I'm curious how does rooting work in Android? I'm writing this with limited knowledge of Linux in genera and even more limited knowledge on Android.

Still, I do know that in Linux system that I encountered thus far, root is just a privilege to "mess" around the system at root level, which normally required a separate "login" on each session (with password). This in theory should give good protection so that malware cannot mess around your stuff without your explicit permission via the input of your password.

However, I kept hearing the term "Root" in Android which requires some painful modification before they can gain the privilege, something that I don't quite understand why. Furthermore, once root privilege "unlocked", how can the user access root? Since there isn't a terminal, or am I correct to assume that once root is "unlocked", the OS will remain in Root for the rest of the time? Please enlighten me. Thanks