Galaxy S5 Root Method Also Unlocks Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3 and Nexus 5
A new rooting method released by hacker George Hotz unlocks various smartphones including the unrooted Galaxy S5 on Verizon and more.
Other smartphones that can be rooted using this method include the AT&T Galaxy S5, AT&T Galaxy S4 Active, Google Nexus 5, AT&T Galaxy Note 3 and Sprint Galaxy Note 3, according to Hotz who is now known as geohot. The method is known as Towelroot and it bypasses the system's protections to gain root access.
Geohot said that Towelroot should work with most handsets that have an unpatched kernel, or kernel versions that are older than June 3, 2014. Commenters on various online forums have made claims that say it works with Asus, Oppo and Sony devices.
Towelroot is a one-click rooting tool and it is packaged as an APK. It can be downloaded off Towelroot.com.
Geohot might have won a prize for it as the first developer to find a way to root the Galaxy S5 on Verizon and AT&T had a chance of winning $18,000.
The XDA-developer's community was offering this money to the first person that figured out how to unlock both of these models. They also released a list of requirements that had to be met in order to attain the money.
They included being the first person to create or find a method to exploit a fully stock VRU1ANBG build to gain root access and making a post in their thread that proves the method works with appropriate screen shots. They also must give step by step instructions and wait for at least one member to use this method and confirm that it works on their S5. Once all of these requirements are met, the bounty will be available to that person who accomplished this small feat.