14 DAY TRIAL // The Google Glass headset has officially been hacked. A few days after the device reached developers, the high-tech glasses have been hacked to give users full control of the Android OS.
The author of the jailbreak is Jay Freeman, a well-known Android and iOS developer who tested an exploit for Android on Glass and managed to hack the device, Forbes reports.
He found a technique that might be able to remove any restrictions Google might place on Glass, although it is yet unclear what type of limitations the company is to impose on consumer versions of the glasses.
According to Freeman, jailbreaking Glass could make it possible to store data locally on the device or on the linked phone, rather than upload everything to Google’s servers. The privacy concern has been addressed by many so far.
“You take a backup from the device, modify the backup, and then restore the modified backup to the device. While the backup is restoring, you make a change to the data being restored that redirects the data being restored to overwrite a critical configuration file,” Freeman told Forbes.
“This makes the device think that it is not running on real hardware: you make it think it is instead running on the emulator used by Android developers to test their software on desktop/laptop computers. As the emulator is designed for developers, it has full control and gives you ‘root’,” he continued.
Another hacker has achieved access to the device’s root. Liam McLoughlin, another developer, had announced this the day before.
As mentioned, it is unknown if the discovered exploits will work on the versions of Glass that reach the larger population.
Thankfully for those who decide to hack into Google-developed devices, their approach on the subject isn’t as harsh as other companies’. Users and OEMs are allowed to root their devices with sanctioned methods.