this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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Meta Quest 3/3s XR headsets finally rooted after 2 years (github.com)
submitted 14 hours ago by utopiah@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
19 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Meta XR headsets are very cheap for the performance they give. Unfortunately they require a Meta account and one can assume as much data as legally possibly is sent back to the advertising company.

For years now, since the Quest 1, those Android devices have not been rooted except for some specific version number of the Quest 2.

This recent work https://github.com/FreeXR/eureka_panther-adreno-gpu-exploit-1 makes the latest headset with a rather recent update (but NOT the very last ones, so be cautious!) rootable.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 9 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Yesssssss!

Using root on META Quest 3/3S is very dangerous SINGLE CHANGE IN THE BOOTLOADER PARTITION WILL RESULT IN A HARD BRICK AND MAKE YOUR DEVICE UNUSABLE!!! requiring one to unsolder the UFS chip and reprogramming it with external (and expensive) hardware. Reflashing the device via EDL is impossible due to Meta refusing to provide the users the cryptographical keys needed to authentificate secure boot on QFPROM implemetation.

Ehhhhh.... Maybe I'll wait a bit...

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

It is indeed a risk AND you must pin your current OS version, so no new update including no new feature (not sure which one one would need for now though) but more importantly no security updates.

That being said... if you do not actively try to mess it up, i.e. doing precisely what has been warned against NOT doing, it should be safe.

In doubt, if you can't afford another headset, have no actual need for rooting and have never done that before, definitely safer to wait.

[–] LedgeDrop@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 hours ago

Actually, those steps are the ones necessary to recover from a hard brick (re: the device is unusable because you did something you shouldn't have as root).

The actual process to root the device is simply running a few adb commands (so a prereq is having Developer Mode enabled).

Once you have ran the exploit, your root escalation is temporary until the device is rebooted or you take additional steps to persists your root privileges (thus, potentially leading you towards a hard brick).

source: The docs