Difference between Admin (owner) and regular profile?

thetraveller1

What are the main differences between these types of profiles from a security standpoint? Do most users use Admin profile only for service-like functions, similar to root on user Linux?
Also is it an AOSP or GrapheneOS concept ?
thanks

Chalko

Owner doesn’t have that much access to the system comparable to root. It’s perfectly safe to use the owner profile for everyday use.

A rooted phone is more similar to that, therefore it’s generally not recommenced to root a phone.

dazinism

Owner user has to be unlocked before the device can be used and is then always running until reboot.

Secondary users can be stopped, and encryption keys flushed, at any time while using them by using the 'end session' option in the power button menu or their lockscreen.

Theres some functionality that can only be switched on and off from inside the owner user profile (eg. wifi hotspot)

Unlike in secondary user profiles, somebody using the owner user can see a list of all apps installed on the device from Settings and can uninstall apps from all user profiles.

Toomanyuserprofiles

dazinism is this also why my attempts at locking down the owner profile with airplane node and rethink DNS firewalls blunted access to all my other profiles? I've also noticed putting airplane mode on in any tertiary profile will have also defaulted to being on when returning to owner user. Safety feature I guess.

dazinism

Aeroplane mode effects the whole phone and can be changed from any user profile
Same with private DNS.

Each profile can have a "VPN app" (can be a VPN or network monitoring or control app) that uses the system VPN slot and controls all network traffic from that profile (with the exception of what i just said about private DNS though)
Its possible to block all connections from a profile using a "VPN app" that offers that functionality.