I'm a little paranoid about having my tablet stolen and have all the usual things set up. But to my knowledge, any Android application that offers security solutions is just a factory data reset away from being circumvented. With that in mind is there any way to lock out the recovery console with a password or maybe a key press combo?
I highly doubt it. Besides, instead of pressing up to go the CWM you can hit down and then factory reset it, so locking out CWM would be pointless. Really though, most thieves are not the brightest crayons in the box.
Nope, though I doubt the thief would want to do a Nandroid of your data and try to decrypt it for any information. If they're smart enough to do that, they would be smart enough to know they'll eventually get caught for stealing stuff.
im wondering the same thing, it seems no amount of antitheft security is useful when they can google how to get around a pattern lock and reset thedevice .
Related
so, out of sheer curiosity I was playing with some of the on phone options and saw a little deal that said "encrypt storage"..... well long story short I was not aware that you could not UNdo this without factory reset of the phone, so I have been using the phone this way for awhile.. nothing really a big deal, just annoyed having to enter a code every time i reboot the phone, or leave the screen off for >5 min, and have to re enter the code when i turn the screen on.... now ofc when I attempt a factory reset on the phone it self... it doesn't do anything the phone reboots and its the exact same lol, I'm thinking that may be from me having a custom ROM on it.. so I will attempt to wipe data via fastboot/adb CMD... and hope it works...
now that the explanation is out of the way, I am curious.. will erasing the phone data either by on the phone or thought the CMD, will it unroot and re lock my phone? or is that set and not bothered by data erasing?
OdinValknir said:
so, out of sheer curiosity I was playing with some of the on phone options and saw a little deal that said "encrypt storage"..... well long story short I was not aware that you could not UNdo this without factory reset of the phone, so I have been using the phone this way for awhile.. nothing really a big deal, just annoyed having to enter a code every time i reboot the phone, or leave the screen off for >5 min, and have to re enter the code when i turn the screen on.... now ofc when I attempt a factory reset on the phone it self... it doesn't do anything the phone reboots and its the exact same lol, I'm thinking that may be from me having a custom ROM on it.. so I will attempt to wipe data via fastboot/adb CMD... and hope it works...
now that the explanation is out of the way, I am curious.. will erasing the phone data either by on the phone or thought the CMD, will it unroot and re lock my phone? or is that set and not bothered by data erasing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are properly rooted it should not touch anything other than data.
OK, so most of us already know about "Google device manager" feature or Samsung's "Find my Phone", you can lock your phone, erase all the data, locate it if it's online.
But in all this cases your phone can be still hard reseted (vol button + home button + power button, any of this combinations) and be used again.
What am i asking is, if you got your phone lost or stolen, can you lock completely your android phone, so any bad guy who find it and doesn't want to return it, can not use your phone at all (hard reset feature disabled), so the only think the thief has left is to throw the phone away or to sell it for pennies for it's battery, screen and so on.
P.S. This feature is already included in all iphones
This feature is not on iphones, a simple bootstrap and DFU mode can still initiate a wipe
Also if a thief still wants, they just have to JTAG the device and wipe it that way.
Reactivation lock is a better alternative
Hi all,
Just wondering if you Android pro's can tell me whether the G930F (Australian) can boot into maintenance mode?
My girlfriend bought one new on the way to the airport for her dream holiday in the USA mainly for the camera, then promptly forgot the swipe pass for the secure startup when she arrived home. USB debug is off, so I'm looking to get it back on. Got no problems with the FRP, she knows all the details for that, but it's just that the phone won't power on and connect to the network so we can do an account recovery. Or, at least get to a point where we can pull the photos off and then just do a hard reset.
If it's a no go on maintenance boot, would flashing the stock ROM back on get us past the swipe and at least to a point where we can actually recover the account from Google?
Just to be clear - the phone boots past the Samsung logo and then stays in "To start up your device, draw your pattern." and the option to go to an emergency call. We cant call the phone at this point, it just goes straight to voicemail.
Thanks heaps!
The 930F is the international model, Australia has no specific firmware or hardware differences so shouldn't have any reason not to be able to.
It sounds like you have the set to have the pattern required to start the device as opposed to just unlock it, and I'm not sure how early it kicks in preventing boot modes.
If I recall correct boot to recovery is vol up + home + power, boot to maintenance is vol up + power, and boot to download is vol down + home + power
Couldn't tell you if recovery or maintenance will let you pull data.
A factory reset within recovery might get past the pattern lock, but will wipe your photos.
A stock firmware flash in Odin should do it if recovery doesn't work, but also will wipe your photos.
Ah, I see. I appear to be able to get into Recovery and Download boots, but not maintenance. I'd seen that once you get into maintenance, you can turn on USB debugging from there, and I'd be all sorted. Hmmm.
That's a pity about the stock ROM flash, I thought that might be my best bet after maintenance boot.
Maintenance might be a snapdragon thing, googling it I can only see people doing it on the US model.
Oh right. Could I do anything like in this article -
Google "Physical Imaging Of A Samsung Galaxy S7 Smartphone Running Android 7.0" (sorry, I can't post outside links yet!)
- down to step 4? Is there an appropriate boot image available for the G930F?
Thanks heaps for the help so far!
Should be, every ROM zip I've seen has one in them. Not sure where you could get a stand alone stock one.
Ok, cool. Would the one found in this thread -
"ENGBOOT for S7 and S7 Edge (Qualcomm/Exynos) (Untested) (Still Seems Legit)"
- on these forums be ok? There's a file in the download labelled G930F_XXE1APBG_ENGROOT.tar (after extracting the .7z) that appears to be standalone. Is that what I'm after?
For reference, in Recovery boot, it tells me that the current PDA is G930FXXS1DQF6, and from that I can find that the CSC is G930FXSA1DQEF.
So she can't remember the pattern to unlock it? Or does it not boot properly despite entering the correct pattern? The S7 comes encrypted by default and the pattern is the key. No data is actually usable at the point it displays the pattern screen with the black background(because it can't actually access the wallpaper yet). If you can't get the pattern right all data currently on the device apart from the external SD(unless it's encrypted too) is lost It's a security feature, the only other way is a factory reset.
Yeah, black background is where we're at, and yeah, can't remember the pattern. So there's no way to get past that at all? Not even flashing the boot image?
Hmmm. Is there any way to reset the amount of attempts? We can at least keep trying different patterns that way.
JamesMudd said:
Yeah, black background is where we're at, and yeah, can't remember the pattern. So there's no way to get past that at all? Not even flashing the boot image?
Hmmm. Is there any way to reset the amount of attempts? We can at least keep trying different patterns that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NOTE: This is based on what I know. If anybody else has any ideas please don't hesitate to share!
Does it let you enter a backup password? She might have some ideas there?
Your best bet would maybe be a firmware reflash, but that's a very slim chance. So try that first(Remember to use HOME_CSC!). You can try flashing the boot image but beware, if the phone is full stock then the encryption system has some self-defence mechanisms that can permanently lock the data if unauthorized firmware is detected(or anything else suspicious like resetting the attempts). It technically *shouldn't* disable secure startup though; Remember, the whole point of encryption is to make it physically impossible to access data without the key, so it wouldn't be doing its job if you could just disable it at will. Samsung is also pretty anal about security these days.
Edit: Does she have a Samsung account? It might have backed the photos up already.
It was hot. I don't think the phone was necessarily feeling the heat like me... but... the way it was acting... maybe so?
The second to last day of my vacation at Walt Disney World (first time!), my S8+ started acting wonky. I tried to take pictures and the application wouldn't work right.
So, I rebooted.
Now, I'm staring at a screen with a textbox at the bottom of the screen and some text near it (I don't recall it verbatim) "Enter your emergency password".
What? What's an emergency password? Typing in the textbox, it was obvious that it wasn't a numeric-only textbox (for PINs) but it was alpha-numeric. I simply don't recall registering anything but a pin and my fingerprints.
Freaking out, I kept trying to restart and worked with the power and volume buttons.
All I continued to see was the Samsung logo.
Suddenly, I got a black screen with text telling me things were being erased. I then see a blue screen with an android bot telling me stuff was being erased.
After a bit, I was back at the language selection.
Gone. Pictures. Data. SSD... entire phone... fully erased. (Thankfully, a majority of my pictures were immediately put into Instagram... the lost pictures I used the phone's camera app because it works better than the Instagram camera).
Don't have my laptop... so I don't have my password database, so I cannot get into ANY applications.
I know there are requirements for Microsoft Exchange, and other applications that require special security for being a device administrator... I'm not aware of Exchange requiring a password for the phone but... who knows? I didn't enter the password wrong too many times.... even as hot as it was I still used my print to unlock the phone.
Man, that is horrible. My condolences. If you can boot the phone into recovery mode (Hold down volume up, then the Bixby button & then the power button...all at once). Once in recovery, do a factory reset and you shouldn't have to enter that 'Emergency Password'. Unfortunately, everything is lost unless you ran a backup into the cloud or on your 'puter.
Sorry for the post if you've already reset the phone as it sounds like you might have since you mentioned the language screen.
TheBigEasy88 said:
Man, that is horrible. My condolences. If you can boot the phone into recovery mode (Hold down volume up, then the Bixby button & then the power button...all at once). Once in recovery, do a factory reset and you shouldn't have to enter that 'Emergency Password'. Unfortunately, everything is lost unless you ran a backup into the cloud or on your 'puter.
Sorry for the post if you've already reset the phone as it sounds like you might have since you mentioned the language screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I didn't have the choice -- the phone decided to reset to a fresh install point. Once I got back home I restored to a previous backup after trying everything I could to undelete stuff on my SDCARD.... but none of the software I tried would work... kudos Samsung... your deletion of my SDCARD was VERY complete...
Did you have the SDCard stand alone or merged with the internal storage? I'm surprised that got wiped also.
Chris Dickerson said:
It was hot. I don't think the phone was necessarily feeling the heat like me... but... the way it was acting... maybe so?
The second to last day of my vacation at Walt Disney World (first time!), my S8+ started acting wonky. I tried to take pictures and the application wouldn't work right.
So, I rebooted.
Now, I'm staring at a screen with a textbox at the bottom of the screen and some text near it (I don't recall it verbatim) "Enter your emergency password".
What? What's an emergency password? Typing in the textbox, it was obvious that it wasn't a numeric-only textbox (for PINs) but it was alpha-numeric. I simply don't recall registering anything but a pin and my fingerprints.
Freaking out, I kept trying to restart and worked with the power and volume buttons.
All I continued to see was the Samsung logo.
Suddenly, I got a black screen with text telling me things were being erased. I then see a blue screen with an android bot telling me stuff was being erased.
After a bit, I was back at the language selection.
Gone. Pictures. Data. SSD... entire phone... fully erased. (Thankfully, a majority of my pictures were immediately put into Instagram... the lost pictures I used the phone's camera app because it works better than the Instagram camera).
Don't have my laptop... so I don't have my password database, so I cannot get into ANY applications.
I know there are requirements for Microsoft Exchange, and other applications that require special security for being a device administrator... I'm not aware of Exchange requiring a password for the phone but... who knows? I didn't enter the password wrong too many times.... even as hot as it was I still used my print to unlock the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only reason I see for this to happen is if on the "lock Screen and Security", inside the "Secure Lock Settings" have enabled the "Auto factory reset".
Biometrics won't trigger a device wipe, they will only force the pin/password field on too many attempts.
You say Exchange. Is this a corporate account? Is there a possibility that someone remotely wiped your device? Log into OWA (the web interface of your Exchange), navigate to Options -> See All Options, then click the Phone tab and see if a wipe was sent to it. Because what you described sounds a lot like a remote wipe. (Though I've never seen the emergency password field.)
Also make sure that you're not violating your corporate policies. Granting admin access to the Exchange app gives your company full control over your device. They can see you accessing your email with it, and if you're doing something that you shouldn't be, they will wipe your device.
mcnascimento said:
The only reason I see for this to happen is if on the "lock Screen and Security", inside the "Secure Lock Settings" have enabled the "Auto factory reset".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No way of knowing but I don't recall ever setting that (I wouldn't).
something corrupted your ROM it sounds like, somehow!
if it was the red box that says like "enter password" I believe it is actually "default_password"
Samsung Note 10, SM-970F
Magisk Rooted
Android 10, N970FXXS6DTK8
It's my GF's, and she uses a pattern unlock along with fingerprint. No new apps were installed or settings changed that she recalls.
Began as phone locking immediately after correct pattern was entered, but using fingerprint would unlock correctly.
With this immediate locking, the phone will by itself turn off the screen then turn it back on for two seconds as though the power button was pressed, then turns the screen off again.
When entering incorrect pattern, it says incorrect pattern and does nothing else.
She tried restarting the phone, which disabled the fingerprint unlock feature until the phone is successfully unlocked once.
Phone still locks immediately after entering correct pattern, and now she can't unlock it using fingerprint.
Now unable to unlock phone.
EDIT: If I repeatedly enter the correct pattern, after a random number of tries it will go to the 'starting phone' screen, but then will either restart by itself or sit there until I restart the phone. It really is random, once it took 7 tries, another time 20 tries. The phone doesn't show up on my windows PC as a mounted device during any of this.
USB debugging was not enabled, so I don't believe I can run any ADB commands. She didn't backup her phone and our focus is at least to get the photos off the camera, at which point doing a factory reset would be acceptable.
I've tried:
Entering a lot of bad patterns, trying to get to an option of unlocking with the google account associated with the phone, but the option never comes up.
Removing the phone case, only external item on the phone now is the stock screen protector.
Starting into recovery, clearing cache, repairing apps.
Starting into safe mode.
Booting in and out of root.
Letting the battery discharge completely to do a hard power cycle.
But no luck. The phone still locks immediately after entering the correct pattern. I haven't tried taking the phone's stock screen protector off, but will probably do that in case there is something wrong with the proximity sensor.
This is the international two SIM version of the Note 10, the only Note 10 variant which was rootable. I haven't worked on the phone for at least a year since it was rooted and setup.
SEU or a hardware failure. Either way when this happens your only option is to backdoor in. If it was a SEU after resetting you're good to go. If hardware it will likely reoccur... Even with a hardware failure many times nothing happens if no lock is set, you still have access. Setting a lock password introduces added failure modes.
SEU's are very rare but they do happen, randomly and just one bit of data is flipped. Interesting they cause no hardware damage. Higher altitudes elevate the risk as does exposure to man made high energy particles. That's one reason why spacecraft have 3 or more redundant computers. Apollo fights have logged half dozen or more SEU's per flight.
I never screen lock my N10+'s, double tap on/off. This is one reason why. Same with PC bios, no password is ever set. Once bitten, twice shy as the user is always the most likely person to get locked out... as I learned the hard way
@blackhawk, I hear you on getting burned with device security. And for any electronic device, secured or not, backups and redundancy are the only reliable difference between your device being useful and useless. It's been hard not to say any 'I told you so' about this, since I was telling her both to use a pin instead of pattern and to let me setup a regular backup. I don't know that a pin would have been different, but I think it would have since the fingerprint was working before the restart.
Do you have any resources you could point me to on how to backdoor into an android with a password/encryption? I know you can unlock a device using ADB, but I believe you need USB debugging enabled first and I don't know how to make that happen without first unlocking the phone.
mc_squirrel said:
@blackhawk, I hear you on getting burned with device security. And for any electronic device, secured or not, backups and redundancy are the only reliable difference between your device being useful and useless. It's been hard not to say any 'I told you so' about this, since I was telling her both to use a pin instead of pattern and to let me setup a regular backup. I don't know that a pin would have been different, but I think it would have since the fingerprint was working before the restart.
Do you have any resources you could point me to on how to backdoor into an android with a password/encryption? I know you can unlock a device using ADB, but I believe you need USB debugging enabled first and I don't know how to make that happen without first unlocking the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung repair can do it. A local shop or yourself, maybe. If there's an associated Samsung or Google account, start there. I never had to do that but the information isn't hard to find. The data will likely be lost though.
Meh, it's a very rude surprise.