posted in Technology
GrapheneOS project: pixel 11 no longer supports hardware memory tagging (MTE); GrapheneOS might skip the the whole pixel 11 series
cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1368563/grapheneos-project-pixel-11-no-longer-supports-hardware-memory-tagging-mte
grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/117179231167297908
Replying to @beep@piefed.world
So no reason to buy a Pixel at all any more? Midrange performance, poor battery life, middling cameras, AI bloated software, all at flagship prices. Its one saving grace was Graphene support and that’s now gone too.
Just in time to move on to Motorola…
Graphene choosing to die on the hardware MTE hill has always seemed weird to me. It’s one feature but it excludes 99% of the phones except the Pixel. GrapheneOS has so much to offer besides it, and nowadays they could use Rust as a workaround anyway.
Replying to @lemmyvore@feddit.nl
Apparently the Linux kernel can emulate MTE in software:
The software MTE support in the kernel apparently predates the hardware support of the same, based on the above link.
Admittedly I might be misunderstanding something here, my confidence level is only 65%.
p.s.: i just learned that this uses a lot of extra RAM compared to hardware MTE. there seem to be approaches to mitigate the RAM blow up, but this discussion is above my paygrade, so I have to bow out. That said, I think it is correct that the absense of hardware MTE should not be the end of the road for secure smartphone design.