[APP] Security - How To Make Life Difficult For A Thief - HTC Desire S

One of my Beta Team Members on XDA is having to sit things out, as some punk bee-hatch stole his Desire S in a pub last Monday.
This got me thinking about how I'd be able to make a thief's life difficult (even though I have insurance) if mine ever got stolen.
Screen lock patterns are important! I know they can be a pain, but any other security measures mentioned below are useless if a thief can simply go into your settings and delete your Google account. Most people are familiar with smartphones now.
I already have tracking ability courtesy of Lookout Mobile Security. I highly recommend this as even the free version also provides scanning of apps for malware/viruses. When installed though, it's important to go into settings, select 'Missing Device' and enable 'Better Protection'. It gives the app admin rights so that you can Lock and Wipe your phone remotely, and makes the app harder to uninstall.
If you don't have this when your phone is stolen, all is not lost yet. As quickly as you can, get to a PC and log into the Android Marketplace, and remotely install something from the same makers of Lookout Mobile Security called Plan B. This will install on your phone and provide the same tracking/locking/wiping features of Lookout. It has the added trick of e-mailing you location updates every 5 minutes in case the phone is on the move. It has gotten some very glowing reviews from people who have followed their stolen phone to a thief's house!
OK but what if your thief gets indoors before you can turn the GPS on to track it? Here is where the next app (combined with a screen lock pattern) gives you another option. I've decided it's well worth the £2. Just in case the tracking software doesn't get a decent GPS lock. The police wont want to search a 1km radius from a cell tower triangulation!
It is called GotYa! Face trap! Every time a thief makes a failed attempt at cracking my screen lock pattern, the phone takes a quiet photo with the front-facing camera, and then e-mails it to me! It works! I love it! It's the first time I've found a proper use for the front facing camera. I don't video call. If you live in an area like mine, the police are very aware of who the usual suspects are, and sending them a mug-shot is definitely worth a try. They have to go outside sooner or later (possibly to take your phone to a shop to get it wiped) and it's all extra ammo in case they (and they will) deny all knowledge of having your phone.
Lookout Mobile Security: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout&feature=search_result
Plan B: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb&feature=more_from_developer
GotYa! Face trap!: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.myboyfriendisageek.gotya&feature=more_from_developer
Don't forget though, it's all for nothing if someone can get into you settings in the first place! Screen Lock!
Please add any other security apps/measures that you have found successful.
Edit 11/10/11: In further scouring of the Market for more security based apps, I have come across another one that I feel deserves a mention. It is called Visidon AppLock. It is another app for locking certain areas of your phone down, but this one uses face recognition software to determine if the owner of the phone is the one holding it. It’s another nice use of the front-facing camera.
Once properly set up it is very fast at recognising your fizzog when you try to access one of the specified protected areas. The face-training part is quite well done. So far it is proving fast and reliable enough to not prove a nuisance after already having got past a lock pattern. It’s only weakness is that it will obviously require a certain amount of ambient light to tell who it is looking at. It becomes unreliable in low light, but intelligently the developers will not allow you to set the security before first choosing a manual password to bypass the camera if light levels do not allow face recognition.
In fairness it could be more use as an alternative to a lock pattern if you just don’t like the idea of entering one every time you wake the phone up, as you only need to lock down certain areas of your phone. Again, intelligently the developers of this app make the ‘Settings’ and ‘Market’ locked by default, but you should also add any file explorers, titanium backup, or any other app which would allow a thief to remove/delete files, apps or accounts. It’s then up to you if you want to lock down your e-mail/sms/gallery.
Visidon AppLock: https://market.android.com/details?id=visidon.AppLock&feature=search_result

I will try GotYa!, SSounds Interesting ..
Nice Effort Mate

Liking the sound of that GotYa app lol
Defo gonna give it a try.
Nice guide too

Thanks! Nice Guide!
But I wonder if sombody ever had a real Virus on his Android device?
I heared that in the news sometimes, but i never heared from anyone that realy had a problem with a Virus on Android?

Awesome article!
Another useful app is Android Lost which allows you to control many of your phone's functions over the internet or through SMS. It does quiet a lot and is FREE!

I like the idea of this
Maybe a good delaying tactic in GSM based phones would be some kind of bonding material to stick the sim car in but can be taken off by the owner when needed!

f0xy said:
I like the idea of this
Maybe a good delaying tactic in GSM based phones would be some kind of bonding material to stick the sim car in but can be taken off by the owner when needed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Gotya! App can send a text to another phone if the sim card is swapped out.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium

wnp_79 Like the sound of Gotya! have been using the paid version of Lookout for a few months now and really do like it and think it is worth the money.
EDIT Just bought Gotya! and tested it out on one of the daughters ,the lengths you go to to get a pic of your teenage daughter lmfao.
Seriuosly though this looks a really good app and also set it up to post pics to my facebook wall as well as my emails

Isn't there any app that would provide location info by triangulating off cell towers? For the indoor case.

ando roido said:
Isn't there any app that would provide location info by triangulating off cell towers? For the indoor case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes the face trap does give a cell tower location of gps is unavailable. Its not much use though. In my area it would mean hundreds of houses!
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium

But it would narrow down list of villains a lot though

Nice tips but useless in 90% of the theft situations. From my experience and alot of discussions regarding this subject, FIRST thing a thief is doing afer stealing a phone is to...take out the battery and power off the phone.
No software or tracking method cand be used in this case unfortunately. The thief doesn't care about your calendar or agenda (there are some rare situations when you're a public person or something but this is not the point here), it cares about the phone itself and how to sell it quickly and make some easy money. More than that, the thiefs are usualy in a group that has at least one (or connection to) a phone "specialist", good enough to reflash your phone and install some other blank new ROM on it.
And to be honest, if I get my phone stolen, my last concern is what the thief is going to do with it....the thing that bothers me alot is that I don't have my phone anymore.

Very good information, helpful for protecting your phone when you live in dodgy areas

just tried out the vidison facelock, and it works really well and quickly, so it doesn't really bother in daily usage... definately a nice way to provide my work e-mails some added security...

Kaspersky Mobile Security 9 have Anti-Theft solution.
Remotely Block your phone if it is lost or stolen. Just send a predefined SMS to your phone and your device will be blocked and no-one will be able to access its contents. You can even choose to remotely Wipe your data.
NEW! Set a prearranged message that will be displayed on the screen if the smartphone is blocked, allowing any law-abiding citizen that finds your smartphone to return it to you.
You can locate your smartphone using GPS Find. Just send an SMS with the appropriate password to the missing device and you will receive a link to Google Maps showing the exact location of the device.
The first thing a thief normally does is to remove your smartphone’s SIM card. If the SIM is replaced, SIM Watch will immediately block the device and send you an email with the new number.
I don't know is this enough to protect phone but I also know that you can find it via police and court...

I've been using Prey on the laptop for years and it works excellent and free, I'm hoping Prey Anti Theft from the market will do the same for the phone, also free.
HTC Desire S~Tapatalk

thanks good info was looking for this for a while.

must have GotYa! great post..
for desire s owners in the philippines (preferably globe telecom) i am not sure if this can also protect you from thieves. but i've been thinking about globe's sim retention program. you can sim lock your phone and if it gets lost. just rush into any globe service center and pamper yourself with a no cost sim retention program.
just my two cents

https://market.android.com/details?...DEsImNvbS5sbWF4aS5hbnRpdGhlZnRpbnN0YWxsZXIiXQ..

Related

[Request] anti theft application

Is there any application similar to this recently made one? I like this one a lot so far on paper.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=594389
I just installed WaveSecure. Got it free from the market. They're giving away free Android lifetime accounts until March 31.
Doesn't just do anti-theft. Backups and restores SMS, contacts, etc too
https://www.wavesecure.com/
It says "Another anti theft software". Now why "another"?
Maybe there are others...
There is a nice thing called search-the-internet. Try the link below
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=android+anti+theft
Why would I post this in a nexus one forum? I know there have been requests for winmo on android, but still.
at the app section in the comments everyone is complaining about having to pay for warnings without notice and their 'buddy' and themselves being spammed by anonymous numbers. since alot complain about this I am keeping clear of wavesecure for now
Too bad. Should have gotten Wave Secure while it was in Beta. LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP FOR FREE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
you should try mobile defense. they really take it to the next level, even support for those who have root so you can really hide the app. didnt like wavesecure very much, easily broken if you know what ur doing. i guess all of them are if you REALLY are that damn good.
Iman07 said:
you should try mobile defense. they really take it to the next level, even support for those who have root so you can really hide the app. didnt like wavesecure very much, easily broken if you know what ur doing. i guess all of them are if you REALLY are that damn good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how would you defeat Wavesecure?
yeah, i am a little bit concerned cause you can still turn off the phone while in lock. so if they were to look how to flash the phone, it could be done.
Get mobile defense and Wave Secure.
I find mobile defense to be a much better app at tracking and locking down your phone. Thats all it does more or less. It also has an alarm.
Wave secure is the isht because after you track it and lock it down with mobile defense you can use wave secure to lock it down as well and send a custom message to popup on the screen, and the best part is you can completely wipe your phone memory and SDcard memory.
Nothing like getting rid of all the evidence.

[Q] What is the best phone tracker/recovery app?

I am new to Android. Just got my Vibrant. I want to protect this phone so that in case it is lost or stolen I can recover it. Could you tell me what are some of the best apps for this?
Here is a list of names I know about for now:
Where's My Droid - This is currently installed, but required me to send a text to my phone to activate the GPS and even then it won't keep the GPS active long enough to get a precise location. Furthermore, it can alert the would be robber.
Glympse - well, this is not for stolen phones
Wavesecure - couldn't find any good threads on this. Seems to have an annual subscription fee of $19. I don't want that. Just want a standalone tracker.
Remote security - Not clear that this is a good app.
TheftAlarm - Again, developed in foreign language and I don't know how good it is
MobileDefense - Maybe this is the best app, but it is still in beta and no more users are accepted. I already filled out a request.
Find My Android - Was suggested in this thread, but it doesn't seem to be different from Where's My Droid, except the notification when SIM is replaced.
Lookout Mobile Security - Doesn't seem bad, but it doesn't lock your phone remotely. Can easily uninstall the program. I also found out that I better use a different email address than the one my phone gets otherwise the phone gets an email with "location" of the phone when you look it up online. This is better than Where's My Droid since you can do it more discreetly online, without sending texts (but have to make sure the email you use is not managed by the phone).
Am I missing something? I really want to protect this phone and it is frustrating that among so many apps, we seem to be missing good anti-theft solutions. Preferably I want something that can lock the phone remotely and allow me to do things without interruptions from the thief or at least discreetly. What would you recommend?
Also, I have a rooted (stock) Vibrant.
Thanks.
Where's My Droid isn't exactly very subtle about sending out replies, the author basically said there's nothing he can do.
Most of the other options include AntiVirus and other nonsense, and are expensive or questionable.
Tasker can automatically upload GPS, respond to an email or SMS to do so.. If you send it the right command it could take pictures periodically, make an outgoing call, whatever... It's extremely flexible in what it can do.
khaytsus said:
Where's My Droid isn't exactly very subtle about sending out replies, the author basically said there's nothing he can do.
Most of the other options include AntiVirus and other nonsense, and are expensive or questionable.
Tasker can automatically upload GPS, respond to an email or SMS to do so.. If you send it the right command it could take pictures periodically, make an outgoing call, whatever... It's extremely flexible in what it can do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! Ok, but the question is - 1.can it lock the phone remotely? 2.What happens if the thief uninstalls Tracker or changes the SIM (can you password protect it)? Finally, 3.can it take picture AND email them remotely? Otherwise, I don't see much use to this feature if the phone is gone.
Lookout seems rather good, but I have not tested it personally. I'd add a link, but I'm a new user. Should be easy to find with a Google/Market search, though.
Well that (un installing tasker)may be the case with any tech anti theft, if the thief is smart and careful they will wipe/reset/format whatever they took, rendering a soft lo jack useless
I would just get tasker and lookup findmyandroid on lifehacker, its the best current option
Captiv
Yeah, I found out about LookOut on Android forums. I have installed it. It doesn't allow you to lock the phone remotely and can easily be uninstalled.
As for Find My Android, I don't see how is it different from Where's My Droid., maybe except the part where you're notified if the SIM card is replaced.
I updated the original post.
Find my android isn't the name of the app, its what the lifehacker post is tagged as (#findmyandroid)
The program is tasker, and its more customizable and it can turn on gps
Captiv
Sure, Lookout can be uninstalled, as can any other app. But really, you should have some sort of password on your device. With pattern unlock, there's really no reason not to do so.
According to one of the devs on their forums, remote locking as well as "other features" will be coming to Lookout "very soon".
https://lookout.zendesk.com/entries/24881-remote-lock
In the meanwhile, I use WaveSecure for locking my phone and Lookout for tracking, as its mechanism seems much better.
If you want to prevent Lookout from being uninstalled, just move the apk to /system/app (assuming your phone is rooted).
I have had Wave Secure since the Beta (it is free to beta testers) and love it. I can understand not wanting to pay, but it really is a great app. They have a zip file that you can flash in recovery if you are rooted. That will prevent the app from being erased if the phone is factory reset. I have also been using an app lately called "Tasker". It can track your phone, although I have not used it for this. Here is a link to the Wiki.
http://tasker.wikidot.com/locatephone
GPS Tracker by Instamapper is the one I use most. With a text message, it will return its location via Google maps. It will continually do so for as long as you have it set up for. Every 10 Seconds, Every 2 minutes, Every half hour, etc. I used it to track my stolen phone with the laptop in the car. This app saved me from buying a new phone.
stickerbob said:
I have had Wave Secure since the Beta (it is free to beta testers) and love it. I can understand not wanting to pay, but it really is a great app. They have a zip file that you can flash in recovery if you are rooted. That will prevent the app from being erased if the phone is factory reset. I have also been using an app lately called "Tasker". It can track your phone, although I have not used it for this. Here is a link to the Wiki.
http://tasker.wikidot.com/locatephone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. Glad I got it while it was still a beta!

Lost Phone Locators -- Privacy?

Currently looking for a suitable Phone Tracker/Locators in case phone gets misplaced.
For those interested in your options, this sums it up well: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/11/28/mobile-security-app-shootout-final-roundup-out-of-a-sea-of-apps-just-one-emerges-as-a-clear-winner-in-keeping-your-device-safe/
My questions is, how safe in terms of privacy are the trackers that also provide a centralized web interfaces?
Think about it, you are essentially installing an agent that allows the developer (if they so choose) to track where ever it is you are at and control your phone at anytime.
Sure YOU require a password to access your account, but surely the developer could have full access to all accounts using this software.
I used to use Tasker for remote SMS tracking, but the added features of these web integrated trackers are appealing since they also have remote picture taking, remote erase, locking, etc.
How would you weight on privacy vs feature trade off?
klau1 said:
Currently looking for a suitable Phone Tracker/Locators in case phone gets misplaced.
My questions is, how safe in terms of privacy are the trackers that also provide a centralized web interfaces?
Think about it, you are essentially installing an agent that allows the developer (if they so choose) to track where ever it is you are at and control your phone at anytime.
Sure YOU require a password to access your account, but surely the developer could have full access to all accounts using this software.
How would you weight on privacy vs feature trade off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my opinion it's really a matter of trust. First and foremost, do some research on the developer and app you're considering, look at the feedback, reputation, etc. then make a decision on how safe you feel about the service. It's similar to deciding if you feel safe signing up with a company like LIfeLock. In order for them to protect your sensitive data, you must freely give them all of your sensitive data. How safe would you feel about that? Would you trust them enough not to be malicious?
But then again, aren't you putting the same amount of trust and taking the same risks with the developer of ANY app you install on your phone?
As far as the apps themselves, I have used Find My Droid, the one Best Buy offers, and I can't remember the name of the third one and I found that all three are not as useful as I originally thought.
1. The gps feature was nice but did not pinpoint an exact address, just a general area. How useful is that?
2. I did a "stolen phone" test with the apps and it took them all between 5 and 15 minutes to lockdown the phone and one just plain failed.
3. The remote picture taking feature didn't work and if you plan on using an ICS rom, since the front facing camera doesn't work, the picture taking feature doesn't do much good.
4. The apps are useless if a perp pulls the battery which renders the gps completely useless.
So in summary, I personally wouldn't use one of those phone tracker apps. If you misplace your phone, just call it from someone else's and if you accidently left your phone at a bar or someplace public, call your provider for a replacement because you probably won't see that old one ever again.

[Q] lock down kid's smartphone

I have several outdated android smartphones laying around and would like to re-purpose one for an 8 year old.
The thing is, I cannot trust him not to install tons of adware and games on it and play it during school hours which will just cause trouble for everybody. What I'm thinking:
I need the ability to remotely enable/disable lock/unlock the phone and/or turn the phone on or off and/or time periods during which device is automatically locked or unlocked.
I need either a locked down modified cyanogen ROM (or equivalent) or I need to somehow setup everything from scratch.
GPS tracking (realtime constant monitoring isn't necessary but I'd like to be able to ping his location if I'm worried about him and maybe have some sort of perimeter alert system in case he strays into a dangerous neighborhood/gets kidnapped/whatever)
I also need to lockdown which contacts can be called/SMSed/telegramed/IMed/emailed
This kid is sharp, so if there is a way to circumvent these measures, he'll probably figure it out. But I'd like you're ideas and I'll try anyway. How would you go about this? If you're going to tell me I'm a horrible person for tracking my child, I know already.
wow your asking for alot OP. lol eaither this is a really dangours kid, or your extremely protective lol
eaither way il try and help as best as i can. for tracking you can use "wheres my android" app. its gps tracking after you text it a certain phrase, it gives the location to the phone you texted.
you can try cnmod and just install wa app passwors to lock the settings, so the kid wont change anything
Thanks for the reply. He isn't dangerous, he is more of the absent minded genius type. I'm more afraid a stranger will say "lets go to my place to build model rockets" and he won't be able to resist.
What do you mean "wa app passwords"?
You sort of addressed the tracking and locking down apps. Any ideas for contact control so he doesn't just use up all of the minutes calling buddies and 900 numbers?
Hello, what phone are you going to give your child?? What I'm thinking is putting custom rom on the device and use the multi user option if the rom supports it. Then maybe, (maybe) you'll be able to omit which things can see/use and disable some of the things you're asking for.
Good luck.
Sent from my 1+1
go0 said:
Thanks for the reply. He isn't dangerous, he is more of the absent minded genius type. I'm more afraid a stranger will say "lets go to my place to build model rockets" and he won't be able to resist.
What do you mean "wa app passwords"?
You sort of addressed the tracking and locking down apps. Any ideas for contact control so he doesn't just use up all of the minutes calling buddies and 900 numbers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We use MMGuardian Does everything you want and more and it's pretty cheap. I just assume you know a thing or two about Android so I'll tell you this, mmguardian is amazing, the only thing is you have to turn off persistent notifications for the app. I get why they don't have that built in, but just do that and hide that app and your as good as gold. You can add 'key words' that when come up in a text, IM, email or search, it will send you and alert on your phone. You get transcripts of their texts, im and email (which I was happy for, now I just find creepy and intrusive to my childs privacy) but it's pretty sold service OP

How security improvements can make your device more vulnerable (sic!)

First of - I'm just an everyday user of Android device, never interested in hacking or any other "advanced" use of computers and likes. My greatest achievements so far are jailbreaking Iphone, rooting an Android phone and installing stock ROM on it. You can call me a noob. However - I like to improve things I use and I also value my privacy. That's why I installed a software that locks access to certain apps on my phone. I recently found this app actually made an opposite - it made my device vulnerable to identity theft and potential financial loss. I wouldn't really bother telling my story if developers didn't delete my one-star-rating with a brief description of the problem right after I posted it in Play store.
So, to the point. I installed CM Security and app lock app (nearly 14 millions of users and 4,7 rating) and locked some of the "sensitive" apps with it. One evening I was bored enough to try and play "a hacker" who "found my phone" and see what such person could do. Considering "a hacker" somehow managed to unlock the device he'd now encounter my second line of the defense - the mighty app locker. And now, in a few short steps I'll show you how much damage you can do with it:
1. First it obviously asks you for an unlocking password/pattern, but -as you don't know it - you hit in-app menu button and choose "forgot password?" option.
2. It asks you to log in to your Google account in order to reset the password (YES, you can access Google password recovery from inside the app, so even if you lock your device's Settings, your mail client and so on, you can still access the most vulnerable option of your account from "security" app).
3. As you don't know a Google password you hit the "forgot password" link that starts Google password reset process.
4. It will ask you for the "last password you remember", but you can just say you don't know it and then it gives you an option to get a verification code by SMS - chances are it will be sent to the device you're just holding in your hands. And these chances are big.
5. After you get a verification code you're in. You can now set a new Google account password and reset app locker password/pattern.
It's that easy. You not only unlocked an app locker but also got access to Google account which gives you pretty much endless possibilities, including purchase of some apps in the Play Store as it stores your card details and you only need an account password to authenticate the purchase. You can also try to restore Ebay or Paypal passwords or even try to get directly into bank accounts via banking apps. Sky is the limit.
I already deleted CM "security" app and looked for some replacement. I wasn't really surprised it's kind of a standard that when you install them, security apps ask you to give your Google account details just in case you need to recover your password in a future. And they often make you think that giving these details is an integral part of installation process, a must-do that is necessary for an app to install and work. Some apps, like CM "security" don't even ask - they just use your Google account details and don't give you a chance to give up such option.
After all - here's some advice I can give:
1. Don't install any security software that connects to your Google account and gives "password reset" options;
2. Don't give Google your mobile number, even if it seems convinient;
3. Don't use your Google account address as your contact information in "owner info" option of your device.
If you have any other suggestions that may improve security, please share.
Cheers
Question is why you didn't lock your device in the first place.
I think you are misappling this feature 's benefit/use. It is not there, IMO, to secure your phone from an advesary that has even brief access to your phone.
That is what a combination of a lock screen pwd,short for convenience, and full encryption using a separate and longer pwd of high entropy/randomness is for. Even with that its important to understand how it works and its limitations. Such as it does not encrypt.the ext sd card data. So if you put apps or privledged data there you either should not or using other means to encrypt it. One such way would be to use truecrypt to encrypt it using a pc, being the easiest and then use one of the apks that gives suports accessing those types of partitions/files.
The function you are speaking of is ther to prevent people you have a large degree of trust in such as a family member or close.friend possibly that you may allow to use your phone but do not want them to be able to access private data. Think of a parent allowing their child to use the phone to play a game but does not want them scewing up email or going into their bank app and randoming clicking around etc...
I hope you get the idea. Its not there to prevent someone that means to do you direct intentional harm.
I also want to point out my comments are only directed at the most basic level and only deal with physical secure of data on the phone and not the phone itself nor from remote access or privacy.
Also want to point out that a screen lock pwd is nothing but a inconvenience at best to someone wanting access to your data. A quick reboot into recovery and a bkup to a sd card will get them all your data and any weakly secured credentials there in. Its only one part of physical security, of which, is only itself one part in over all data security, which itself, is only a part of data privacy. Its a large house of cards and removing one or putting one little piece in just slightly the wrong place and collapse the whole house.
Its hard to do just the small piece of each of these parts correctly and exrremely hard to.combine all the small and large parts together for a total protection scheme. It takes considerable research and learning to do these things especially if your goals are for higher levles of security and privacy.
As an example someone that really wants their phone data ue on android to be private from commerical.data collection which via proxy means all gov access to said data would never install goggle play store or any google app on their device. That is just one glaring example of many.
http://ad.cmcm.com/en/?f=home-en-top
Cheetah Mobile is spyware. watch the video on their website
I would suggest using the built-in encryption on Android. I don't use it myself, but have the Avira app installed. I like their PC software, and gave it a try.
It can be used to track a lost phone or lock it remotely. Since I have rooted my Huawei G300 it complains a bit, but still scans all apps being installed.
bigeasy911 said:
I think you are misappling this feature 's benefit/use. It is not there, IMO, to secure your phone from an advesary that has even brief access to your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fact is still that this app claims it provides certain security, yet it doesn't. Not everyone will realize this. So it's always good that people keep pointing this out.
Nearly a year gone since I posted this and now I returned to "AppLockers" during my mobile security research. This is such a bad thing I can't believe apps of this kind are accepted by PlayStore and not banned eternally as the most fake security solution that ever existed. What surprised me even more, "serious" companies, eg. Norton are also in this business... anyway
I checked this one first - Best App Lock - it's "best", right? And it's got 4.5 stars rating with 1,000,000 - 5,000,000 downloads.
I set it up, set the PIN, locked test app - everything seems fine.. as long as you don't go to Settings > Apps and don't force stop Best App Lock, because then - your protection is gone. But OK, you can also lock Settings and prevent such tricks and it works... as long as you don't use Activity Launcher to call App Lock's pin reset activity... Yes, you can reset the PIN without even opening the app itself.
Now, Best App Lock was clearly made by some amateur, so let's see what pros got for us, the big ones. I checked mentioned Norton App Lock, with 4.6 rating and surprisingly not as popular, with "only" 500,000 - 1,000,000 downloads. It's a bit better, it only contains one activity, so you can't bypass it easily, because the app itself is protected with a pattern, but here's another trick - reboot device in Safe Mode and you can disable Norton's permission to draw over other apps to make it helpless as a baby. Or you can just uninstall it in SM. I didn't check anything else, because what more you can do to prevent such workaround, than Norton already did?
If someone is aware of a way to disable power menu, or at least the ability to disable Safe Mode on unrooted Android please share. Until then I call all the App Lock apps the biggest scam in mobile security.
minimale_ldz said:
Nearly a year gone since I posted this and now I returned to "AppLockers" during my mobile security research. This is such a bad thing I can't believe apps of this kind are accepted by PlayStore and not banned eternally as the most fake security solution that ever existed. What surprised me even more, "serious" companies, eg. Norton are also in this business... anyway
I checked this one first - Best App Lock - it's "best", right? And it's got 4.5 stars rating with 1,000,000 - 5,000,000 downloads.
I set it up, set the PIN, locked test app - everything seems fine.. as long as you don't go to Settings > Apps and don't force stop Best App Lock, because then - your protection is gone. But OK, you can also lock Settings and prevent such tricks and it works... as long as you don't use Activity Launcher to call App Lock's pin reset activity... Yes, you can reset the PIN without even opening the app itself.
Now, Best App Lock was clearly made by some amateur, so let's see what pros got for us, the big ones. I checked mentioned Norton App Lock, with 4.6 rating and surprisingly not as popular, with "only" 500,000 - 1,000,000 downloads. It's a bit better, it only contains one activity, so you can't bypass it easily, because the app itself is protected with a pattern, but here's another trick - reboot device in Safe Mode and you can disable Norton's permission to draw over other apps to make it helpless as a baby. Or you can just uninstall it in SM. I didn't check anything else, because what more you can do to prevent such workaround, than Norton already did?
If someone is aware of a way to disable power menu, or at least the ability to disable Safe Mode on unrooted Android please share. Until then I call all the App Lock apps the biggest scam in mobile security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first step to real security is removing all Googleapps and Google account. There is no other way around this. Next, don't install any app that is not open source. Also, don't use any recovery. And finally, either epoxy your entire usb port, if you have let's say a magnetic charging port or cut all usb port pins except for 2 for charging. In addition, you should open the phone and epoxy usb port and contacts from inside, so that it can't be replaced. Or even better: epoxy your entire motherboard. That would take care of UART socket or any other way of entering CPU/GPU/RAM from inside. Encrypt your phone. After that, your phone couldn't be penetrated (other than through the air/baseband, which is a whole different level of sophistication). If someone targets you over the baseband, throw your phone and run for your freedom...
Seriously, in the above scenario, no one can have access to your data: no fastboot, no adb, no recovery. They wouldn't be able to replace kernel, recovery, system or use any OEM official flashing method... . I welcome any suggestion to hack such a device...
minimale_ldz said:
Nearly a year gone since I posted this and now I returned to "AppLockers" during my mobile security research. This is such a bad thing I can't believe apps of this kind are accepted by PlayStore and not banned eternally as the most fake security solution that ever existed. What surprised me even more, "serious" companies, eg. Norton are also in this business... anyway
I checked this one first - Best App Lock - it's "best", right? And it's got 4.5 stars rating with 1,000,000 - 5,000,000 downloads.
I set it up, set the PIN, locked test app - everything seems fine.. as long as you don't go to Settings > Apps and don't force stop Best App Lock, because then - your protection is gone. But OK, you can also lock Settings and prevent such tricks and it works... as long as you don't use Activity Launcher to call App Lock's pin reset activity... Yes, you can reset the PIN without even opening the app itself.
Now, Best App Lock was clearly made by some amateur, so let's see what pros got for us, the big ones. I checked mentioned Norton App Lock, with 4.6 rating and surprisingly not as popular, with "only" 500,000 - 1,000,000 downloads. It's a bit better, it only contains one activity, so you can't bypass it easily, because the app itself is protected with a pattern, but here's another trick - reboot device in Safe Mode and you can disable Norton's permission to draw over other apps to make it helpless as a baby. Or you can just uninstall it in SM. I didn't check anything else, because what more you can do to prevent such workaround, than Norton already did?
If someone is aware of a way to disable power menu, or at least the ability to disable Safe Mode on unrooted Android please share. Until then I call all the App Lock apps the biggest scam in mobile security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reviews or star ratings are not always very reliable, just use as a rough guide .... (In my opinion SOME of those Chinese apps seem to be amongst the worst offenders)
https://techcrunch.com/2014/05/27/f...unes-but-google-play-has-the-worst-offenders/
optimumpro said:
The first step to real security is removing all Googleapps and Google account. There is no other way around this. Next, don't install any app that is not open source. Also, don't use any recovery. And finally, either epoxy your entire usb port, if you have let's say a magnetic charging port or cut all usb port pins except for 2 for charging. In addition, you should open the phone and epoxy usb port and contacts from inside, so that it can't be replaced. Or even better: epoxy your entire motherboard. That would take care of UART socket or any other way of entering CPU/GPU/RAM from inside. Encrypt your phone. After that, your phone couldn't be penetrated (other than through the air/baseband, which is a whole different level of sophistication). If someone targets you over the baseband, throw your phone and run for your freedom...
Seriously, in the above scenario, no one can have access to your data: no fastboot, no adb, no recovery. They wouldn't be able to replace kernel, recovery, system or use any OEM official flashing method... . I welcome any suggestion to hack such a device...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you forgot SD card, unless you encrypt that as well, which for a user who uses the card for transferring files across different devices is not such a bright idea.
using epoxy could slow down the hack, and seriously give more trouble to the user than the hacker.
that being said your idea of securing the data is somewhat clear but really a secured device? cause epoxy can be penetrated as well, lock screen can also be bypassed, even without Google and a recovery.
it might take more time than hacking an average device, but still it can be done and most probably the hacker would be the same owner. cause he forgot the damn password and is looking to get back the data.
the more we try to secure, the more we make our lives tough.
billysam said:
Well you forgot SD card, unless you encrypt that as well, which for a user who uses the card for transferring files across different devices is not such a bright idea.
using epoxy could slow down the hack, and seriously give more trouble to the user than the hacker.
that being said your idea of securing the data is somewhat clear but really a secured device? cause epoxy can be penetrated as well, lock screen can also be bypassed, even without Google and a recovery.
it might take more time than hacking an average device, but still it can be done and most probably the hacker would be the same owner. cause he forgot the d
amn password and is looking to get back the data.
the more we try to secure, the more we make our lives tough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Epoxy: Knowing how small and fragile phone motherboards are, I think you will most likely damage the board while trying to penetrate epoxy... Maybe you shouldn't epoxy the usb port on the ouside, but cut the data pins and epoxy on the inside to not give a hint to an attacker. Anyway, I wish an attacker fun time trying to remove epoxy...
The point of encryption is to protect data when the phone is off. So, it makes sense that for someone without a password, the phone turns into a brick. And if you tend to forget the password, then write it down somewhere other than the phone...
Mobile security is a myth. At best it is a door knit lock. Will keep honest People honest but won't stop someone from. Really trying and doing it.
I see lots of talk from people about security and yet these same people use Facebook which has enough holes in it that anyone could hack someone else pc. I use it all the time to mess with people. The looks on their faces are priceless.

Categories

Resources