are there apps and OS being developed that a person like me could use to replace what is 'stock' on a Samsung Galaxy Note 9, for example?
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github.com/AndroidHardeni can be used on the Galaxy Note 9.
It wouldn't be one of the devices supported by future releases of another hardened Android variant because Samsung chooses not to support required security features for alternate operating systems, only for the stock OS.
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Projects like github.com/AndroidHardeni and most of my previous work on Android privacy and security improvements require integration into the OS and can't really be used without replacing the OS, which relies upon the hardware having decent support for doing it securely.
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I'm not aware of any smartphones other than Pixel phones where important security features like verified boot and hardware-based keystore / encryption support are fully available to an alternate operating system. Vendors usually treat it as an afterthought and it isn't secure.
I'm hopeful that many more phones are going to start supporting using an alternate OS with all of the security features intact. I'm tempted to push for Google to make it mandatory to support these security features if the device chooses to support installing another OS.
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