Changelog | MagiskRoot

Magisk v29.0

This release looks minor at the surface, however, the entire codebase has gone through significant refactoring and migration. The native code in Magisk used to be mainly C++, but several contributors and I have been steadily rewriting parts of the code in Rust since April 2022. After years of effort, the Rust-ification of the project slowly began picking up steam, and at the moment of this release, over 40% of the native code has been rewritten in Rust, with several major subsystem rewrites in the PR queue, planned to be merged for the next release.

Many might wonder, why introduce a new language to the project? My reason is actually not to reduce memory safety issues (although it is a nice side benefit), but to be able to develop Magisk using a more modern programming language. After using Rust for a while, it’s clear to me that using Rust allows me to write more correct code and makes me happier compared to dealing with C++. People share the same sentiment as I do.

Changelog
[General] Massive internal refactoring and code migration
[App] Support downloading module zip files with XZ compression
[App] Disable app animations when system animations are disabled
[MagiskMount] Support systemlessly deleting files with modules using blank file nodes
[MagiskInit] Redesign sepolicy patching and injection logic
[MagiskSU] Better TTY/PTY support

Magisk v28.1

[App] Fix stub APK download link
[App] Fix support for Android lower than 8.0
[General] Fix support for MTK Samsung devices
[MagiskInit] Fix a regression for 2SI devices
[MagiskPolicy] Fix a regression causing overlay.d replaced files to be not accessible
Full Changelog: here

Magisk v28.0

[General] Support 16k page size
[General] Add basic support for RISC-V (not built in releases)
[General] Use a minimal libc to build static executables (magiskinit and magiskboot) for smaller sizes
[Core] Remove unnecessary mirror for magic mount
[Core] Update boot image detection logic to support more devices
[MagiskInit] Rewrite 2SI logic for injecting magiskinit as init
[MagiskInit] Update preinit partition detection
[Zygisk] Update internal JNI hooking implementation
[MagiskPolicy] Preserve sepolicy config flag after patching
[MagiskPolicy] Optimize patching rules to reduce the amount of new rules being injected
[DenyList] Support enforcing denylist when Zygisk is disabled
[Resetprop] Improve implementation to workaround several property modification detections
[Resetprop] Update to properly work with property overlays
[App] Major internal code refactoring
[App] Support patching Samsung firmware with images larger than 8GiB
[App] Use user-initiated job instead of foreground services on Android 14
[App] Support Android 13+ built-in per-app language preferences
[App] Add action.sh support to allow modules to define an action triggered from UI
[MagiskBoot] Support spliting kernel images without decompression
[MagiskBoot] Properly support vendor boot images
[MagiskBoot] Disable Samsung PROCA from kernel image

Magisk v27.0

[Zygisk] Introduce new code injection mechanism
[Zygisk] Support new signature introduced in U QPR2
[SEPolicy] Update libsepol to properly set some policy config bits
[MagiskBoot] Support compressing init so Magisk is installable on devices with small boot partitions
[ResetProp] Add new wait for property feature resetprop -w

Magisk v26.4

[MagiskBoot] Don’t pad zeros if signed boot image is larger
[MagiskPolicy] Fix genfscon and filename_trans
[MagiskPolicy] Fix bug in libsepol
[Zygisk] Fix and simplify file descriptor sanitization logic
[App] Prevent OOM when patching AP tarfiles
[App] Fix bug in device configuration detection
[Daemon] Fix certificate parsing of APKs
[General] Fix logging errors from C++ code being ignored

Magisk v26.1

Changes from v26.0

[App] Fix crashing when revoking root permissions
[MagiskInit] Always prefer ext4 partitions over f2fs when selecting the pre-init partition
[General] Restore module files’ context/owner/group from mirror. This is a regression introduced in v26.0

(The following is the same as v26.0 release notes)

Hey! Long time no see!

Bumping Minimum Android Version to 6.0

Magisk’s support for Android Lollipop has been pretty broken for a while without it being noticed. Also, none of the active developers of Magisk have actual hardware to run Android Lollipop. We rely on using the official Android emulator for regression testing on older platforms, however Google never shipped a Lollipop emulator image with SELinux support, leaving us with no option but to drop Lollipop support since we don’t feel comfortable supporting Android Lollipop without adequate testing.

New Magic Mount Implementation

Magic Mount, the feature that make modules modify partitions, has gone through a major rewrite. The existing implementation doesn’t work well with OEMs injecting overlays into their system using overlayfs. The new implementation fundamentally changes how filesystem mirrors are created, giving us a more accurate clone of the unmodified filesystem.

New `sepolicy.rule` Implementation

Magisk allows modules to provide custom SELinux patches by including the file sepolicy.rule. Due to the complicated nature of SELinux patching, the compatibility of this functionality has been pretty spotty; many devices are not supported. In this release, a brand new pre-init partition detection mechanism has been designed to support even more devices. Due to complicated reasons, this detection mechanism cannot be performed in a custom recovery environment.

This means that any installation of Magisk v26+ using custom recovery will be incomplete; a subsequent re-installation through the Magisk app after booting up is required.

Zygisk Updates

The new Zygisk API v4 is now live! It comes with new features and a refined PLT function hook API. The implementaton of Zygisk has also gone through some major refactoring, including new code loading/unloading mechanisms and a new PLT function hook implementation.

Head over to the Zygisk Module Sample repository to check out the new API and documentation!

Magisk v25.2

[MagiskInit] Fix a potential issue when stub cpio is used
[MagiskInit] Fix reboot to recovery when stub cpio is used
[MagiskInit] Fix sepolicy.rules symlink for rootfs devices
[General] Better data encryption detection
[General] Move the whole logging infrastructure into Rust

Magisk v25.1

[MagiskBoot] Fix ramdisk backup being incorrectly skipped
[MagiskBoot] Add new feature to detect unsupported dtb and abort during installation
[Zygisk] Change binary hijack paths
[App] Fix incorrect recovery mode detection and installation
[MagiskInit] Fix config not properly exported in legacy SAR devices
[General] Enforce the Magisk app to always match or be newer than magiskd

Magisk v25.0

Another major release! A lot of the changes aren’t visible at the surface, but v25 is actually a really substantial upgrade!

MagiskInit Rewrite

A significant portion of magiskinit (the critical software that runs before your device boots up) is completely rewritten from scratch. Ever since Android introduced Project Treble in Android 8.0, Magisk has been constantly fighting against the increasingly complex partitioning and early mount setups of all kinds of devices, sometimes with weird OEM specific implementations. It got to a point that magiskinit had become so complicated that few people (including myself!) were aware of every detail, and maintaining this piece of software like this was clearly not sustainable. After many months of planning (yes, this whole re-architecture has been in my head for a long time) and some help from external contributors, a whole new sepolicy injection mechanism is introduced into Magisk, solving the “SELinux Problem” once and for all.

Since this is a full paradigm shift on how Magisk hot-patch the device at boot, several behaviors that many developers implicitly relied on might not exist. For example, Magisk no longer patches fstabs in most scenarios, which means AVB will remain intact; some custom kernels rely on AVB being stripped out for them by Magisk.

MagiskSU Security Enhancements

The superuser functionality of Magisk has not seen much changes ever since its introduction. v25 focuses on making root permission management more accurate and secure:

Add a whole new package tracking system to ensure malicious UID reuse attack cannot be performed
Properly support and implement the UX in the Magisk app for packages using sharedUserId
Enforce root manager APK signature verification to combat the rampant unofficial Magisk app “mods”

Many might not realize, but using a trusted, unmodified Magisk app is really important. Magisk’s root daemon treats the Magisk app differently and gives it blanket root access without any restrictions. A modded Magisk app can potentially backdoor your device.

And in case some of you are about to put on your tin foil hats, this is not designed to “vendor lock-in”; the goal is to make sure your root management app comes from the same developer of the underlying root implementation. Magisk’s build system allows custom distributors to use its own signing keys, and in addition, I am also providing official debug builds which skips any signature verification for development.

[MagiskInit] Update 2SI implementation, significantly increase device compatibility (e.g. Sony Xperia devices)
[MagiskInit] Introduce new sepolicy injection mechanism
[MagiskInit] Support Oculus Go
[MagiskInit] Support Android 13 GKIs (Pixel 6)
[MagiskBoot] Fix vbmeta extraction implementation
[App] Fix stub app on older Android versions
[App] [MagiskSU] Properly support apps using sharedUserId
[MagiskSU] Fix a possible crash in magiskd
[MagiskSU] Prune unused UIDs as soon as system_server restarts to prevent UID reuse attacks
[MagiskSU] Verify and enforce the installed Magisk app’s certificate to match the distributor’s signature
[MagiskSU] [Zygisk] Proper package management and detection
[Zygisk] Fix function hooking on devices running Android 12 with old kernels
[Zygisk] Fix Zygisk’s self code unloading implementation
[DenyList] Fix DenyList on shared UID apps
[BusyBox] Add workaround for devices running old kernels

Magisk v24.3

[General] Stop using getrandom syscall
[Zygisk] Update API to v3, adding new fields to AppSpecializeArgs
[App] Improve app repackaging installation workflow

Magisk v24.2

[MagiskSU] Fix buffer overflow
[MagiskSU] Fix owner managed multiuser superuser settings
[MagiskSU] Fix command logging when using su -c <cmd>
[MagiskSU] Prevent su request indefinite blocking
[MagiskBoot] Support lz4_legacy archive with multiple magic
[MagiskBoot] Fix lz4_lg compression
[DenyList] Allow targeting processes running as system UID
[Zygisk] Workaround Samsung’s “early zygote”
[Zygisk] Improved Zygisk loading mechanism
[Zygisk] Fix application UID tracking
[Zygisk] Fix improper umask being set in zygote
[App] Fix BusyBox execution test
[App] Improve stub loading mechanism
[App] Major app upgrade flow improvements
[General] Improve commandline error handling and messaging

Magisk v24.1

[App] Stability improvements

Magisk v24

It has been a while since the last public release, long time no see! A personal update for those unaware: I am now working at Google on the Android Platform Security team. Without further ado, let’s jump right into it!

MagiskHide Removal

I have lost interest in fighting this battle for quite a while; plus, the existing MagiskHide implementation is flawed in so many ways. Decoupling Magisk from root hiding is, in my opinion, beneficial to the community. Ever since my announcement on Twitter months ago, highly effective “root hiding” modules (much MUCH better than MagiskHide) has been flourishing, which again shows that people are way more capable than I am on this subject. So why not give those determined their time to shine, and let me focus on improving Magisk instead of drowning in the everlasting cat-and-mouse game 😉.

Sunsetting Magisk-Modules-Repo

Due to lack of time and maintenance, the centralized Magisk-Modules-Repo was frozen, and the functionality to download modules from the repo is removed in v24.0. As a supplement, module developers can now specify an updateJson URL in their modules. The Magisk app will use that to check, download, and install module updates.

Introducing Zygisk

Zygisk is Magisk in Zygote, the next big thing for Magisk! When this feature is enabled, a part of Magisk will run in the Zygote daemon process, allowing module developers to run code directly in every Android apps’ process. If you’ve heard of Riru, then Zygisk is inspired by that project and is functionally similar, though the implementation is quite different internally. I cannot wait to see what module developers can achieve using Zygisk!

Documentation

For developers, details about updateJson and building Zygisk modules can all be found in the updated documentation.

[General] MagiskHide is removed from Magisk
[General] Support Android 12
[General] Support devices that do not support 32-bit and only runs 64-bit code
[General] Update BusyBox to 1.34.1
[Zygisk] Introduce new feature: Zygisk
[Zygisk] Introduce DenyList feature to revert Magisk features in user selected processes
[MagiskBoot] Support patching 32-bit kernel zImages
[MagiskBoot] Support boot image header v4
[MagiskBoot] Support patching out skip_initramfs from dtb bootargs
[MagiskBoot] Add new env variable PATCHVBMETAFLAG to configure whether vbmeta flags should be patched
[MagiskInit] Support loading fstab from /system/etc (required for Pixel 6)
[MagiskInit] Support /proc/bootconfig for loading boot configurations
[MagiskInit] Better support for some Meizu devices
[MagiskInit] Better support for some OnePlus/Oppo/Realme devices
[MagiskInit] Support init.real on some Sony devices
[MagiskInit] Skip loading Magisk when detecting DSU
[MagiskPolicy] Load *_compat_cil_file from system_ext
[MagiskSU] Use isolated devpts if the kernel supports it
[MagiskSU] Fix root shell if isolated mount namespace is set
[resetprop] Deleted properties are now wiped from memory instead of just unlinking
[App] Build a single APK for all ABIs
[App] Switch to use standard bottom navigation bar
[App] Downloading modules from the centralized Magisk-Modules-Repo is removed
[App] Support user configuration of boot image vbmeta patching
[App] Restore the ability to install Magisk on the other slot on some A/B devices
[App] Allow modules to specify an update URL for in-app update + install