A developer has found a way to grant users root access to Samsung's Galaxy S6 smartphone without tripping Samsung's KNOX security.
Previous Samsung flagship smartphones did not have as much of an impact as the recently released Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have on the market, with the new devices putting the company back into regaining the dominant position that it once held in the industry.
The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge come with an impressive list of hardware and features in a very different look compared to Samsung's previous flagship devices. The modding community will of course notice the powerful smartphones, and Samsung is hoping that the in-house Exynos processor that the smartphones use on top of the KNOX protection would keep modders from hacking into the device.
Gaining root access serves as the gateway for Android devices to receive different modifications, such as the software being personalized according to the needs of specific users. Gaining root access simply allows users to take full control over their Android devices.
The problem, however, is that Samsung has the KNOX protection system in place for the company's newest flagship smartphones, which looks to maintain the integrity of devices to allow them to be securely used for features such as mobile payments. Previous efforts to root the Galaxy S6 will trip KNOX and will disqualify the smartphone from being used for secure features permanently.
However, XDA Developers forum member idler1984 was able to successfully gain root access in the Galaxy S6 without tripping the KNOX warranty using a tool known as PingPong root.
The tool circumvents tripping the KNOX system because the user is not required to utilize the ODIN software of Samsung to flash a custom recovery program into the Galaxy S6.
While the tool is currently still in its initial beta phase, PingPong is able to support several ROM variants. The tool is also fairly easy to use, with users looking to gain root access to their Galaxy S6 needing only to download one app and then clicking a button on it. The tool will then do the rest of the work.
The Galaxy S6 is now the only smartphone supported by the PingPong root, but idler1984 said that the team that developed the tool will be looking to expand the tool's capabilities to support other devices such as the Galaxy S6 Edge, the LG G Flex 2 and the HTC M9.
