aware, the Android operating system is powered by the Linux kernel underneath. Despite this, Android and Linux apps are not readily exchangeable because of different runtime systems and libraries. You can, however, get a terminal emulator app like Termux up and running on any Android device. For years,...