Glass rooted already– it’s really easy

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 26 Apr 2013

ChromeOS developer hacker am Mcughlin told Twitter Thursday that not only has he figured out how to gain root access on Glass, the task is apparently pretty simple.

looks like root is easy too: reboot-bootloader gives you fastboot oem unlock. There is fun to be had here…

Glass runs a version of ’s Android operating system, so the similarities will make the headware easy to work with for the large existing community of independent Android developers modders.

Root access provides users with a way to circumvent many of the Android operating system’s built-in safeties restrictions—adding the ability to do more with the software at the cost of creating new security pitfalls for the unwary.

o has Glass now?

Glass is currently only available to a limited number of developers testers for $1,500, though a cheaper consumer version is said to be arriving before the end of the year. A report from vingThruGlass.com details Glass evangelist Rackspace employee Robert Scoble’s response to a developer who asserted that the device’s A access is currently quite limited.

Among the reasons for this limited initial feature set, he said, is the idea that is eager to avoid any further public outcry over potential privacy issues related to Glass. Many in the media have argued that Glass poses a serious threat to privacy, some establishments—including casinos, strip clubs one Seattle bar grill—have pre-emptively banned the devices.

Glass being easy to root, however, partially removes those limitations—lowering the barriers for both well-intentioned ill-intentioned developers.

That said, Mcughlin apparently isn’t eager to push the envelope right away, saying in a subsequent tweet that he’d wait until he had a second unit before going further with his tinkering. “Don’t want to kill this one,” he wrote.