Chainfire, the creator of SuperSU, has once again shown the world why they’re an Android rooting legend, this time by getting basic root privileges on Android O’s first developer preview within days of its release. Chainfire took to Twitter to get the news out to the world, but did not reveal publicly how it had been done or point to any tools that could help others to achieve the same. Instead, Chainfire stated that there are a number of issues with the root that has been achieved thus far, and those issues will need to be worked out with time. Chainfire also did not state exactly what the imperfect root privileges that have been achieved here are capable of, such as whether Busybox can be used yet.
Thus far, no details have been posted elsewhere, which means that the rooting community at large will be looking directly to Chainfire for any updates timing for this development is quite impeccable; a recent release of the Substratum theme engine adds in fledgling support for Android O, but Substratum obviously requires a rooted device to use. This development also means that work can soon begin on porting over popular root tools like the Xposed Framework, Magisk, Kernel Adiutor, and of course, Chainfire’s own SuperSU. On top of that, root with the fist developer preview of Android O means that Chainfire and others can more easily keep up with changes to AOSP that may defeat existing root methods.
This is one of the fastest turnaround times for a root solution on a new software version in Android’s history, which seems to imply that Android O is somewhat similar to Nougat, under the hood, or at the very least, is not very powerfully protected against exploits that can be used to root devices running it. Chainfire’s continuing work on the OS all but ensures that those who wish to root their devices on Android O will be able to in the near future, and perhaps even have a root solution ready by the time the newest Android version comes out of preview status and is ready for primetime.