Well, so much for the G2’s much-knocked anti-tamper system. You know, that one that would reset the hardware to its original state if it detected it had been modified? Yep — it’s toast. Burnt, smoldering toast.
We saw the first brick tumble earlier this month, when hacker scotty2 managed to achieve a permanent root (that is, he was able to hack his device to give him full administrative access, and those powers weren’t automatically nixed by the anti-tamper system).
The same gent has gone and bumped things up not one, not two, but three notches: the SIM slot? Unlocked for any carrier. The lock that keeps the firmware from being flashed for use on another carrier? Destroyed. The security system that checks the signatures on firmware to make sure they’re authentic? Disabled! At this point, hackers have pretty much full run over the G2.
So, what’s that mean for you, the G2 owner? If the G1 was any indication, nothing but good stuff; at the very least, you can probably expect prompt updates to the latest build of Android for as long as the hardware itself can support it. In the mean time, tread carefully if you dare dive into these hacks; they’re about as early and shaky as hacks come, and handset brickage seems to be pretty common right now.