Pixel 11 Drops Hardware Memory Tagging and GrapheneOS May Skip It Entirely

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/pixel-11-drops-hardware-memory-tagging-and-grapheneos-may-skip-it-entirely.
Pixel 11 drops ARM Memory Tagging Extension, a key hardware security feature. Here’s why GrapheneOS calls it a serious security regression.
Check more stories related to cybersecurity at: https://hackernoon.com/c/cybersecurity. You can also check exclusive content about #cybersecurity, #android, #google-pixel-11, #mobile-security, #memory-safety, #graphene-os, #privacy, #hardware-security, and more.

This story was written by: @davidtimothy. Learn more about this writer by checking @davidtimothy's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com.

The Pixel 11 drops ARM Memory Tagging Extension (MTE), a hardware-level defense against memory corruption exploits. GrapheneOS says the missing feature is serious enough that it may skip the entire Pixel 11 generation. Google’s new security features, including post-quantum crypto, don’t replace MTE’s protection against today’s memory attacks. The Pixel 11 isn’t suddenly insecure, but losing MTE without an equivalent replacement is a clear security step backward.