DEV Community: Pranav Patel

Passing Play Integrity but failing UPI: why I relocked my OnePlus 6T

Pranav Patel — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 06:22:37 +0000

A few weeks ago I wrote about finally passing Play Integrity 3/3 on a 2018 OnePlus 6T after switching from LineageOS to DerpFest, dropping Magisk for KernelSU Next, and swapping the usual PIF/Tricky Store/Shamiko stack for Specter + TEESimulator-RS + HMA-OSS.

The recipe worked. Integrity check: 3/3. Every field green.

The UPI apps still refused to run.

I've now given up, MSM-flashed back to stock OxygenOS, relocked the bootloader, and I don't regret it. Here's what I learned that the first post didn't cover.

The short version of what I ran, for context

If you didn't read the first post: I was on Android 16 (DerpFest for fajita), rooted with KernelSU Next, and using a modern module stack that consolidates around four things:

Specter for orchestration — one WebUI button that pulls a fresh keybox, rotates the PIF fingerprint, and handles Play Store cache flushing
TEESimulator-RS to emulate hardware attestation, since the 6T's TEE is broken
HMA-OSS as the Shamiko replacement for hiding root from specific apps via a per-app denylist
PIF Inject (the KOWX712 fork after chiteroman archived the original) for the actual fingerprint spoofing into DroidGuard

That combo passed Play Integrity BASIC + DEVICE + STRONG. HMA-OSS hid root from every app I added to its denylist. Banking apps that only check Play Integrity, worked fine. Google Wallet in most regions, worked fine. Netflix HD, YouTube Premium, all the usual root-detection casualties, worked fine.

Then I tried to send someone ₹200 on UPI.

What UPI actually checks that Play Integrity doesn't

Play Integrity 3/3 is a Google-side verdict. It tells the app "Google's servers believe this is a genuine unmodified device." Most apps that care about integrity stop there and trust the verdict.

UPI apps don't. On May 19, 2025, NPCI issued a circular mandating a much stricter security framework for every UPI Payment Service Provider, Application Service Provider, and Third-Party Application Provider in India. It's called the UPI Information Security Compliance Framework 2025, and compliance certification by a CERT-In empanelled auditor is mandatory annually. Non-compliance means the app doesn't ship.

The framework requires four things beyond Play Integrity:

Mandatory root detection at the app layer, independent of Play Integrity's verdict. Not "Google says the device is fine," but "the app itself, right now, cannot find any trace of root, Magisk, KernelSU, Xposed, or common hiding modules."
RASP (Runtime Application Self-Protection) to detect tampering, hooks, and debuggers during actual execution, not just at launch.
Hardware-backed device binding using KeyMint / StrongBox to sign a per-device attestation key. This is the one that kills you. Google's Play Integrity API can be satisfied with software-attested keys (which is what TEESimulator-RS provides). NPCI's device binding cannot. It wants a genuine hardware-backed key signed by the phone's own TEE, verified against Google's attestation root. On a device with a broken TEE, that key does not exist and cannot be faked, because the verification happens against Google's public root, not the app's own logic.
SIM binding with a live active SIM/eSIM, verified via telco, before device binding even begins. Airplane mode? Rejected. SIM in another slot? Rejected.

So even in the best case where root hiding is perfect and every trace of Magisk/KSU is invisible, the device binding step just fails silently because the hardware attestation key isn't there. Your app never gets past initial setup.

There's a great Medium writeup by Joseph James on the underlying Play Integrity trust model that explains why the STRONG verdict spoofing works at all — Google has to accept downgraded validation criteria for legacy devices that physically lack modern attestation hardware, and that's the seam that TEESimulator-RS exploits. NPCI's framework closes that seam.

What actually worked, briefly, before it didn't

For the record, here's what the module stack got me past:

Play Integrity 3/3, first attempt after configuration
Google Wallet setup in test regions (people in Brazil, EU, and the US have reported the same stack working for their payment apps)
Every non-UPI Indian app I tried: Zomato, Swiggy, IRCTC, MakeMyTrip, banking apps for balance checks and non-UPI transfers
Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube Premium
Every app that only checks Play Integrity

HMA-OSS specifically is worth noting because it's genuinely better than Shamiko for this use case: it's actively maintained, doesn't require Zygisk denylist toggling for every new app, and its per-app hiding survives Play Store's periodic "let me revalidate your device" checks that used to leak identity through Shamiko.

Where it all fell over was any app calling KeyMint.generateKey() with setAttestationChallenge() and then verifying the resulting certificate chain against Google's attestation root CA. That's a five-line check for the app developer, and it defeats every module in existence on a broken-TEE device.

Why I stopped

Cost-benefit stopped making sense.

Cost: ongoing maintenance treadmill. Keyboxes get revoked (my Xiaomi_Lei_Jun keybox was rotated twice in three weeks). PIF fingerprints get burned. Every module in the stack updates on its own schedule. Every DerpFest weekly update is a small gamble on whether the SUSFS integration still holds. Every reboot is a small prayer that Specter's action pipeline still resolves cleanly.

Benefit: most of the apps that made me want to root in the first place worked fine on stock. AdGuard DNS is DNS-level, doesn't need root. Custom launchers don't need root. The one thing I actually gained from root over stock — custom kernel governors and the ability to freeze OEM bloat at the package level — was not worth losing UPI over.

And the UPI thing wasn't going to fix itself. It's not a bug or an oversight in the module stack. NPCI's framework is doing exactly what it was designed to do, and it's aimed squarely at the class of setup I was running.

The retreat: MSM back to stock

If you're in the same boat and want out, here's the working path in 2026:

Grab the MSM tool from onepluscommunityserver.com. AndroidFileHost links in old XDA threads are dead — the site is up but downloads have been broken since 2025. The community server, run by the same folks who indexed the original tools, is the current maintained mirror. Grab Q/OnePlus_6T_OxygenOS_10.3.8.zip for the international variant.
The XDA thread for context and troubleshooting comments. Ignore the AFH links inside it.
10.3.8 is the ceiling. OnePlus never leaked an OOS 11 MSM package for this device. If you want the actual final build (11.1.2.2), you MSM to 10.3.8 first, then sideload official OTA zips through stock recovery to work your way up.
MSM wipes everything and relocks the bootloader in one pass. No separate fastboot oem lock step. The "unlocked bootloader" warning at boot does go away once relocked cleanly — the common forum claim that it never does is only true for half-flashed relocks, not clean MSM flashes.

Fair warning about the tool itself: the Sahara handshake stage is finicky. If you hit "Sahara Communication Failed (FH:258)" — and you probably will at least once — the fixes in rough order of likelihood are (a) actual USB 2.0 port on physical hardware, not a hub, (b) adb reboot edl from a working OS instead of the volume-button combo, (c) fastboot reboot edl from fastboot if the OS won't boot, and (d) a genuinely different computer if none of those work. This is well-documented pain, not something you're doing wrong.

Is this coming for everyone eventually?

Probably yes, though not tomorrow.

Right now, the module stack that failed me on UPI works for Brazilian Pix, EU banking apps, and US Google Wallet, because those payment networks trust Google's Play Integrity verdict without adding their own hardware attestation layer on top. India got there first because NPCI moved fastest and hardest, and because UPI processes ~19 billion transactions monthly, which is a lot of blast radius per compromised device.

The direction of travel elsewhere:

Google's own Play Integrity documentation since 2024 has been actively steering developers toward MEETS_STRONG_INTEGRITY (hardware-backed) rather than the softer verdicts
EU's PSD3/PSR proposals include stronger device binding language that maps cleanly onto hardware attestation
US banking apps have been quietly getting more aggressive with root detection year over year

Realistic guess: 2 to 4 years before the current module stack stops working for most banking apps in most markets. Not next quarter, but not distant either.

There's a counter-argument worth being honest about. The community has been predicting "the root scene is dead in 18 months" continuously since around 2018, and the counter-measures have kept up. Magisk 2018 → Zygisk 2021 → PIF 2023 → Specter/TEESimulator-RS 2025. Every generation of attestation tightening has been met with a new generation of workarounds, and they've mostly kept working in most markets. The doom prediction has a bad track record.

What's different this time is that hardware attestation is a genuinely harder problem than the previous rounds. TEESimulator-RS is an impressive piece of engineering but it's fundamentally emulating something that Google's revocation infrastructure can catch at scale once it decides to. Once emulated attestation shows up on a revocation list, the runway shortens fast.

So: if you're in a market where banking apps still work with modules, enjoy it while it lasts, and don't build your workflow around the assumption that it'll work in three years. If you're in India, save yourself the afternoon and stay stock.

What I'd tell 2021-me

Rooting is still worth it for the customization and the control. That hasn't changed.

What's changed is that "root your daily driver" is no longer a coherent recipe if that daily driver also needs to do banking. You have to pick. In India in 2026, the pick is forced. Everywhere else, it's a matter of when, not if.

I picked stock. Smooth, stable, boring, banking works. Zero regrets.

The 6T is running its original 2018 factory operating system in 2026 and it's honestly fine. That, more than anything from the module stack chapter, is what I'll remember.

Tags: #android #rooting #upi #playintegrity #oneplus

Rooting your Android in 2026: how I finally passed Play Integrity on a 2018 OnePlus 6T

Pranav Patel — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 09:06:09 +0000

Five years ago I wrote about whether rooting is still worth it. The answer back then was "yes, if you know what you're doing." The answer in 2026 is "yes, if you're willing to spend an afternoon fighting Google."

This is a note-to-self and a working recipe for anyone stuck on the same wall. My device: OnePlus 6T (fajita), unlocked bootloader, teeBroken TEE. My goal: pass Play Integrity BASIC + DEVICE + STRONG so Indian banking apps and GPay UPI would actually work.

The setup that fought me

Started on LineageOS 22 (Android 15). Reasonable choice, actively maintained, official fajita support. Rooted with Magisk 30.7. Layered on the current 2026 module stack that every guide points to:

ZygiskNext
Play Integrity Fork
Tricky Store
Shamiko

Configured all of it correctly. PIF Fork was injecting into com.google.android.gms.unstable — the DroidGuard process — verified in logcat. Every field spoofed cleanly to a Pixel Tablet Canary fingerprint. Keybox loaded. DenyList set up. SELinux enforcing.

Result: 0 of 3 integrity checks passing. Not just STRONG failing, which would be expected. All three.

Why the "obvious" stack was doomed on LineageOS

Two things I didn't understand until I burned an afternoon on them.

1. Kernel string branding. DroidGuard reads /proc/version and the kernel uname string. LineageOS builds have "Lineage" in there. DroidGuard has a public blocklist of kernel branding strings — "Lineage", "lineageos", any variant — and it hard-fails integrity when it sees them. No amount of Build.* property spoofing at the Java layer touches this. Your PIF module is working perfectly and Google is still throwing the verdict away.

2. ROM signing keys. Many LineageOS nightlies still ship signed with the shared AOSP testkey rather than a maintainer's private key. Run:

unzip -l /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip

If you see testkey.x509.pem, that's another hard-fail signal for DEVICE integrity. It doesn't matter how fresh your Canary fingerprint is.

The XDA fajita community documented this months ago. The fix isn't a module. It's a different ROM.

The switch that worked

Wiped everything and moved to DerpFest 16 (Android 16.2) for fajita. Three properties matter, in order of impact:

Signed builds with a real private key — no testkey warning, DEVICE verdict path opens
Kernel 4.19 by edwin, de-branded — no "Lineage" string in /proc/version
Built-in spoofing framework at the ROM layer — which you turn OFF if you're going the module route

The maintainer (P.A.N.Z.) gives two paths in the release notes. I went with the module route because keybox distribution is genuinely easier through the module ecosystem in 2026.

The install that actually worked

Everything below assumes bootloader is already unlocked. If it isn't, do that first via the standard OnePlus process.

Get the files:

DerpFest fajita ROM zip (~1.6 GB)
The matching boot.img
The matching SHA256 checksum file
The KernelSU Next kernel zip specific to this DerpFest build (has SUSFS 2.1.0 baked in)
The KernelSU Next manager APK

Verify the ROM zip checksum before you touch anything else. shasum -a 256 on the zip, compare to the .sha256sum file. If they don't match, you'll waste hours chasing ghosts. Ask me how I know.

Flash the ROM:

# In fastboot mode
fastboot flash boot_a boot.img
fastboot flash boot_b boot.img
fastboot -w
fastboot --set-active=a
fastboot reboot recovery

The fastboot -w wipe is the step that fajita-specific guides forget to mention. Skip it and your first boot dies with enablefilecrypto_failed because the A15→A16 encryption migration needs a clean userdata.

In DerpFest recovery:

Factory reset → Format data/factory reset → Format data
Apply update → Apply from ADB
adb sideload DerpFest-<version>-fajita-Official-Stable.zip
Wait for "Install complete" — do not reboot until you see it
Reboot to system

First boot, complete setup, sign into Google, wait 10 minutes untouched.

Rooting with KernelSU Next

I picked KernelSU Next over Magisk here for one specific reason: DerpFest ships a KernelSU zip with SUSFS 2.1.0 pre-integrated, which gives materially better root hiding than Magisk + Shamiko in 2026.

Reboot to recovery, sideload the KernelSU Next ROOT zip, reboot to system, install the manager APK. Open the app. Should show:

Working (BUILT-IN, GKI1)
Kernel version 4.19.325
SUSFS enabled
SELinux Enforcing

Do NOT tap the manager upgrade prompt. The manager version needs to match the kernel version. Upgrading the manager without a matching kernel breaks root.

Turn off DerpFest's built-in spoofing

Critical step people miss and then wonder why they get 0/3 forever.

DerpFest has ROM-level integrity spoofing baked in. If you leave it on while running module-based spoofing on top, both fight for the same properties and DroidGuard sees inconsistent identity signals. Every OnePlus 13 DerpFest thread on XDA has the same "help me, 0/3 after installing modules" post — this is why.

Settings → DerpFest customizations → Spoofing:

Google Play Integrity spoof → OFF
Unlimited Photos storage → OFF (this one spoofs Pixel XL for Google Photos, also conflicts)

Leave keybox and PIF JSON slots empty in the ROM's Spoofing menu. Modules handle both.

The module stack

Install in this order via KernelSU Next → Modules → Install from storage. Reboot after each round.

Round 1: Foundation

ZygiskNext (github.com/Dr-TSNG/ZygiskNext)

Reboot.

Round 2: Attestation + integrity

TEESimulator-RS (github.com/Enginex0/TEESimulator-RS)
PIF Inject (github.com/KOWX712/PlayIntegrityFix — this is the community-maintained continuation after chiteroman removed the original)

Round 3: Orchestration and hiding

Specter (github.com/dpejoh/specter)
HMA-OSS (github.com/frknkrc44/HMA-OSS)
BRENE (github.com/rrr333nnn333/BRENE — KSU+SUSFS bonus)

Reboot.

Do NOT install:

Tricky Store — TEESimulator-RS replaces it
Shamiko — HMA-OSS replaces it
Any keybox manager (IntegrityBox, Yurikey, etc.) — Specter handles this
Any vbmeta fixer, props fixer, or PIF autofetch module — Specter handles all of them

Specter's whole philosophy is consolidation. It'll flag conflicting modules in its own description if you install any.

Configure with one tap

This is the payoff for using Specter. Open the Specter WebUI. Tap the Action button.

The pipeline runs through:

Play Store force-stopped and data cleared (flushes cached identity)
App target list merged (banking apps + GMS + Play Store)
Security patch date fetched from the current Pixel bulletin
Keybox fetched from the Tricky Addon Keybox Repository, checked against Google's revocation list, installed if valid
PIF fingerprint updated from a fresh Pixel Canary/stable via PIF Inject

Full log looks something like:

-> Keybox:
Fetching available keyboxes...
Randomly selected: @Xiaomi_Lei_Jun v4-fix (entry 1 of 2)
Downloading keybox...
Checking Google revocation for serial 3207438651777393527
Keybox is not revoked
Keybox install complete

Starting PIF fingerprint update
Detected: Play Integrity Fix [INJECT]
Selected Device: Pixel 10
PIF fingerprint updating complete

Full integrity pipeline completed

Reboot the phone one more time. Do not open any Google apps before testing.

Install Play Integrity API Checker (by Nikolas Spyridakis) from the Play Store. Tap Check.

For me, first try: BASIC ✅ DEVICE ✅ STRONG ✅.

What actually made this work

Everything above is mechanics. The reason it worked when the LineageOS attempt didn't:

The ROM stopped fighting me. DerpFest doesn't ship a testkey-signed userdebug build and doesn't leave "Lineage" in the kernel string. Those two properties alone were the difference between 0/3 and 3/3.
Specter replaced five modules with one. Fewer surface area means fewer fingerprints for DroidGuard to notice something off.
TEESimulator-RS instead of Tricky Store. fajita's TEE is broken. Tricky Store just holds a keybox and hopes the TEE will use it. TEESimulator-RS emulates the whole hardware attestation stack, which is what STRONG actually needs on a broken-TEE device.
T.A.K.R. integration. Manual keybox hunting is dead. The community-run repository at keybox.kowx712.cc tags each keybox as VALID or REVOKED, updates in near-real-time, and Specter pulls from it automatically.

Honest caveats

This is not a stable state. It's a snapshot.

Keyboxes get revoked. The Xiaomi_Lei_Jun keybox I'm using today may not work in three weeks. When it stops working, hit Specter's Action button again — it'll pull a new one.

PIF fingerprints get burned. Pixel Canary rotates every ~6 weeks. When integrity starts failing on a formerly working fingerprint, run the Action again.

Google tightens quarterly. The recipe that works today may need adjustments in six months.

fajita is a 2018 device. It's on borrowed time as a banking device. The recipe above works because DerpFest's maintainer is still actively de-branding the kernel and signing builds properly. When that stops, no module stack recovers the situation.

Compared to 2021

Back then I wrote that rooting was worth it for the customization and the control. That's still true. But the arms race between Google's attestation stack and the community's counter-measures has intensified far beyond what I imagined five years ago. Modules used to be enough. Now you need the ROM, the kernel, the signing keys, the attestation emulator, the keybox source, the fingerprint provider, and the hiding layer all cooperating. Miss any one of them and you get 0/3.

The good news is that the community's tooling has caught up. Five years ago you were reading a dozen XDA threads and stitching together your own workflow. In 2026, Specter's Action button does what used to take an afternoon of manual configuration, and does it better than most of us could by hand.

Worth it? Yes. But your definition of "worth it" has to include an ongoing maintenance treadmill, not a one-time setup.

Tags: #android #rooting #playintegrity #oneplus #kernelsu

Is rooting still worth it?

Pranav Patel — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 11:20:45 +0000

Rooting was way more difficult back then, but it was well worth the effort since Smartphones and their software were quite confined. Smartphone manufacturers and mobile network providers impose software restrictions for security reasons. These limits, however, may be overcome by rooting your Android device. It was humdrum to use a non-rooted device as you couldn't utilize it's full potentials. If you're new to this, check out my previous blog which explains everything you need to know about rooting.

Emerging operating systems like OnePlus' OxygenOS and Oppo's ColorOS nevertheless let you customize your phone to a huge extent. The present software could leave you obscure about whether or not you should root, hence I have nailed down the best reasons for both the compelling sides.

Plus side

On the positive side, you'll have more access to a wide range of fun apps and personalization choices. The perks of rooting in brief-

entirely customise almost every theme or graphic on the device.
increased battery life and performance.
latest software updates even if your manufactures don't support anymore.

Well, here are the top reasons why I considered rooting my device now:

1. Block ads globally with Adaway

This app basically blocks the outgoing connection requests to ads and trackers. This app is compatible with both, rooted as well as non-rooted devices. The non-rooted version uses VPN functionality, on the other hand, the rooted version directly updates your system hosts files, which comprises a set of mappings between host names and IP addresses. Download here

2. Better file management

You can literally take your file management to the next level by exploring the system root files and modifying them. Moreover you can easily delete hidden files and folders consuming up unnecessary space. There are thousands of file manger apps out there but the best one is Mixplorer, and I personally have been using this for it's rich features. Download here

3. Better battery stats

Grenify is an app designed to increase your phone's battery life. This too supports both
but if your phone is rooted, you can really maximize its potential. In short, greenify allows you to put any apps you don't need running in the background into a deep sleep or hibernation mode whenever they're not being used, resulting to a significantly better battery life.
In addition, if you're looking to preserve the health of your phone's battery life, you might want to check out battery charge limit, a root-only app that restricts how far you battery can be charged, ultimately resulting longevity of your phone's battery health.

4. Backing up

Titanium app was the MVP of root applications back then, and to be honest it still possibly is. It lets you backup literally your entire phone in a reliable and efficient way. Even though it's UI hasn't been updated for ages, there's no app that can replace this compact and featureful tool; some useful extra features include: enable multiple user profiles per app, uninstall bloatware & system apps which you don't use, etc.

5. Better privacy

Do you want to prevent your apps from accessing potentially harmful permissions while the screen is turned off? Permission ruler has your back; it is a powerful and automatic permission manager which disables them for all apps running in the background when your device is locked, including locations services, microphone, camera, etc. Hence this, in a way, increases phones battery as well.

6. Customization on a Higher Level

Use this powerful theming tool to apply system-wide themes - Substratum theme engine.
With help of Emoji Switcher you can change your system's emojis if you're fed up of using the current ones like me.
To get software updates even after you stop receiving official OTA updates, you can get your hands dirty on custom ROMs to try out the latest Android version. the custom roms like HavocOS and DotOS take your phones to another level of customization, enabling you to alter the smallest thing you could wish to change.

Down side

All this may indeed have convinced you to root your device but I advise you to consider all of the disadvantages of doing so and determine whether the risk is worth it.

1. Voiding your phones warranty

Yes, your warranty turns void once you root your phone/unlock its bootloader. This is a very important factor to consider because you might face problems getting your phone repaired if its still under warranty.

2. (Soft) Bricking your phone

If you accidentally mess up the system(root) while accessing the powerful tools, you might end up breaking your phone's software! Bootloops and various soft bricks can get frustrating to debug, it could take you days. So, its best if you backup every time you think to play around and know what your doing.

3. Broken Apps

For security reasons, almost all banking apps as well as apps like Gpay & Paytm, MyJio, etc. stop working on devices that are found to be rooted. Although Magisk hide feature and similar properties can mask it, however it's not reliable, hence its safer and advisable to use a non-rooted device to have all those apps working.

4. Harder to upgrade operating system

Native system updates become a lot harder as you cant have incremental updates but have to instead download the entire OS file manually which is far more inconvenient than just downloading the small update and installing it.

4. Malware and Hacking

Malware may quickly compromise the security of your mobile device. Gaining root access also involves getting beyond the Android operating system's security limitations. Worms, viruses, adware, and Trojans are more likely to infiltrate rooted Android software if it isn't protected by an efficient antivirus.

5. Performance issues

Because we're rooting our phones to modify some of the system files, this can often result in unexpected malfunctions or a larger drain on your phone's performance than typical. I've definitely noticed that the phones I've rooted felt a little more sluggish after rooting them. Nevertheless there are patches and apps which can help you cover this gap slightly, but what's better than a stable system provided by the manufacturers?

Rooting your Android in 2021.

Pranav Patel — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 19:59:42 +0000

You've undoubtedly seen and read about rooting if you've browsed anything about Android on the internet. There was a period when many Android phones didn't perform up to their potential and rooting was the solution. Androids nowadays are far superior to those of the past. Even the cheapest phone or tablet accessible in 2021 will perform better and do more than the finest Android phone available few years ago. Many of us, however, are still interested in rooting our phones and are seeking for additional information.

What exactly is rooting?

Every Android phone is based on the Linux kernel and middleware, and root grants you the necessary permissions to render it all, giving you full control over the operating system.
To put it in simpler words, Linux permissions and file-system ownership are used by your Android phone. When you sign in, you become a user, and your user rights determine what you are permitted to do. Root is a user as well. The only contrast is that the root user (superuser) has complete access to all files on the system.

Should you root your phone?

The next thing you'd be wondering is whether to root your Android or leave it just the same. Obviously, this is a personal preference, but both sides have concrete arguments. Trying to keep this article short and sweet, I'll be soon making an entirely new blog post just to discuss both sides; stay tuned! :)

Getting ready

To prepare your phone for rooting, you'll first need to unblock the bootloader of your smartphone. To avoid the fuss of installing and setting up the substantially large tool Android SDK, you can instead download Minimal ADB and Fastboot from XDA Developers, which only contains the ADB and Fastboot components needed for rooting as well as unblocking the bootloader.
Unlocking the bootloader differs a bit depending on the phone you have. The standard method is to use the OEM unlock command. You'll have to attain an official cryptographic token to unlock your bootloader if you have a Motorola, Sony, or LG device.

WARNING: Keep in mind that unlocking your Android's bootloader will void the warranty (except Xiaomi phones, mi allows you to root without voiding its warranty). You will lose all your data on rooting or unblocking your device's bootloader; Have a complete backup of your phone before preceding.

Easiest way to root in 2021

Rooting your device is a lot easier now than it used to be. The easiest approach is to install a simple root software like KingRoot, KingoRoot, or OneClickRoot, that allows you to root Android with literally just one click. The app automatically checks for compatibility and roots the phone accordingly.
However, the safest and honest way through this is by patching your boot image and installing Magisk systemlessly using a custom recovery. This is the most reliable and safest option out of all. It could get overwhelming to look at it first, but XDA has you covered; they've managed to thoroughly explain it here here with the help of screenshots.