Apparatus and methods for root-level enforcement of quick response (“QR”) code validation are provided. The apparatus may include a QR code reader for receiving an instruction from a user to scan a QR code and transmitting a request to an operating system (“OS”) running on the apparatus to instruct a camera to capture an image. The apparatus may include an operating system configured to receive the image from the camera and store the image in a temporary cache. While the image is stored in the temporary cache, the operating system may transmit the image to a QR code validator to decode a QR code included in the image and execute a routine to validate a URL included in the QR code. The image may only be transmitted back to the QR code reader by the OS when the URL was validated by the routine.