Google OnHub Rooted, Turns Out To Be A Chromebook In Router's Clothing
Google hasn't said much about how its new OnHub router works—it's a mysterious black box (blue cylinder, technically) with inactive radios and updatable firmware. The modders from Exploitee.rs have gotten their hands on an OnHub …
Context & Ripple Effects
The teardown already hinted that the OnHub was more computer than router — a large speaker, an oversized heatsink, and a light sensor that did nothing yet. Exploitee.rs getting root closes the loop: the mystery cylinder is essentially a Chromebook, which explains why it launched at $200 with performance reviewers called underwhelming.
Google positioned the device as the first Brillo device for its smart home ecosystem, so the hidden horsepower was always the point — the question this root answers is how much of it was deliberately switched off pending future firmware.
First-order effects
- Modders can now inspect the updatable firmware directly, putting Google's closed update pipeline for a hub meant to sit at the center of the home under community scrutiny.
- Owners learn their $200 purchase contains Chromebook-class silicon with inactive radios and sensors — validating the teardown but also confirming they paid ahead of functionality.
Second-order effects
- A rooted hub invites an unofficial feature pipeline: dormant hardware like the light sensor becomes something the modding community can target independently of Google's roadmap.
- Google's pitch that buyers should trust an opaque black box gets harder to sell against cheaper routers that do the Wi-Fi job without reserved, locked-down compute.
Third-order effects
- Overprovisioned smart home hubs live or die on years of promised updates — and Google ultimately ended OnHub support in December 2022 with a discount toward Nest Wifi, showing the structural risk of betting on a vendor's future firmware rather than present capability.
The trend: Smart home hubs are sold as platforms whose real value arrives through later software updates, shifting risk from the spec sheet onto buyers' trust in long-term vendor support.