Magisk has been one of the most popular and widely used software to root Android devices. But, according to its developer John Wu, MagiskHide in v23.0 of Magisk no longer passes Google SafetyNet. To those unaware, MagiskHide was a popular feature in Magisk that allowed users to hide the root status of their device.
Many apps, for example, banking apps and some multimedia apps, don’t work properly on rooted devices. But MagiskHide allowed your rooted Android device to trick those apps into thinking it wasn’t rooted. So, these apps would still work properly on your rooted device. But now, Wu has officially declared MagiskHide dead, urging users to find alternatives if they need any kind of root hiding.
MagiskHide is Officially Dead, Developer Now Works for Google
John Wu via. his Twitter account topjohnwu on Tuesday announced that “MagiskHide of Magisk v23.0 no longer passed SafetyNet, even with BASIC evalType.” The developer said he tested it on his “Pixel 4 XL running stock Android 12 with vanilla Magisk v23.0.” He also announced that the support for MagiskHide had officially ended.
There are a few reasons why the developer has dropped support for MagiskHide in the latest Magisk version. One is that the Mountain View-based giant has made it trickier to hide the root status of Android devices with the rollout of the hardware key attestation feature. Another reason is that developer Wu now works for Google’s Android Platform Security team. While he has the go-ahead to continue working on Magisk, it would still be a conflict of interest for him to continue developing MagiskHide, a software explicitly designed to circumvent Android security features.
However, third-party developers are still free to develop modules for Magisk or other software that attempt to hide root status. While some users report that MagiskHide of older versions still works perfectly. But seeing the official support for it getting dropped, you may have to find alternatives in the future.
