How to know if current ROM is stock?

[krad0000]

After sending my tablet to a maintenance service I need to verify if the current ROM is not modified and injected malware.
How to do it?
Anyway to check the checksum of something like that?
Thanks.

 

[Rukbat]

Malware and "not stock" are totally different. To make sure you don't have malware, now and in the future, install an antivirus program. There are plenty of them in Google Play.

 

[krad0000]

I think a hacked ROM can fool antivirus and does whatever it wants. What I need is to be assured that my tablet isn't on a hacked Android. Checking root access to determine if ROM is custom is probably not always correct.

 

[srkmagnus]

Where did you send the device for repair? If it was sent to the manufacturer just factory reset and you'll be OK. If sent to a non-certified repair service then still factory reset but keep an eye in what services are running in the background, if any. The factory reset should address any issues.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[krad0000]

If the OS kernel is hacked, it is not possible to see what really happens in the background. If there no reliable ways to verify the integrity of the OS like a BIOS-level (if it is not replaceable) check, I assume the only solution is flashing the stock ROM back. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Rukbat]

There's no BIOS-level way of confirming a Linux installation of any kind, since the BIOS and the OS only know each other through the programming hooks. (You can verify the checksum of a download of a distro, but you can't verify a checksum of an installed OS, because it can change depending on hardware.)

You can't checksum the OS itself because every carrier makes their own changes to every version of every OS.

You can't be certain of the integrity of the "stock ROM", because both the manufacturer and the carrier could have put in all sorts of spyware (and, indeed, some of those are known).

The only absolutely certain way of knowing, beyond any doubt, that you're not being spied upon is to not connect to anything - not a phone network, not the internet, not even power mains. Most people aren't concerned enough with security to take the steps needed to ensure theirs.