Especially after seeing that &quot;root<i>my</i>device&quot; string in the code, I think there&#x27;s much to be said for this in relation to today&#x27;s world of locked-down devices which resist control from even their owners. Given that their SoCs are meant for such devices, maybe it&#x27;s AllWinner (or someone at the company)&#x27;s way of rebellion against that. If so, I&#x27;m glad that there are still people out there who do not believe in the user-oppressing culture of &quot;security&quot; that seems to have become the norm and are actually trying to do something about it. Maybe it really was just a debugging oversight, but either way, I&#x27;m not outraged by it --- contrary to what the media seems to say. This is a <i>local privilege escalation</i> for software intended to run on a device that you --- and only you --- are supposed to own anyway.<p>Relatedly, here is a post 6 years ago by someone putting in a root backdoor in a device he designed --- and explaining how to use it:
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bunniestudios.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;?p=1140" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bunniestudios.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;?p=1140</a>
If that was today, someone would discover it, scream &quot;backdoor! security vulnerability!&quot;, and it would be all over the news like this one. And that makes me very sad.