Google Pixel 11 Series Will Not Get GrapheneOS as Google Skips a Major Security Feature

The Google Pixel 11 series was launched in mid-August as the next-generation smartphone lineup from the Mountain View-based tech giant. The series comprises four models, and all the Pixel 11 series phones are powered by the company's latest Tensor G6 chipset. The Google Pixel 11 series phones launched at notably higher prices than their predecessors, which could be because of the ongoing memory and storage crisis. Now, the makers of GrapheneOS say that their operating system (OS) will not come to the Google Pixel 11 series as Google skipped a major security feature for its handsets, seemingly to save costs.

Google Pixel 11 Series Reportedly Does Not Support MTE Security Feature

In a post on Mastodon, the GrapheneOS Foundation said that it has managed to build only a partial port of GrapheneOS for the Google Pixel 11 series after a week's work. However, it was unable to complete the port for its OS, as the Google Pixel 11 series, including the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, does not support the ARM Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) security feature, the software maker said.

Further, the company said that Google is not offering MTE support in software, firmware, and “near certainly hardware” of the Pixel 11 series “to save money”. All Pixel phones, starting with the Pixel 8 lineup, have shipped with support for the security feature. GrapheneOS uses ARM Hardware MTE across its base OS, kernel, and other standard software processes.

Further, the GrapheneOS Foundation highlighted that the ARM Hardware MTE functionality is only “temporarily disabled for a few device-specific processes”. The feature is said to “greatly” enhance protection against most remote exploits and other local exploits. Moreover, the company said that the Google Pixel 8 to Pixel 10 series phones have shipped with the security feature. However, Google seemingly removed it from its latest handsets.

The company said that it integrated it into its “hardened_malloc project” and started using it across GrapheneOS in October 2023. However, the Pixel smartphones did not start using the security feature by default. Meanwhile, Android Advanced Protection Mode on Android 16 did enable ARM MTE for specific processes, the GrapheneOS Foundation highlighted.