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There is another advantage of using a locked down file system --- you may not be able to use a rootkit to break root and then modify the file system, but some unfriendly adversary, such as the FBI or the NSA, won't be able to do it to your phone without your knowledge, either.

There's always the baseband. The baseband lives on its own cpu and often shares RAM with the "main" cpu. It runs closed-source, proprietary firmware that has unknown security bugs, exploits, and backdoors. It's reasonable to assume that anyone within reach of your cellphone tower has root to your device, and the NSA and LE almost certainly do. The mobsters John Ardito and Peter Peluso were caught when the FBI turned on their cellphones using the baseband and used them as microphones to pick up nearby conversations.

Why wouldn't the FBI or NSA just demand the encryption keys and then sign their malware?

Forensic tools used by law enforcement and intelligence organisations don't modify the system partition; in fact, modifying anything on the phone is highly undesirable, from a forensics point of view.

Re needing to wipe the disk:

1) Modern Android has 'adb backup' so if your phone is not locked, someone who got ahold of your phone can use it to dump your data from a non-rooted phone.

2) Law enforcement and intelligence organisations may or may not have tools to dump your data directly off a (desoldered) flash memory chip. You need to enable disk encryption (* ) to protect against this.

(* ) I'm assuming a disk encryption that's not rigged, i.e. has no key escrow available to law enforcement.

If your phone is not locked, and it's physically compromised, then you're hosed already. If this is something you care about, you probably should lock your phone, and keep it physically secure.

If your phone is locked, and there aren't any available root exploits for the system (why is why I'd agree with tytso about getting an unlockable phone -- less incentive for the community to collaborate on what are essentially weaponizeable root exploits) then a physical compromise that installs a persistent rootkit must wipe the device beforehand. (Which gets rid of your data, and is easily noticeable)

Oh, you're talking about persistent rootkit. I was talking about making a one-off backup of your phone, then returning it to your shelf.

Assuming they're not already tappping the data centers where your private info is stored and that they haven't already had their rootkit baked into the system upfront.

The nexus devices do not support verzion's lte network, so in the end you are left paying 650-900 for a developer version. That's fine for me, I'm a mobile developer but not many who aren't directly making money off of the device would be willing to make the same choice.

you are left paying 650-900 for a developer version

The Nexus 5 is $350-$400. The Nexus 4 was even cheaper. I got mine for $200 when the sold off their remaining inventory.

Also most of us don't need Verizon.

He means to get 4g on Verizon w an unlocked boot loader you end up paying for the dev edition.

Thanks for clarification, I was pretty puzzled.

That's incorrect though. The Verizon Galaxy Nexus has an unlocked bootloader and works fine on their LTE network.

Right but the Nexus 5 does not support Verizon's 4g network. Verizon coverage is much better in the Northeast USA (where I live), so much that even if I wanted to switch to T-Mobile (or god forbid AT&T) I doubt I could.

It actually does support at least one of the bands that Verizon uses for LTE. There's a small chance that, like the Nexus 7 LTE, if you insert an already activated SIM card it might just work for LTE.

I've been using a subsidized Galaxy Nexus with LTE on Verizon's network for two years, so I'm not sure where you came up with that claim but it's wrong.

Yes the galaxy nexus a three year old phone that's, IMO, not a very good phone. My point was that just getting a nexus device isn't a very good option for a large portion of people.

> the FBI or the NSA, won't be able to do it

Well, yeah, right.