Rooting Pixel XL and installing LineageOS?

[maartendc]

Hello all,

 

The original Pixel XL I have has stopped receiving security updates a while ago, back in October 2019 was the last one.

 

Since I do a lot of sensitive stuff on the phone, including banking apps and the like, I was looking to either upgrade, or install a newer version of Android on it.

 

I heard people root their phone, and then install LineageOS. I have never installed a custom rom before, so I had a couple of questions:

 

- Does LineageOS provide up to date security patches for Android?

- Is LineageOS a stock Android experience?

- Does rooting the phone inherently compromise the security of the phone? So rooting it to install later security patches is kind of pointless?

 

Thanks!

[SupaKomputa]

12 minutes ago, maartendc said:

- Does LineageOS provide up to date security patches for Android?

- Is LineageOS a stock Android experience?

- Does rooting the phone inherently compromise the security of the phone? So rooting it to install later security patches is kind of pointless?

- up to the android version they supported, they may or may not apply it.

- close to stock, you can have a stock launcher if you like.

- Yes, if you install a bad app that can make use of the rooting, basically any app that can use the root account can do whatever they want.

[kelvinhall05]

Rooting the phone and unlocking the bootloader is an exponentially bigger security risk than having a slightly old version of Android. If you have TWRP installed (has to be for custom ROMs) and your phone isn't encrypted (also very likely with custom ROMs) you can literally browse the entire phone's internal storage, delete the lock screen password files, and just reboot the phone and get in.

[maartendc]

4 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Rooting the phone and unlocking the bootloader is an exponentially bigger security risk than having a slightly old version of Android.

 

30 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Just use your phone as-is

The banking apps should continue to work

Else, try installing an up-to-date custom rom but you do not want to root the phone

 

 

 

39 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

- Yes, if you install a bad app that can make use of the rooting, basically any app that can use the root account can do whatever they want.

Alright, guess I will be sticking with running my phone as it is then.

 

Thanks for the informative responses!

[paddy-stone]

Also, most banking apps will recognise if a phone has been rooted and won't work anymore, because of the security concerns.