I pre-ordered a Verizon SGS3, and it shipped to me before it was even available in stores. Since then I have not updated any programs that were Verizon-related.
If at some point I want to root my phone, does it then make sense to not update these programs? I have heard that in the past, certain over-the-air updates have closed holes which are used to root. Is this the case so far with this phone?
Update: Verizon's Galaxy S3 is locked and cannot as of now be rooted or updated to a custom firmware. See this XDA thread.
As far as I know there are no current pending security holes that can be exploited by circulating rooting apps at the moment.
Samsung does however not lock its phones if you buy them directly from them, i.e. you are free to install aftermarket firmware or modify the existing firmware via Odin quite easily (without having to hack/exploit/etc. anything). Some carriers, including Verizon however do indeed lock it.
If you have an unlocked S3 or as soon there's an exploit for the locked booloader:
CF-Root by Chainfire supports rooting stock firmwares of the S3 models GT-I9300 and GT-I9300T so far in a very easy way. It does not depend on an root exploit but rather modifies the system partition in another way that cannot be closed by a firmware OTA update. Just see the above referred blog post and the linked XDA forum thread in there for more info.
Step 1
Hold down Volume Down, Home Center, and Power buttons together for about 20 seconds until your phone resets and shows you an option to get into download mode.
Step 2
Next hit Volume Up button to enter download mode.
Step 3
Once in Download mode, you can connect your micro-USB cable from your Galaxy S3 to your computer.
Step 4
Next, download GalaxyS3Root.zip and unzip
Step 5
Next, make sure you have drivers installed, you should see “Samsung Mobile USB CDC Composite Device” in Device Manager. If you don’t, simply download Samsung Kies and install it. (Then unplug, plug the micro-USB cable.)
Step 6
Double-click on odin3 v1.85.exe file to start ODIN. You should see a yellow highlighted box with a COM number. The number doesn’t matter just so long as you see a yellow box. If you don’t see yellow box, your drivers are not installed correctly OR try killing Kies in Task Manager as sometimes it can interfere.
Step 7
Choose “PDA” and choose “CF-Root-SGS3-v6.1.tar” file in GalaxyS3Root folder. Then hit “Start”.
Step 8
In about 10 seconds, your phone will reboot and give you ClockworkMod Recovery and full root.
Step 9
You will get a “PASS!” if everything went correctly.
Step 10
Your phone will automatically reboot into ClockworkMod Recovery and install root/Superuser files.
Step 11
Once your phone reboots, you will find “SuperSU” app, which is the Superuser app.
Step 12
You can verify you have root by running a rooted app such as Titanium Backup app, you will see Superuser request window pop up. Hit “Grant” everytime you see this.
Step 13
You can now get into ClockworkMod Recovery anytime by holding down Volume Up, Center Home, and Power button together for 20 seconds.
NOTE:I'm not responsible if you mess up your phone. Make sure you know what you are doing before following any instructions. Go here .Just read it.
