Determine if running on a rooted device

Question

My app has a certain piece of functionality that will only work on a device where root is available. Rather than having this feature fail when it is used (and then show an a

Answer 1

http://code.google.com/p/roottools/

If you do not want to use the jar file just use the code:

public static boolean findBinary(String binaryName) {
        boolean found = false;
        if (!found) {
            String[] places = { "/sbin/", "/system/bin/", "/system/xbin/",
                    "/data/local/xbin/", "/data/local/bin/",
                    "/system/sd/xbin/", "/system/bin/failsafe/", "/data/local/" };
            for (String where : places) {
                if (new File(where + binaryName).exists()) {
                    found = true;

                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        return found;
    }

Program will try to find su folder:

private static boolean isRooted() {
        return findBinary("su");
    }

Example:

if (isRooted()) {
   textView.setText("Device Rooted");

} else {
   textView.setText("Device Unrooted");
}

Answer 2

Here is a class that will check for Root one of three ways.

/** @author Kevin Kowalewski */
public class RootUtil {
    public static boolean isDeviceRooted() {
        return checkRootMethod1() || checkRootMethod2() || checkRootMethod3();
    }

    private static boolean checkRootMethod1() {
        String buildTags = android.os.Build.TAGS;
        return buildTags != null && buildTags.contains("test-keys");
    }

    private static boolean checkRootMethod2() {
        String[] paths = { "/system/app/Superuser.apk", "/sbin/su", "/system/bin/su", "/system/xbin/su", "/data/local/xbin/su", "/data/local/bin/su", "/system/sd/xbin/su",
                "/system/bin/failsafe/su", "/data/local/su", "/su/bin/su"};
        for (String path : paths) {
            if (new File(path).exists()) return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    private static boolean checkRootMethod3() {
        Process process = null;
        try {
            process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] { "/system/xbin/which", "su" });
            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
            if (in.readLine() != null) return true;
            return false;
        } catch (Throwable t) {
            return false;
        } finally {
            if (process != null) process.destroy();
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

    public static boolean isRootAvailable(){
            Process p = null;
            try{
               p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] {"su"});
               writeCommandToConsole(p,"exit 0");
               int result = p.waitFor();
               if(result != 0)
                   throw new Exception("Root check result with exit command " + result);
               return true;
            } catch (IOException e) {
                Log.e(LOG_TAG, "Su executable is not available ", e);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e(LOG_TAG, "Root is unavailable ", e);
            }finally {
                if(p != null)
                    p.destroy();
            }
            return false;
        }
 private static String writeCommandToConsole(Process proc, String command, boolean ignoreError) throws Exception{
            byte[] tmpArray = new byte[1024];
            proc.getOutputStream().write((command + "\n").getBytes());
            proc.getOutputStream().flush();
            int bytesRead = 0;
            if(proc.getErrorStream().available() > 0){
                if((bytesRead = proc.getErrorStream().read(tmpArray)) > 1){
                    Log.e(LOG_TAG,new String(tmpArray,0,bytesRead));
                    if(!ignoreError)
                        throw new Exception(new String(tmpArray,0,bytesRead));
                }
            }
            if(proc.getInputStream().available() > 0){
                bytesRead = proc.getInputStream().read(tmpArray);
                Log.i(LOG_TAG, new String(tmpArray,0,bytesRead));
            }
            return new String(tmpArray);
        }

Answer 4

Here is my code based on some answers here:

 /**
   * Checks if the phone is rooted.
   * 
   * @return <code>true</code> if the phone is rooted, <code>false</code>
   * otherwise.
   */
  public static boolean isPhoneRooted() {

    // get from build info
    String buildTags = android.os.Build.TAGS;
    if (buildTags != null && buildTags.contains("test-keys")) {
      return true;
    }

    // check if /system/app/Superuser.apk is present
    try {
      File file = new File("/system/app/Superuser.apk");
      if (file.exists()) {
        return true;
      }
    } catch (Throwable e1) {
      // ignore
    }

    return false;
  }

Answer 5

Further to @Kevins answer, I've recently found while using his system, that the Nexus 7.1 was returning false for all three methods - No which command, no test-keys and SuperSU was not installed in /system/app.

I added this:

public static boolean checkRootMethod4(Context context) {
    return isPackageInstalled("eu.chainfire.supersu", context);     
}

private static boolean isPackageInstalled(String packagename, Context context) {
    PackageManager pm = context.getPackageManager();
    try {
        pm.getPackageInfo(packagename, PackageManager.GET_ACTIVITIES);
        return true;
    } catch (NameNotFoundException e) {
        return false;
    }
}

This is slightly less useful in some situations (if you need guaranteed root access) as it's completely possible for SuperSU to be installed on devices which don't have SU access.

However, since it's possible to have SuperSU installed and working but not in the /system/app directory, this extra case will root (haha) out such cases.

Answer 6

Some modified builds used to set the system property ro.modversion for this purpose. Things seem to have moved on; my build from TheDude a few months ago has this:

cmb@apollo:~$ adb -d shell getprop |grep build
[ro.build.id]: [CUPCAKE]
[ro.build.display.id]: [htc_dream-eng 1.5 CUPCAKE eng.TheDudeAbides.20090427.235325 test-keys]
[ro.build.version.incremental]: [eng.TheDude.2009027.235325]
[ro.build.version.sdk]: [3]
[ro.build.version.release]: [1.5]
[ro.build.date]: [Mon Apr 20 01:42:32 CDT 2009]
[ro.build.date.utc]: [1240209752]
[ro.build.type]: [eng]
[ro.build.user]: [TheDude]
[ro.build.host]: [ender]
[ro.build.tags]: [test-keys]
[ro.build.product]: [dream]
[ro.build.description]: [kila-user 1.1 PLAT-RC33 126986 ota-rel-keys,release-keys]
[ro.build.fingerprint]: [tmobile/kila/dream/trout:1.1/PLAT-RC33/126986:user/ota-rel-keys,release-keys]
[ro.build.changelist]: [17615# end build properties]

The emulator from the 1.5 SDK on the other hand, running the 1.5 image, also has root, is probably similar to the Android Dev Phone 1 (which you presumably want to allow) and has this:

cmb@apollo:~$ adb -e shell getprop |grep build
[ro.build.id]: [CUPCAKE]
[ro.build.display.id]: [sdk-eng 1.5 CUPCAKE 148875 test-keys]
[ro.build.version.incremental]: [148875]
[ro.build.version.sdk]: [3]
[ro.build.version.release]: [1.5]
[ro.build.date]: [Thu May 14 18:09:10 PDT 2009]
[ro.build.date.utc]: [1242349750]
[ro.build.type]: [eng]
[ro.build.user]: [android-build]
[ro.build.host]: [undroid16.mtv.corp.google.com]
[ro.build.tags]: [test-keys]
[ro.build.product]: [generic]
[ro.build.description]: [sdk-eng 1.5 CUPCAKE 148875 test-keys]
[ro.build.fingerprint]: [generic/sdk/generic/:1.5/CUPCAKE/148875:eng/test-keys]

As for the retail builds, I don't have one to hand, but various searches under site:xda-developers.com are informative. Here is a G1 in the Netherlands, you can see that ro.build.tags does not have test-keys, and I think that's probably the most reliable property to use.