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Has anyone thought about implementing password protection to the G1's adb interface? If someone finds (steals) your phone, it' seems like they can get easy access to your data using adb if it is enabled? Instead of forcing the default to adb-debug disabled, it seems like requiring a password would be more useful?
I realize that this might be risky since it might prevent recovery when the password is forgotten, but at that point, there is still the "wipe all my data" unlock method right?
Without this, I find it hard to trust any sensitive data to my phone (since I do not want to toggle adb on/off constantly).
I agree with you any one who find our g1 or steal it, can find easy in the internet how to use adb, or they can even find out how you can do a wipe if you turn the phone off and start the phone using Home+Power button. And they will be good to go to use the G1. I hope someone can add a password protection to this 2 options.
I guess it might be nice to add a password option to the "wipe" option, but that seems like it would sorta defeat the purpose then, wouldn't it?
I am more concerned about my data than the device itself. If someone steals my phone and they can't use it, it doesn't really help me. But, if I can at least prevent them from reading my data... I envision using my phone as a secure token to access various logins at some point (anyone want to code that up? . So, I just want to ensure that they cannot get any keys/passwords on it.
The other problem with preventing someone from wiping it is, "what do you do if you forget your own password"? I would prefer to let the thief use the phone (without my data) than to potentially brick the phone for myself. Lastly, locking it permanently off to thieves would not be a deterrent to theft unless every phone did it since they would not know about it until they stole your phone!
I am surprised that the "serious" hackers have not implemented adb protection yet, have they?
Yea its kinda a good and bad thing tho. Look at it like this .
You put the password on your phone to stop people from doing anything to it, then you forgot your password, how do you get back in? You cant. Unless you have a way around that which if you have a way around that the thief would to.
The only thing i would like is to be able to protect files so if you lost your phone someone wouldn't be able to get into it without wiping the phone.
xile6 said:
Yea its kinda a good and bad thing tho. Look at it like this .
You put the password on your phone to stop people from doing anything to it, then you forgot your password, how do you get back in? You cant. Unless you have a way around that which if you have a way around that the thief would to.
The only thing i would like is to be able to protect files so if you lost your phone someone wouldn't be able to get into it without wiping the phone.
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I agree with you and at the same time don't (right now I don't put personal files in my sd for that very reason if I lost the phone anyone can see what I have on the sd) regarding to the password I guess that it will be up to the people if you know that you forget passwords just don't use it I personally use 2 password 1 for forum 6 letter something simple and easy to remember, and one for (very important stuffs) 12 characteres letters and numbers. Plus I thing that everyone in that will be using this are people to frequent this forum wich I don't think they tend to forget passwords.
In order to gain access to program data (not applicable to sdcard), you still need to be either root, or to possess the userid of the particular program whose data you're trying to gain access to. Use of one of those secure-root password prompt programs will give you the ability to limit root access since the 'su' command will fail without the password being entered in the GUI.
This is not absolute though, since you can still boot on a recovery image, backup, and extract. Without actually encrypting the storage, there is no way to absolutely protect your data, and with a mobile device, the encryption/decryption overhead will take up too much CPU time to be practical. It could, however, be implemented on a program-by-program basis or on a data-but-not-program basis, i.e. encrypt /data/data, or /data/data-enc might be a better idea - leave data for user-programs encrypted, but system-services unencrypted, and mount the encrypted partition on screen unlock (i.e. password unlock). LUKS would be great for this. Allowing optional encryption for SD-card and allowing multiple SD-card partitions to be mounted (i.e. one encrypted, one not) would be ideal.
Well, perhaps the bootloader should get a password also? Would having both an adp and a bootloader passwords secure things completely?
Of course not. Bootloader passwords are virtually useless. All they do is stop you from booting, they do nothing at all to protect your data except from a real amateur, the likes of whom wouldn't be able to get your data off the thing even WITH root access.
As long as there is unencrypted data stored on the device, it definitely can be read off.
Could you please explain why you believe that a bootloader password would not work?
In other words, if a user is locked out from performing commands via the screen without the appropriate gesture, locked out from using adb without a password, and they cannot boot into the recovery image (or access NVRAM with fastboot) without a password, how can they access data on the internal NVRAM? I am not saying they can't (I don't know), I am asking what method you think they could use? Can the NVRAM be easily removed and plugged into another device and read? Are there other boot methods that I am not aware of (likely, I am fairly new to this) that would allow them to access the data? Or, are you just assuming that there is a method that an intelligent cracker could use?
1) you can use fastboot to boot off a recovery image file that is NOT ON THE PHONE,
2) you can connect directly to the chip and read its contents.
etc.
Keep in mind the way that bootloader passwords work; the password is NOT embedded in the bootloader - that would be stupid since you risk bricking the device every time you change the password. A password protected bootloader will access some configuration file that will have the details of the password. Fastboot would (and must) come before this stage.
It seems like you are pretty much just repeating/rewording the weaknesses already pointed out? I am not trying to be rude, if you do have some extra info, or there is something subtle that I am missing, please accept my apologies.
Specifically:
#1 should be assumed to be prevented by the bootloader password, no? Is there any reason you think this would not be effective?
As for #2, I was already asking if the NVRAM could easily be removed from the HTC? Do you have any useful info on this, on what it would take to do it? I assume this would require surface mount de-soldering?
My personal threat model would assume that my data is less valuable to a thief than my phone is. While I would prefer my data to not be easily acquired by a thief, I have nothing so secret that I would expect a thief to specifically steal my phone for it. Therefor, I assume that a thief has no incentive to destroy my phone (which he is in possession of and can use) just to get at my data. Of course, if there is an easy method to get my data (there currently are easy software methods), I would expect a thief to do so. I am hoping to close those easy software methods. If there are easy hardware methods, such as unplugging a chip or sdcard and simply inserting it into another phone, well, then perhaps the software holes are not worth plugging. But, any hardware hacks involving soldering (especially surface mount soldering) the phone are beyond my desire to foil.
Again, that is my personal objective, I understand if you do not share it. Can you think of any additional info that might be valuable with this in mind?
Thanks!
MartinFick said:
#1 should be assumed to be prevented by the bootloader password, no? Is there any reason you think this would not be effective?
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No, bootloader password won't help you here, and I already explained why.
As for #2, I was already asking if the NVRAM could easily be removed from the HTC? Do you have any useful info on this, on what it would take to do it? I assume this would require surface mount de-soldering?
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Sure, thats one way. The other way is by whatever mechanism HTC uses to initially write the bootloader to the device. I haven't looked, but there is probably a jtag port or something similar on it somewhere.
My personal threat model would assume that my data is less valuable to a thief than my phone is. While I would prefer my data to not be easily acquired by a thief, I have nothing so secret that I would expect a thief to specifically steal my phone for it. Therefor, I assume that a thief has no incentive to destroy my phone (which he is in possession of and can use) just to get at my data. Of course, if there is an easy method to get my data (there currently are easy software methods), I would expect a thief to do so. I am hoping to close those easy software methods. If there are easy hardware methods, such as unplugging a chip or sdcard and simply inserting it into another phone, well, then perhaps the software holes are not worth plugging. But, any hardware hacks involving soldering (especially surface mount soldering) the phone are beyond my desire to foil.
Again, that is my personal objective, I understand if you do not share it. Can you think of any additional info that might be valuable with this in mind?
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Unfortunately, even if it were possible, securing it against that possibility isn't going to help you since the thief doesn't know that its worthless to him. He'll steal it anyways, and then garbage it when it turns out to be useless to him.
No, bootloader password won't help you here, and I already explained why.
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Uh, no you didn't. You rambled on about the password being in some config file and therefore assumed that it would not be possible or desirable to actually implement a proper bootloader password. I do not accept this criticism, people reflash their bootloaders all the time and it is up to them to determine the level of "brick risk" they want. Perhaps you don't like it, that doesn't make things impossible.
As for putting the password in a config file somewhere, it is not the only solution, one could easily create a separate tiny partition just for the password if you did not want to put FS reading code into the bootloader. (That was your point, right? That the bootloader is simple and cannot read a filesystem?) Surely the bootloader knows how to read partitions, or how would it be able to boot the kernel? With this you could reduce most "brick risk" by providing a "boot from external kernel for recovery after wiping the partitions" option.
And, finally, perhaps there is some other minimal byte storage on the HTC Dream where a password could be easily stored? Something analogous to the CMOS of a PC, something the bootloader could easily read/write to change the password?
Sure, thats one way. The other way is by whatever mechanism HTC uses to initially write the bootloader to the device. I haven't looked, but there is probably a jtag port or something similar on it somewhere.
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Valid concern, easy for someone with the right tools, and some very specialized expertise perhaps. I would be plenty happy to foil all thiefs who do not own such tools or have such knowledge, I believe those are the ones likely to steal my phone.
Unfortunately, even if it were possible, securing it against that possibility isn't going to help you since the thief doesn't know that its worthless to him. He'll steal it anyways, and then garbage it when it turns out to be useless to him.
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Why is not going to help me? If he can't get my data (easily without desoldering), it helps me. I agree and already pointed out that it would not be a deterrent. Nowhere in my objective did deterrence come up.
You make some good points, points that are worthy of serious consideration for anyone attempting to implement this, but I would say that your points hardly make it impossible, in fact, they illustrate very well what a designer would need to consider! Thanks!
I never said that *anything* was impossible. I simply pointed out that IF the password was compiled into the bootloader, then THAT would be extremely dangerous since rather than trying out a tried and true bootloader, every change of password would be a serious brick-risk.
Regarding partition vs file, there is no difference. A partition *IS* a file in a very simple filesystem -- that which we refer to as a "partition table". As such, the risk is identical. I certainly did not suggest that a bootloader is incapable of reading a filesystem, the reverse is in fact, and MUST be true, since if the bootloader couldn't read the filesystem, then how is it to load something that is stored on said filesystem? The point is that if the filesystem were in some manner corrupted, overwritten, updated, etc., then so is your ability to boot the system PERMANENTLY, unless you maintain fastboot prior to the password, in which case it is trivial to boot off a different system image anyways, or unless you go to hardware level to unbrick the device, the same approach, of course, could be used by someone else to gain access.
Oh, and when you say "My personal threat model would assume that my data is less valuable to a thief than my phone is.", that suggests that your priorities are hardware first and then data.
I still say that the most feasible approach to this is selective encryption. Keep the important data from being accessed and not worry about the hardware, since there is no technical way to make it undesirable to a thief except, of course, to make it real ugly. Pack the thing into an old-style Palm case. Take a look into LUKS. It could *definitely* be made to work and is probably easier than you think. What you would have to do is first install support for it at the system level (that might require that you rebuild the kernel), encrypt a partition on the SDCARD with it, and link password, mount, and unmount into the lock screen. Once thats done, you just move and symlink important data onto the encrypted partition. For that matter, you don't even need to automate it with the lock screen, you can just write an app to password, mount, and unmount, or even run it from the terminal. Yes, this is just a linux device. This approach is barely more than trivial.
I never said that *anything* was impossible.
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Sorry, the sentence below sounded like you were implying that it is was impossible.
No, bootloader password won't help you here, and I already explained why.
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Oh, and when you say "My personal threat model would assume that my data is less valuable to a thief than my phone is.", that suggests that your priorities are hardware first and then data.
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No, it suggests that those are the priorties of the thief. I don't believe a thief would steal my phone for its data. I accept that it can be stolen easily or that I might simply leave it on a table in a restaurant or something. At that point I would simply prefer that no one be able to easily snoop my personal affairs. Currently it is VERY easy. I had adb access to my phone before even using the screen, (I needed to register via wifi), it really is simple, it takes little expertise.
Regarding partition vs file, there is no difference. A partition *IS* a file in a very simple filesystem -- that which we refer to as a "partition table". As such, the risk is identical. I certainly did not suggest that a bootloader is incapable of reading a filesystem, the reverse is in fact, and MUST be true, since if the bootloader couldn't read the filesystem, then how is it to load something that is stored on said filesystem?
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Call it what you will, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt.
Many bootloaders do not understand the filesystem they load from, they simply get a pre-created list of the disk blocks to load a kernel from and then load them and execute them.
The point is that if the filesystem were in some manner corrupted, overwritten, updated, etc., then so is your ability to boot the system PERMANENTLY, unless you maintain fastboot prior to the password, in which case it is trivial to boot off a different system image anyways, or unless you go to hardware level to unbrick the device, the same approach, of course, could be used by someone else to gain access.
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For someone who seems to understand things well, you seem to willingly miss important points already mentioned:
With this you could reduce most "brick risk" by providing a "boot from external kernel for recovery after wiping the partitions" option.
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You encryption points are well taken, they probably would be simple to implement, however they would likely have a significant performance impact.
MartinFick said:
You encryption points are well taken, they probably would be simple to implement, however they would likely have a significant performance impact.
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Only if you're encrypting everything (i.e. programs). There is no reason to encrypt everything -- just encrypt the data you want to protect. There is no reason to bother encrypting apps that you install or the operating system since this is all available elsewhere. If you have private documents, emails, etc., keep those encrypted. The performance impact will be negligible since these files will be fairly small.
I'm loving to try out the CM7 builds and other custom ROM, but at the same time I'm concerned with all the security risks of an unlocked bootloader and cwm recovery.
I wanted to know if there's a way to trigger a factory reset to remotely wipe the phone using the clockwork recovery. Anyone know of anything done like this?
I know there are apps out there that trigger a remote wipe by going into the stock recovery but, when that happens on CM7 for instance, the phone just goes on that Exclamation Mark screen since the stock recovery was overwritten.
Since CM7 can actually reboot to cwm recovery, would there be a way to issue a command to reboot to recovery AND perform a factory reset (or one that would bring back the stock recovery and then do the wipe).
Am I talking nonsense here? I just wanted to minimize risks with a phone theft for example, by wiping everything (I can wipe the SD card already, but am now concerned with the system itself).
Thanks!
You're just being too paranoid. Unlocking your bootloader won't affect anything.
Besides.. the chances are, if a person stoel your phone. I seriously doubt that they have any knowledge of recovery and all these other things that most users on XDA know.
If they do know, then the chances of them stealing your phone are low. I mean really, what individual with knowledge of flashing different ROMs and all these other things would have the audacity of stealing your phone? Only chance is if you lost your phone (not insulting anyone but I don't think people would have the courage to steal a phone from you if they are so knowledgeable in flashing)
And you can always go to http://market.android.com and download "Plan B" onto your phone.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb&feature=search_result
After you install it, Plan B will start locating your phone using cell towers and GPS, even if you didn't have GPS switched on. Your location will keep updating for 10 minutes, and you will get an email each time it is located, whether the phone is moving or standing still. You can start the process again by texting “locate” to your number from any other phone. In order to locate your phone, we send you a text via SMS, so standard message rates apply.
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Yeah, it is somewhat paranoid but I think you can never be too safe with your information nowadays
Having an unlocked bootloader allows anyone to access your phone's data completely and while that's great for flashing ROMs, it's not a secure method.
I understand that most people don't really have the expertise going on at these forums, but I just wondered if someone had developed a security app of that sort, I would certainly buy it!
Plan B is an interesting app, but just allows you to try to locate your phone, not wipe it.
fabio008 said:
Yeah, it is somewhat paranoid but I think you can never be too safe with your information nowadays
Having an unlocked bootloader allows anyone to access your phone's data completely and while that's great for flashing ROMs, it's not a secure method.
I understand that most people don't really have the expertise going on at these forums, but I just wondered if someone had developed a security app of that sort, I would certainly buy it!
Plan B is an interesting app, but just allows you to try to locate your phone, not wipe it.
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? I don't get the point that you're making of "unlocked bootloader" vs. "locked bootloader." It's the same thing, it just allows more freedom. Phones that aren't Nexus run on a locked bootloader and such. They're able to flash ROMs and do all that.
And Plan B is a last resort app, its not supposed to be used a security app. Thats what their primary app, Lookout is for.
Stop being paranoid, if somebody steals your phone. The chances of them knowing about recovery and doing all of that are VERY LOW.
If its something that bothers you just put a security lock on your phone and Lookout or any other related app. Report it to the police and they'll help you retrieve it.. unless thats something Brazil doesn't offer.
fabio008 said:
Yeah, it is somewhat paranoid but I think you can never be too safe with your information nowadays
Having an unlocked bootloader allows anyone to access your phone's data completely and while that's great for flashing ROMs, it's not a secure method.
I understand that most people don't really have the expertise going on at these forums, but I just wondered if someone had developed a security app of that sort, I would certainly buy it!
Plan B is an interesting app, but just allows you to try to locate your phone, not wipe it.
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You can use Autowipe app and use a pin code to lock ur screen. Autowipe has options to wipe ur phone after 'n' number of unsuccessful attempts to unlock ur screen. You can also set options in the app, to wipe ur device when sim card is changed.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
zephiK said:
? I don't get the point that you're making of "unlocked bootloader" vs. "locked bootloader." It's the same thing, it just allows more freedom. Phones that aren't Nexus run on a locked bootloader and such. They're able to flash ROMs and do all that.
And Plan B is a last resort app, its not supposed to be used a security app. Thats what their primary app, Lookout is for.
Stop being paranoid, if somebody steals your phone. The chances of them knowing about recovery and doing all of that are VERY LOW.
If its something that bothers you just put a security lock on your phone and Lookout or any other related app. Report it to the police and they'll help you retrieve it.. unless thats something Brazil doesn't offer.
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I understand the chances of knowing about recovery are indeed very low, still, locked and unlocked bootloader have a significant difference when talking about access to your phone's data. With 2.3.3 now, there is no way to flash cwm if you have a locked bootloader (unless you completely erase your phone), while having it unlocked allows you to access everything from the modded recovery (considering you have the expertise).
It is a long stretch but I just thought it was worth discussing additional security possibilities when you're not completely "stock".
kirdroid said:
You can use Autowipe app and use a pin code to lock ur screen. Autowipe has options to wipe ur phone after 'n' number of unsuccessful attempts to unlock ur screen. You can also set options in the app, to wipe ur device when sim card is changed.
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Yeah, I actually have a pin code and WaveSecure installed, so for the most part I think it works OK. But their wipe function is not that great, it leaves a lot of stuff behind.
If I break forum etiquette in some way please excuse the lapse - this is my first post to any forum. Honestly, it's a bit intimidating but I'm more than a little desperate right now. Near panic would be a better description of my state.
My Droid Incredible is stuck in a continuous boot loop. 24-48 hours after downloading a sleep sound generating app (if this is relevant), I was trying to use a different app and a pop-up stated "internal error" and would not load the app. I tried another and same result. I tried to kill all running apps with advanced app killer and same result. I turned off the phone thinking that it would correct when turning it back on but no luck. Now it just power cycles in a continuous boot loop. There has been no solution through tech support or a store visit. I don't care about the phone. At this point I would like to strap it to a steak and throw it in a lion cage. I do care about the data its holding - none of which is backed up in any way. There is no sd card and no back-up in my gmail account. I need to try and rescue the following data: voice memos from the HTC app, notes from the 3bannana (catch notes) app, photos, videos, apps, bookmarks from the dolphin HD browser and the Android browser, pdf downloads, text messages, call log settings, etc.
I have tried to boot the phone with a sd card installed. I have tried to view the data from a Celebrite machine at the Verizon store - it sees the drive but not the data. I tried to get into a "safe mode" menu by depressing down volume+center click+menu. Nothing has worked.
Is there any desktop software (or any other solution) that would enable me to restore (rescue) the data from the phone while it is in this state?
If there isn't, please just make something up so I can continue for a while in a delusional state of hope and get over this gradually.
Thank you for your wisdom and mercy.
Kandinsky1 said:
If I break forum etiquette in some way please excuse the lapse - this is my first post to any forum. Honestly, it's a bit intimidating but I'm more than a little desperate right now. Near panic would be a better description of my state.
My Droid Incredible is stuck in a continuous boot loop. 24-48 hours after downloading a sleep sound generating app (if this is relevant), I was trying to use a different app and a pop-up stated "internal error" and would not load the app. I tried another and same result. I tried to kill all running apps with advanced app killer and same result. I turned off the phone thinking that it would correct when turning it back on but no luck. Now it just power cycles in a continuous boot loop. There has been no solution through tech support or a store visit. I don't care about the phone. At this point I would like to strap it to a steak and throw it in a lion cage. I do care about the data its holding - none of which is backed up in any way. There is no sd card and no back-up in my gmail account. I need to try and rescue the following data: voice memos from the HTC app, notes from the 3bannana (catch notes) app, photos, videos, apps, bookmarks from the dolphin HD browser and the Android browser, pdf downloads, text messages, call log settings, etc.
I have tried to boot the phone with a sd card installed. I have tried to view the data from a Celebrite machine at the Verizon store - it sees the drive but not the data. I tried to get into a "safe mode" menu by depressing down volume+center click+menu. Nothing has worked.
Is there any desktop software (or any other solution) that would enable me to restore (rescue) the data from the phone while it is in this state?
If there isn't, please just make something up so I can continue for a while in a delusional state of hope and get over this gradually.
Thank you for your wisdom and mercy.
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If you have a custom recovery image and the partitions aren't corrupt you should be able to recover everything with adb.
If you don't have a custom recovery then it might be impossible to recover anything.
Have you rooted the phone and installed a custom recovery?
With respect to backups - GMail for example is stored in the cloud - so the data on your phone is just a clone - you won't loose your mail - other apps I don't know, you'll have to check each.
If you can't get stable adb access you will need to research a factory reset for your phone which should fix it (but will wipe your data).
djmcnz said:
If you have a custom recovery image and the partitions aren't corrupt you should be able to recover everything with adb.
If you don't have a custom recovery then it might be impossible to recover anything.
Have you rooted the phone and installed a custom recovery?
With respect to backups - GMail for example is stored in the cloud - so the data on your phone is just a clone - you won't loose your mail - other apps I don't know, you'll have to check each.
If you can't get stable adb access you will need to research a factory reset for your phone which should fix it (but will wipe your data).
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Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I have not rooted my droid, have no custom recovery image and don't even know what adb is. As you can tell, I am a complete novice - but a novice in serious trouble if I can't recover the data. When you say stable adb access, what do you mean?
I was hoping to find some type of desktop recovery software that may be able to recognize the drive on the phone and then view and copy the data. Is it possible that this might exist. By the way is there a more appropriate sub-forum to place this post?
Thanks for your help,
Caleb
Kandinsky1 said:
Unfortunately, I have not rooted my droid, have no custom recovery image and don't even know what adb is. As you can tell, I am a complete novice - but a novice in serious trouble if I can't recover the data. When you say stable adb access, what do you mean?
I was hoping to find some type of desktop recovery software that may be able to recognize the drive on the phone and then view and copy the data. Is it possible that this might exist. By the way is there a more appropriate sub-forum to place this post?
Thanks for your help,
Caleb
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lol ADB is the Android Debugging Bridge - in layman's term, it's a way to gain terminal access to your phone and do several other things with your phone. Mostly for debugging, but can be used for these purposes if you're rooted/installed a custom recovery.
That said, it would be at this point in time, virtually impossible to save your data that hasn't been backed up. Even if you had root, this might have been a bit more accomplishable (though usually a custom recovery never hurt ). If you're REALLY desperate, there might still be a way, though the chances of it working and providing good results is a mixed bag of results.
I'm assuming that if you didn't have an SD card in there in the first place that it has some built-in memory, right? Well, If not, then Catch notes would not have worked as it depends on an SD card to hold backups and (if i believe correctly) notes. Also, I'm assuming that you had some accounts set up on your phone (HTC/Google). If not, then I don't know how you've gone this long without it, but I'm almost positive you did have at least those two. In that case, the voice memos might be saved as well as the call log settings. Contacts might also be synced, so its more of the physical stuff we need to worry (texts/pdfs/bookmarks/pictures/videos)
Now, there are ways to recover using a computer. It all requires that you get your phone to work again (don't throw it to the lions yet!) So, we'll need to try and unbrick it. Follow the instructions here to try and get your phone back into factory state. It's true this will delete all your data, but as you are now, you have even less of a chance of recovering it.
From here, you're going to just skip past the setups and everything. After that, you're going to mount the phone as a disk drive. Now, this is where things can either go really good or really bad for you.
Get a recovery software for Windows, Linux, or Mac here. I honestly prefer Recuva as it has worked well for me in the past and this other program I had to pay for (can't remember the name. Search google and you might find it ;P), but Recuva should serve these purposes well.
The reason why these things work very inconsistently is that when you delete stuff in your phone/computer, they don't actually get "deleted". Rather, they are flagged as "not needed" and is left there until the phone/computer needs more space. It'll search out any flags, then overwrite them. In our case, that will work for and against us. Since we have to rewrite about 1 GB of data to reinstall the system (or was it +- 500 MBs?) we'll have to assume that about that much will be lost to us. That's why usually videos are unrecoverable. They are large and usually take up the most space, so they will be hard to recover if anything.
However, this works out for us as we can recover things like texts, contacts, your color note files, bookmarks, pictures, and whatever else you can dream of with a very high success rate. This is because they are small enough and if they don't get touched, you can probably get them in their original form. However, if parts of it is overwritten (i.e. texts, video) , you'll know cause the texts will have funky characters that dont make sense and the video wont load. Use this to your advantage and recover only small things first. Rule of thumb: if its small and seen by the software, most likely untouched. Grab these first.
I apologize for this really really long post. I just wanted to explain every part to you so you can understand the thinking behind why I'm asking you to do something as delete your precious data. However, like I stated earlier, there is almost 100% chance you won't get everything back and you could still possibly lose all your data should the software not see it. However, I feel this is much better than not having any chance at all and just staring at your phone waiting for it to grow brains and spit out the data in a conveniently-hidden SD card. So, I hope this works for you and if things go well, let me know! =]
~jojojohnson7410
In case hard reset didn't work...
You can follow the following section by clicking here:
How to revert to factory (stock, S-ON, no root):
Get S-ON by flashing THIS FILE (218.5kb) via recovery the same way you would flash a ROM. If you're not on the stock radio, you'll first need to FLASH THE STOCK RADIO. If you don't know how to do this, then you've never flashed off the stock radio, so you're good.
Revert your phone back to the stock, unrooted ROM. You have two options.
Option 1: Download HTC Sync and run the RUU. You can download the RUU HERE (180MB).
Option 2: Download THIS FILE (172.5MB) and place it on the root of your SD card. Reboot your phone into HBOOT (Bootloader, NOT RECOVERY!!!). Once the bootloader checks the image, it will ask you if you want to update. Select Yes and let the update run. After the phone reboots, you will have a stock, factory Droid Incredible running the November update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's all the way at the top. Do this only if the hard reset didn't work. If you need help using this or encounter any problems, let me know =] (oh, PM me cause sometimes I forget to check >.>)
~jojojohnson7410
There are many sites selling Mix 3's some Chinese, some Global, some with locked bootloaders, and some with unlocked bootloaders, this thread is to help people "protect" the devices they have bought (or will buy).
It's through my understanding that the most "secure" way of protecting your phone & data from thief's is to have your bootloader locked, with no custom recovery, encryption on & usb debugging disabled right?
This is because with a unlocked bootloader, the thief has the ability to boot into TWRP (for example) & simply wipe your pin/password/lock off the phone completely, then just boot it up, factory reset it & sell it.
I know there is methods such as putting the phone in cold temperatures so you can retrieve the encryption keys from the RAM, but assuming the thief is just basic & what's to make some quick money off your phone...So...
What's the best way & most recommended thing to do with Xiaomi devices specifically, locked/unlocked, encrypted/not-encrypted, does it matter?, If not, why not?
Any help is appreciated! The more in-depth the better.
Even with a locked bootloader a thief can hold VolUp while booting, wipe phone and sell it. Wiping is possible in any case and thats not even the issue a stolen Phone is gone.
The issue are your data which can be stolen too when you have a unlocked bootloader. Simply boot to twrp connect usb and copy everything. But you can prevent that with encryption and enable "requires pattern to start". That way if your phone gets stolen the thief can still Install/use Twrp but he needs to enter a pattern to decrypt the storage. If he doesnt, twrp wont be able to read the partition and your data is safe. He can still wipe the Phone and sell it but you cant prevent that. I don't know if the pattern generates the encryption keys or retrieves them from somewhere but i'd assume it generates them, probably together with some device specific values, else that would be a flaw in my book. If someone could enlighten me here that'd be nice.
If your bootloader is locked he also can't access your data. Since stock recovers doesn't allow/support Usb-filetransfer. So a lockpattern is all you need there. Encryption shouldnt really matter against the normal thief.
I am going this way: Unlocked bootloader to get rid of Miui, Twrp to have a proper recovery menu, and encryption+pattern to save my data. Disable USB-Developer Options to prevent adb shenanigans.
But on the hand if you wan't to get really panariod a locked bootloader would be better since you still can read the system image from the phone from twrp, this means, and this is a easy way to do it, you could read it copy it to the pc and simply brutefroce the lockpattern. If you have the partitions you can simply try 3 patterns either it works or the phone locks itself up because you did 3 wrong. If it locks up you simply write the partitions back and try again. If you can do 3 in 30 seconds you are done in 45 days since there are only 390.000 different patterns on a 3x3 grid (which is what most people use since some Roms don't even allow for 4x4 or 5x5) but if you emulate it and can do 3 in 15 seconds you are down to 23 days. If you run it in 20 emulators you are done in 1 day. (That would be an awesome weekend project.) In emulation you could really optimize this since you can cut everything out what isn't needed for the attempt to encrypt the partition. you dont even need the screen to load, simply send the decryption module whatever the last module in the Numbers-from-touches-chain would have sent, everything that is loaded before the attempt to decrypt must be unencrypted therefore can be messed with, probably it's even universal across phones since that's a stock android thing. If it tries to write used attempts, save whatever what gets overwritten beforehand, let it write its thing, kill the process, revert changes and try again with the next set. Maybe you get it down to 3s or 4s for 3 attempts and boom you are at 6 hours to encrypt any android phone, no matter which version, with an unlocked bootloader which uses a 3x3 pattern. But your data would be really valueable to someone if they did this. You can't do that with a locked bootloader since you can't read the partitions or you could just use the 5x5 pattern, which you cant do on MIUI (i just tried and havent found where you could change it). But probably i have a giant oversight in there so this probably woudn't work
________________________________________________
On the other hand if you want to recover your phone you should make it as easy as possible to get the thief into your phone since you dont want them to run it off and wipe it. I DONT RECOMMEND THIS. But you could make a 2nd user who has no lock pattern on it. Concider your Data public at this point but while they are busy looking at your selfies you could use a app like prey to track the phone. But since Data are more important than a phone i'd never do or recommend that.
Or you could just buy a tin foil hat.
~phoeny~ said:
Even with a locked bootloader a thief can hold VolUp while booting, wipe phone and sell it. Wiping is possible in any case and thats not even the issue a stolen Phone is gone.
The issue are your data which can be stolen too when you have a unlocked bootloader. Simply boot to twrp connect usb and copy everything. But you can prevent that with encryption and enable "requires pattern to start". That way if your phone gets stolen the thief can still Install/use Twrp but he needs to enter a pattern to decrypt the storage. If he doesnt, twrp wont be able to read the partition and your data is safe. He can still wipe the Phone and sell it but you cant prevent that. I don't know if the pattern generates the encryption keys or retrieves them from somewhere but i'd assume it generates them, probably together with some device specific values, else that would be a flaw in my book. If someone could enlighten me here that'd be nice.
If your bootloader is locked he also can't access your data. Since stock recovers doesn't allow/support Usb-filetransfer. So a lockpattern is all you need there. Encryption shouldnt really matter against the normal thief.
I am going this way: Unlocked bootloader to get rid of Miui, Twrp to have a proper recovery menu, and encryption+pattern to save my data. Disable USB-Developer Options to prevent adb shenanigans.
But on the hand if you wan't to get really panariod a locked bootloader would be better since you still can read the system image from the phone from twrp, this means, and this is a easy way to do it, you could read it copy it to the pc and simply brutefroce the lockpattern. If you have the partitions you can simply try 3 patterns either it works or the phone locks itself up because you did 3 wrong. If it locks up you simply write the partitions back and try again. If you can do 3 in 30 seconds you are done in 45 days since there are only 390.000 different patterns on a 3x3 grid (which is what most people use since some Roms don't even allow for 4x4 or 5x5) but if you emulate it and can do 3 in 15 seconds you are down to 23 days. If you run it in 20 emulators you are done in 1 day. (That would be an awesome weekend project.) In emulation you could really optimize this since you can cut everything out what isn't needed for the attempt to encrypt the partition. you dont even need the screen to load, simply send the decryption module whatever the last module in the Numbers-from-touches-chain would have sent, everything that is loaded before the attempt to decrypt must be unencrypted therefore can be messed with, probably it's even universal across phones since that's a stock android thing. If it tries to write used attempts, save whatever what gets overwritten beforehand, let it write its thing, kill the process, revert changes and try again with the next set. Maybe you get it down to 3s or 4s for 3 attempts and boom you are at 6 hours to encrypt any android phone, no matter which version, with an unlocked bootloader which uses a 3x3 pattern. But your data would be really valueable to someone if they did this. You can't do that with a locked bootloader since you can't read the partitions or you could just use the 5x5 pattern, which you cant do on MIUI (i just tried and havent found where you could change it). But probably i have a giant oversight in there so this probably woudn't work
________________________________________________
On the other hand if you want to recover your phone you should make it as easy as possible to get the thief into your phone since you dont want them to run it off and wipe it. I DONT RECOMMEND THIS. But you could make a 2nd user who has no lock pattern on it. Concider your Data public at this point but while they are busy looking at your selfies you could use a app like prey to track the phone. But since Data are more important than a phone i'd never do or recommend that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really appreciate the time you took to type out this post, thankyou.
So my GF has doubt that her phone (Samsung A5) has been tapped by her ex BF who knew her phone pass and did take care of all devices they posses
Assuming that is the case, will the factory reset remove tracking software from her phone of will I have to flash her phone with fresh OS to be sure the software has been removed completely
gesaugen said:
So my GF has doubt that her phone (Samsung A5) has been tapped by her ex BF who knew her phone pass and did take care of all devices they posses
Assuming that is the case, will the factory reset remove tracking software from her phone of will I have to flash her phone with fresh OS to be sure the software has been removed completely
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the ex actually did something like that and embedded into the system partition on the device, a factory reset will not remove it.
You would need to flash the device with the firmware to remove it, you may even need to use the "re-partition" option in Odin when you flash the device.
It would also be wise to change the password on her Google account before flashing the device, to be thorough, change the password and maybe even the email/username while you're at it, then go to system settings and remove the account then sign back in with the new email/password, then flash the device, after flashing and booting, sign back in with the new account details.
I would also change passwords and account details for any other apps on the device, such as Facebook, Facebook Messenger, any other email addresses or other email apps and any other types of social media apps or other apps that require an email/username and password. Change any and everything on the device that the ex could have possibly had access to. If she also has other devices or PC's synced with her phone or email, I'd change the details on those other devices/PC's as well. If she has WiFi at home, change its password and maybe even see about changing the IP of her modem/router.
Then, after that, make sure she doesn't click on/open/download anything from anyone that she doesn't know, including multimedia texts/pics, it could be the ex trying to embed something again, opening it will just compromise the device again.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
While what Droidriven is saying is correct first things first. Has the phone been unlocked and/or rooted? If the phone is locked (*Not tampered) then all of that is overkill. Here's a simple test that you can do to see how at risk you are. Start the phone in Bootloader mode and see what it says at the top. It will either say Locked, Locked *Tampered, Unlocked or Unlocked *Tampered. Locked is exactly what it sounds like, the phone is factory locked. Unlocked again means exactly what it says, the phone is factory unlocked. The caveat is the Tampered. So you can unlock a phone and lock it back which will result in the tampered tag/statement. In which case anything could have been done or undone once the phone was unlocked even if it says locked. If the phone simply says Locked, there is no need to panic and simply factory resetting the phone will erase anything that the ex may have done or installed. If the tampered tag/statement appears that's when more detailed steps should be taken, as described by Droidriven. It is always advisable to change passwords after a breakup even if you don't suspect foul play as a precaution. If she fears foul play Google offers 2-Step verification, which I highly recommend anyway, which allows the account holder to use an Authentication app that randomly generates codes to access the account and also prevents anyone from accessing the account without the users phone in their direct possession. Google also offers security screening tools that allows users to see where they are signed in, when the last time that sign in point was accessed, and the ability to sign out of sessions that may still be active. Furthermore Google offers notifications that will text or email a user anytime a sign-in occurs allowing the user full disclosure and control over their account. Although not mentioned, Facebook also offers similar tools and notifications should the concern arise. First thing first however, find out how to log into your Bootloader and verify if the device has ever been tampered with and then work from there.
VidJunky said:
While what Droidriven is saying is correct first things first. Has the phone been unlocked and/or rooted? If the phone is locked (*Not tampered) then all of that is overkill. Here's a simple test that you can do to see how at risk you are. Start the phone in Bootloader mode and see what it says at the top. It will either say Locked, Locked *Tampered, Unlocked or Unlocked *Tampered. Locked is exactly what it sounds like, the phone is factory locked. Unlocked again means exactly what it says, the phone is factory unlocked. The caveat is the Tampered. So you can unlock a phone and lock it back which will result in the tampered tag/statement. In which case anything could have been done or undone once the phone was unlocked even if it says locked. If the phone simply says Locked, there is no need to panic and simply factory resetting the phone will erase anything that the ex may have done or installed. If the tampered tag/statement appears that's when more detailed steps should be taken, as described by Droidriven. It is always advisable to change passwords after a breakup even if you don't suspect foul play as a precaution. If she fears foul play Google offers 2-Step verification, which I highly recommend anyway, which allows the account holder to use an Authentication app that randomly generates codes to access the account and also prevents anyone from accessing the account without the users phone in their direct possession. Google also offers security screening tools that allows users to see where they are signed in, when the last time that sign in point was accessed, and the ability to sign out of sessions that may still be active. Furthermore Google offers notifications that will text or email a user anytime a sign-in occurs allowing the user full disclosure and control over their account. Although not mentioned, Facebook also offers similar tools and notifications should the concern arise. First thing first however, find out how to log into your Bootloader and verify if the device has ever been tampered with and then work from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, Samsung does not have bootloader mode, it uses Download Mode, otherwise known as factory mode or Odin mode. It also does not quite display the information that you described as you described it. Some Samsung devices may or may not display bootloader status as "locked" or "unlocked", I've never seen anything about Samsung devices ever showing anything about *Tampered. I've seen devices show "custom binary" or "official binary" and show system status as "official" or "custom", some show info for secure boot, activation lock, kernel lock or Knox warranty void.
But, none of this necessarily has anything to do with whether something could have been embedded into system. You can push things to system even if the bootloader is locked and without "triggering" anything or being "flagged" by the system.
Plenty of Samsung devices have been rooted without unlocking the bootloader, without tripping Knox or Qfuse and will show binary status as "Custom"(the one thing that does show that the device is rooted/tampered but still doesn't necessarily indicate any malicious code that might have been placed by the ex, just rooting the device and nothing else would give the same result), all locks at default status as "locked"(non-tampered) and system status as "Official".
Given that the ex was the one that took care of and managed all devices that she owned, I would just take the thorough route just to cover the bases just because there are so many points of entry that the ex could have set up among all of the devices/equipment that she has.
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While I'll give you that there may be differing nomenclature for the things I mentioned, I've never heard of anyway to reach the Root of a device without going through the Bootloader and without leaving some evidence. While I cannot find an actual picture of the bootloader screen, in the link below there's a picture of the recovery menu where you can see the second option on the Samsung A5 Reboot into Bootloader. Ultimately it's up to the OP but becoming tech savvy enough to root a device is not for everyone. If the device shows no signs of being rooted, to learn how to root a device just in case seems less than worthwhile. OP you could also try one of the root detectors on the Play Store.
https://www.teamandroid.com/2017/01/28/enter-recovery-mode-samsung-galaxy-a5-2017/
VidJunky said:
While I'll give you that there may be differing nomenclature for the things I mentioned, I've never heard of anyway to reach the Root of a device without going through the Bootloader and without leaving some evidence. While I cannot find an actual picture of the bootloader screen, in the link below there's a picture of the recovery menu where you can see the second option on the Samsung A5 Reboot into Bootloader. Ultimately it's up to the OP but becoming tech savvy enough to root a device is not for everyone. If the device shows no signs of being rooted, to learn how to root a device just in case seems less than worthwhile. OP you could also try one of the root detectors on the Play Store.
https://www.teamandroid.com/2017/01/28/enter-recovery-mode-samsung-galaxy-a5-2017/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This tells me that you aren't familiar with Samsung devices because plenty of Samsung devices have been rooted without unlocking bootloader, I couldn't even begin to count them all. Unlocking bootloader is really only necessary if flashing a custom recovery or custom ROM. Not all Samsung devices are rooted by flashing a custom recovery to gain root. Most of the Samsung devices sold in the US have locked bootloader that cannot be unlocked by any means whatsoever, yet these devices can be rooted. Obviously, they have been rooted without unlocking the bootloader.
Yes, it may have the "reboot bootloader" option in recovery, if selected, that will boot you into download mode/Odin Mode. Typically, what you are describing with bootloader mode applies to devices that use fastboot, Samsung does not use fastboot, it isn't compatible with fastboot, adb works with Samsung but fastboot does not work with Samsung in any way, shape, form or fashion.
And it is possible to root a Samsung device, then install something in system and then remove root immediately after(which means that root checker will not see anything) and it won't show anything in Odin mode, won't trip Knox or Qfuse and still show Official in Odin mode. If it is rooted, then an app is pushed to system then root is immediately removed and this was all done without rebooting the device in the process, then the bootloader, Knox, Qfuse and all that never even detects that root was ever there because it was removed, which means it never gets loaded at boot for the bootloader and other security coding to see that root was there. Some can be rooted and then flash TWRP using Loki without unlocking the bootloader, which "shouldn't" be possible with a locked bootloader, yet, it is done.
I'm just saying, it isn't always as detectable as you imply.
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