Hacking of consumer electronics

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The hacking of consumer electronics is a common practice that users perform to customize and modify their devices beyond what is typically possible. This activity has a long history, dating from the days of early computer, programming, and electronics hobbyists.

• A notable case of the hacking of consumer electronics is jailbreaking of Apple iOS devices or the rooting of Android phones, although many other electronics such as video game consoles are regularly hacked. While these methods allow unrestricted modification of an existing operating system installation, some third-party operating systems have been developed as a replacement to a device's default OS, such as Replicant and postmarketOS on cellphones, or DD-WRT and tomato on routers.

The process of consumer electronics hacking is usually accomplished through modification of the system software, either an operating system or firmware, but hardware modifications are not uncommon.

The legality of hacking consumer electronics has been challenged over the years, with an example of this being the cracking of encryption keys used in High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, where detractors have been threatened under the basis of legal action. However, some companies have encouraged hardware hacking, such as Google's Nexus and Pixel series of smartphones.