OnePlus Phones Come Preinstalled With a Factory App That Can Root Devices (bleepingcomputer.com)

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: Some OnePlus devices, if not all, come preinstalled with an application named EngineerMode that can be used to root the device and may be converted into a fully-fledged backdoor by clever attackers. The app was discovered by a mobile security researcher who goes online by the pseudonym of Elliot Alderson -- the name of the main character in the Mr. Robot TV series. Speaking to Bleeping Computer, the researcher said he started investigating OnePlus devices after a story he saw online last month detailing a hidden stream of telemetry data sent by OnePlus devices to the company's servers.

Comments

Factory root is a feature.

[CptLoRes]

Seriously no joke. Once you have gotten used to a rooted phone features like full file access etc, there is no going back.

Re:How is this different than OEM signed apps?

[cloud.pt]

I just want to add the fact that before Samsung, Google Play itself updates without user prompt as soon as you get internet. The very first app that was self-updatable, and such an update is unblockable, is Google Play and Google Play Services themselves.