The Oculus Quest 2 VR headset wasn’t launched until October, but hackers have reportedly found a way to “jailbreak” it and bypass the mandatory Facebook login.
This breakthrough was reported by the Extended Reality Safety Initiative (XR). When the nonprofit research firm went to Reddit last week, it confirmed that it had achieved root access to the device.
After that, a blog post was posted on the hacker community website ReadyHackerOne stating that the Reddit post was validated and the Oculus Quest 2 headset was successfully jailbroken.
The post on HackerOne states: “A researcher from the XR community has been given root access to Oculus Quest 2 and can bypass the Facebook login. XRSI’s own researchers have validated this jailbreak and are currently working on assurances to protect people to collect who have discovered these methods of jailbreaking. “
Hackers have tried to jailbreak and gain root access (which comes with superior privileges) to the headset simply because a Facebook account is required to function properly at all.
Since launching in October, people who have purchased the Quest 2 have had issues using their Facebook accounts with the device.
What is “jailbreaking”?
Jailbreaking is the term used to describe the removal of software restrictions that a manufacturer places on a device. In most cases, jailbreaking refers to this process in Apple products. Basically, jailbreaking your phone lets you do things that are otherwise limited to you, such as: Such as installing software that is not available from the Apple App Store, and so on.
According to Eurogamer and other outlets, some people had a headset that was not working due to problems logging into their own Facebook accounts. In addition, some people’s Facebook accounts were banned for not having a good reputation.
If that wasn’t enough of a headache, we reported over the weekend that if you deactivate your Facebook profile, it will also deactivate your Oculus profile and that deleting your Facebook account will completely affect all of your games, purchases, and progress.
XR is working on making the jailbreak publicly available, but Facebook may try to close it before it does.
I want to clarify. I don’t think you should buy the Quest 2 at all. Root access doesn’t magically make the Quest 2 a good headset. The fact that we’re fighting for it should tell you how much FB failed us. https://t.co/OiZfhddl8VOctober 27, 2020
There are a lot of people out there who want this jailbreak.
WebXR developer Robert Long took to Twitter to offer someone a $ 5,000 reward if they were able to jailbreak Quest 2.
In a series of tweets, he went on to explain why root access was important and listed a number of reasons why; mainly citing safety concerns and consumer rights.
“We have the right to repair our own hardware,” said Long. “We have the right to restore access to this hardware if it is withdrawn from us. We have the right to change our own devices legally, just as people already do with their phones.”
“We need to be sure that our biometric data is being used correctly. We need to know how and when our voice and movement data is being used. Security researchers need root access to the headset in order to validate the manufacturer’s information.
“These principles should apply to every headset and app ecosystem. By opposing Facebook, we are advocating the entire XR ecosystem.”
What is rooting?
Rooting is often compared to jailbreaking. However, this is more about giving the user full access to a device, mostly Andriod phones and tablets.
Having root access gives you superuser privileges and allows you to change, replace, or otherwise remove system applications and settings, and run other specialized apps that would otherwise require administrative privileges. However, it also often opens you up to security risks and is regularly used in piracy practices.
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