Database Info

[Q] Password Locked Android Phone

Hey,
I know this looks extremely dodgy, but I am doing this for a friend (not that that makes it sound any better either).
Basically, someone nicked my friends phone and placed a password on it, I have no idea how long it is since this person is a complete so and so. Is there anyway I can hack into it and unlock the phone. Say, like an ADB code i can run from my computer? Its an huawei (sp?) U8510 running Android 2.3.x Unrooted
BONUS QUESTION: Anyway i could go about rooting this model?
Thanks,

Vol down button and power button factory restore and just go to forum and look for aio.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

Thanks, but isnt there some kind of way i can do this without losing the data?

Is the phone rooted? Flashing a newer version of the ROM might help, but always back up data first.

No, its not rooted yet.

if its completely stock, only way to remove the password without going through settings is a hard reset by holding volume UP and power until you get into bootloader. This process will restore it to factory settings and everything on the phone will be lost.

The manufacturer or phone carrier may be able to unlock it if you provide acct info and proof of ownership. I'd try that before resetting it to stock.

Screen lock? If your has Google account on it, enter "wrong" password 5 times and you see forgot password button.
Edit: it works only with patterns.
Sent from my u8800 using Tapatalk

Nah its an actual password. He found out the password today. I'm extremely surprised there's no brute force hacker (software, not manually) you could apply to it

1°) setting
2°) location and securite
3°) define lock
4°) passeword
Sent from my GT-S5670 using xda premium

Got my stolen phone back!!!! Things to be considered...

Hi developpers. I
My droid phone verson 4.1.2 was stolen last friday. But I was able to track the phone, confront with the thief and recover my phone two days later.
And that's why I am writing in this forum, because I want to share my experience and see if things can be done.....
The thief, stupid guy, removed all my sim cards (dual sim) and removed the memory card, but failed to do the necessary resets and did not remove my google account.
I don't want any lock screen system on my phone. And I strongly recommend everybody not to put a lock screen protection on your phone, because if there is one, the phone might just end straight into the trash bin, and you'll be left with no chance to find back your beloved Droid.
Let the thief in his beliefs it's his lucky day.... he has a nice unprotected full useable phone....
Also have Remotely locate this device enabled in the google settings, or get one of these hidden tracking apps on your phon.. Also enable allow remote lock and factory resets. The thief was so stupid he forgot to disable this feature of the phone.
Now here is my point. The Google Settings should be password protected. And it should be a shared password with the phone settings/Personal/ BACKUP AND RESET option.
At least, password protecting these two sections of the phone will avoid the thief to:
1. Disable the geo location of your phone
2. Doing a factory reset or remove any of the accounts on your phone.
Unless the thief is also a hacker, you will always be able to track your phone and get it back.
In my case, I tracked down the thief, up to 4m accuracy. I also have a Bluetooth speaker. I went to the Geo location and my Bluetooth speaker confirmed big time the phone was at this location.
Another thing to consider is to build INTO the OS itself is the option to track your phone. There are many programs on Google Play, but they can all be removed easily with a simple factory reset. This kind of software should be build in INTO the phone's OS itself.
Good luck to all of you who get your phone stolen!

oz457 said:
Hi developpers. I
My droid phone verson 4.1.2 was stolen last friday. But I was able to track the phone, confront with the thief and recover my phone two days later.
And that's why I am writing in this forum, because I want to share my experience and see if things can be done.....
The thief, stupid guy, removed all my sim cards (dual sim) and removed the memory card, but failed to do the necessary resets and did not remove my google account.
I don't want any lock screen system on my phone. And I strongly recommend everybody not to put a lock screen protection on your phone, because if there is one, the phone might just end straight into the trash bin, and you'll be left with no chance to find back your beloved Droid.
Let the thief in his beliefs it's his lucky day.... he has a nice unprotected full useable phone....
Also have Remotely locate this device enabled in the google settings, or get one of these hidden tracking apps on your phon.. Also enable allow remote lock and factory resets. The thief was so stupid he forgot to disable this feature of the phone.
Now here is my point. The Google Settings should be password protected. And it should be a shared password with the phone settings/Personal/ BACKUP AND RESET option.
At least, password protecting these two sections of the phone will avoid the thief to:
1. Disable the geo location of your phone
2. Doing a factory reset or remove any of the accounts on your phone.
Unless the thief is also a hacker, you will always be able to track your phone and get it back.
In my case, I tracked down the thief, up to 4m accuracy. I also have a Bluetooth speaker. I went to the Geo location and my Bluetooth speaker confirmed big time the phone was at this location.
Another thing to consider is to build INTO the OS itself is the option to track your phone. There are many programs on Google Play, but they can all be removed easily with a simple factory reset. This kind of software should be build in INTO the phone's OS itself.
Good luck to all of you who get your phone stolen!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is why you should use Software to prevent this. There are lots of tracking/AntiThief Software available. Noone will put it to trash when its locked,

mynote said:
This is why you should use Software to prevent this. There are lots of tracking/AntiThief Software available. Noone will put it to trash when its locked,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The question is if software will really help....

You're lucky.
The thief, stupid guy. If He smart than, he can google and reboot your phone in to recovery, and he can Wipe all of your data.
And your phone will gone forever

andy-q said:
The question is if software will really help....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. It is. 9 of 10 of my customers are happy and got ist device back after stolen/lost.
Just for the statistics..

The only shortcoming with the tracking/remote lock/wipe abilities is that they can still be defeated through CWM or whatever recovery is being used. That said, in most situations involving theft the thief doesn't have this level of knowledge to consider this step.
What's interesting to me is that so many people still steal phones for personal use, but I guess the stolen ESN database isn't far reaching enough yet to make it a stolen phone worthless for use yet. There is still some cash to be made selling them off for the hardware, but grabbing someone's phone doesn't seem worth a felony IMO.
As to the OP, a lock screen isn't worthless, especially if you have a non-removable battery. Most phones with them--an active lock screen I mean--either won't allow or can be set to disallow the phone being turned off without the code/pattern/password being entered, meaning if your phone is tossed in the trash it can still be recovered. That is one feature that will always make an integrated battery a plus. Even without one, there's the chance that the thief isn't going to take the time to pull the battery once he see's there's active security anyway.

MissionImprobable said:
The only shortcoming with the tracking/remote lock/wipe abilities is that they can still be defeated through CWM or whatever recovery is being used. That said, in most situations involving theft the thief doesn't have this level of knowledge to consider this step.
What's interesting to me is that so many people still steal phones for personal use, but I guess the stolen ESN database isn't far reaching enough yet to make it a stolen phone worthless for use yet. There is still some cash to be made selling them off for the hardware, but grabbing someone's phone doesn't seem worth a felony IMO.
As to the OP, a lock screen isn't worthless, especially if you have a non-removable battery. Most phones with them--an active lock screen I mean--either won't allow or can be set to disallow the phone being turned off without the code/pattern/password being entered, meaning if your phone is tossed in the trash it can still be recovered. That is one feature that will always make an integrated battery a plus. Even without one, there's the chance that the thief isn't going to take the time to pull the battery once he see's there's active security anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, true. Anyway. Even if you are just loosing your phone instead of getting stolen..
I consider that the thief will trash the phone when there is a lockscreen. Mostly the thief will try to look for "Reset-Possibilities". If you have a good AntiThief Software you may also disable the lockscreen when you feel that its the only way to get it back.
Anyway, there is Google Android Device Manager now which can get your device back easily..

When stolen/lost phone comes back I would check it for spyware

2 stolen phones never came back to me. :'(
Grievances. RIP .

alaminok said:
2 stolen phones never came back to me. :'(
Grievances. RIP .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never got my stolen items back either but grats to the OP

This is the perfect thread for a question I've had ever since I came to the Android family from my iPhone.
On my Jailbroken iPhone I was able to download an app that took a picture with the front camera and sent it to the email of my choice every time the wrong password was entered, the photo came along with the GPS location of the phone and time.
Is there anything like this available for us
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk now Free

yoboyheartless said:
This is the perfect thread for a question I've had ever since I came to the Android family from my iPhone.
On my Jailbroken iPhone I was able to download an app that took a picture with the front camera and sent it to the email of my choice every time the wrong password was entered, the photo came along with the GPS location of the phone and time.
Is there anything like this available for us
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk now Free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here Try Ceberus, its a paid app but worth it and you can have up to 5 devices at once, it even disguies itself as a system app you can view calls, text messages and even make the phone call any other phone track it via GPS..... a bunch of features
(Heres some features It has three ways to protect your device:
- Remote control through the website www.cerberusapp.com
- Remote control via text messages
- SIM Checker (for devices that have a SIM card): you will automatically receive alerts if someone uses your phone with an unauthorized SIM card
Remote control allows you to perform many operations on your device, like:
- Locate and track it
- Start a loud alarm, even if the device is set to silent mode
- Wipe the internal memory and the SD card
- Hide Cerberus from the app drawer
- Lock the device with a code
- Record audio from the microphone
- Get a list of last calls sent and received
- Get information about network and operator the device is connected to
- And much more!)
Link---> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lsdroid.cerberus

if thieves are smart, they would have been reading xda
but thanks

If thieves were smart, they would be educated enough to get a job and buy their own sh*t!
I use Cerberus as well on both my droids. Very neat app, and even more advanced than FindMyiPhone or whatever it's called again. Recommended with root for all features though.

Glad you got lucky and a non-tech savvy thief stole your phone.

cerberus
Cerberus celebrates 3rd birthday with free licenses for the next 30 hours
http://phandroid.com/2014/04/24/cerberus-3rd-birthday-free-license/

I had a phone lost/stolen. It is such a personal item it is like having your wallet stolen. Fortunately I never use the remember password feature for any apps, and have an encrypted password file I keep up to date and backed up.When I lost my phone I went to all the sites and changed my passwords. What a pia, but it is some peace of mind. Took many hours.
With t-mo, they have this feature available that takes a picture after 5 mis-trys and emails it along with the location, T-mo will also erase the phone and reset the lock screen pattern, It works pretty good because I have sent numerous pics of myself from fatfingerin the unlock.and checked the map to verify.

I prefer Cerberus...

oz457 said:
Hi developpers. I
My droid phone verson 4.1.2 was stolen last friday. But I was able to track the phone, confront with the thief and recover my phone two days later.
And that's why I am writing in this forum, because I want to share my experience and see if things can be done.....
The thief, stupid guy, removed all my sim cards (dual sim) and removed the memory card, but failed to do the necessary resets and did not remove my google account.
I don't want any lock screen system on my phone. And I strongly recommend everybody not to put a lock screen protection on your phone, because if there is one, the phone might just end straight into the trash bin, and you'll be left with no chance to find back your beloved Droid.
Let the thief in his beliefs it's his lucky day.... he has a nice unprotected full useable phone....
Also have Remotely locate this device enabled in the google settings, or get one of these hidden tracking apps on your phon.. Also enable allow remote lock and factory resets. The thief was so stupid he forgot to disable this feature of the phone.
Now here is my point. The Google Settings should be password protected. And it should be a shared password with the phone settings/Personal/ BACKUP AND RESET option.
At least, password protecting these two sections of the phone will avoid the thief to:
1. Disable the geo location of your phone
2. Doing a factory reset or remove any of the accounts on your phone.
Unless the thief is also a hacker, you will always be able to track your phone and get it back.
In my case, I tracked down the thief, up to 4m accuracy. I also have a Bluetooth speaker. I went to the Geo location and my Bluetooth speaker confirmed big time the phone was at this location.
Another thing to consider is to build INTO the OS itself is the option to track your phone. There are many programs on Google Play, but they can all be removed easily with a simple factory reset. This kind of software should be build in INTO the phone's OS itself.
Good luck to all of you who get your phone stolen!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for all the info. My biggest concern would be confronting the thief. What did you do? Wait for them to leave their house/apartment and confront them? Or did you confront them in some other way? I guess I would struggle between wanting my beloved phone back and being worried about the thief being a crazy person who might shoot me or something.

This Was Very Helpful
This is Very Helpful, We Wish We Had Known this when we had our phone stolen, I spent endless hours trying to locate my phone to no avail, thank goodness the Police were able to recuperate the phone, but only because the thief had stolen a number of other devices in the area, if I had known this information I would have saved myself hours of frustration !! BTW, Thank You For Sharing This !

Help me find my lost phone

How can I remotely track my phone? Android Device Manger = useless since I have location services toggle off on phone at this time. Any other suggestions?
LG G3 is type of phone. I'm trying AndroidLost app in play store with no success. Thanks. :crying:

You would have to setup everything beforehand. Try you local police station?
Maybe you also want to let your provider to ban your SIM-card to avoid a hefty bill in case your phone wasn't... that well secured.
Also change any password stored on the phone. Especially the Google one.

well i did some detective work and tracing my track back today and luckily found it.
I used to use PhoneLocator Pro but since Play Store randomly destroyed his service I have yet to reset something else up.

Great news that you found it!
Maybe now arm yourself with a bit more security

it's impossible , even the positioning device can just give you a nearby address

it's hard

for your next phone if you have it rooted use cerberus, you then want to make it a system app with luckypatcher

stricker49 said:
for your next phone if you have it rooted use cerberus, you then want to make it a system app with luckypatcher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest as well (if rooted) to install advanced power menu via Xposed. It disables airplane mode button when device is locked, from the power button, as well as some other anti-theft tricks such as faking powering off
For me it worked in the past. Couple of friends wanted to prank me because I forgot my phone at the pub table, they took it but hid it. Although they thought they turned it off, I could see it into my house and I pushed the "Ring" button.

Protect device from getting stolen

Hey guys Recently my Phone got stolen and this time I want to make sure this time it wont happen ever again. I will use Knox and Samsung Secruity to help from it. I have some question, maybe u can anwser them
1) If I lock my Device from Find my Mobile, can the Thief still Factory Reset from Power UP and Vol+ Button from Recovery?
2) Can He still install a Firmware per Odin so he can get acces to my Phone
3) If both can be done , is there anyway to pretend that from Happening?
4) Is knox as good as Icloud?
5) Can i still use find my mobile, if he turns GPS off?
Thanks for the help, this time I will make sure he wont get any benefit from it and I can get my Phone back
Gesendet von meinem SM-G920F mit Tapatalk

If your got a pass-code or pattern lock enabled, device cannot be shut down without unlocking the device first. But please keep this in mind, if the thief removes the sim card you will not be able to track your smartphone as it needs an active internet connection to track it. Also am not sure about the 3 button reset, if it will allow them to do a full system wipe, I don’t think its possible to reset it with Knox enabled.. Also if GPS is disabled you will not be able to track it accurately i could be wrong i think it needs GPS for true location..
Why not get one of those cases where you need a Alan key to unlock it ? So if your phone does get stolen, it gives you time to track and catch the perp in the act. As the case can’t be removed without a Allan key so they can’t access the simcard slot..
Or what to do, put the case on use the Allan key to lock it up tight then destroy the head, drill it in. So no one can open it up, that way if the phone does get stolen you can easily track it. just a thought..

Security of ios vs android , an important doubt.

Can the data in an iphone can be erased like android mobile by going to recovery mode by pressing 2/3 buttons of mobiles . If not then what happens ?

What? If you want to know about resetting an iPhone, ask in an iPhone forum?
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I don't want to reset an iPhone, I''m just asking a security case. Let's imagine our android being stolen, then the thief can certainly press the power and volume key and can easily wipe data and factory reset the mobile phone by just simply going to recovery. So it'll be impossible for us to find the phone.
But I'm asking in case of an iPhone is this same case possible? Can a thief just simply wipe the data and reset the mobile by pressing some keys and without unlocking the mobile ?

Gotcha. I haven't used an iPhone in years, so don't know.
I still think it's weird to ask an iPhone reset question in an Android forum though. You would probably get your answer in a minute if you just ask in an apple forum...
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Isn't the whole point of factory reset protection on android that it renders the device useless to someone who does this? Sure, it won't stop them actually resetting it, so you won't be able to track it afterwards, but the idea is that the thieves will learn that it's a waste of time.
Apple have something to prevent you just wiping a phone and making it yours, but I can't remember the details (i.e. whether it prevents the reset or, like the Google version, prevents you from using it afterwards).
Sent from my Pixel 2 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I concur with @Large Hadron
On an iPhone, someone could enter the password incorrectly several times and the device would be wiped. It would not be usable, but it would be wiped. They could also connect the iPhone to a computer / mac with itunes and flash a factory image from there. Again, the device would be useless to them, but you wouldn't be able to recover your device from the thief.
Comparing an iPhone to a Pixel 1 or 2, both device could easily have the data wiped from the device. To that effect, the data is secure on both devices, which is by far the most important part. Recovering your lost / stolen device is an entirely different conversation. The benefit of an iPhone when lost / stolen is the device is a brick without the previous user's icloud email and password. Once it boots up, it asks for this before you can setup the phone. There is no way around this (without Apple's intervention). On a Pixel 1 or 2, the device could be wiped, but I believe the thief could then use the phone as their own. There is nothing that would "brick" the phone after a full data wipe.
If you are worried about your data, either phone is good (don't unlock bootloader and don't oem unlock). If you are worried about the hardware, you are responsible for that.

dbrohrer said:
I concur with @Large Hadron
On an iPhone, someone could enter the password incorrectly several times and the device would be wiped. It would not be usable, but it would be wiped. They could also connect the iPhone to a computer / mac with itunes and flash a factory image from there. Again, the device would be useless to them, but you wouldn't be able to recover your device from the thief.
Comparing an iPhone to a Pixel 1 or 2, both device could easily have the data wiped from the device. To that effect, the data is secure on both devices, which is by far the most important part. Recovering your lost / stolen device is an entirely different conversation. The benefit of an iPhone when lost / stolen is the device is a brick without the previous user's icloud email and password. Once it boots up, it asks for this before you can setup the phone. There is no way around this (without Apple's intervention). On a Pixel 1 or 2, the device could be wiped, but I believe the thief could then use the phone as their own. There is nothing that would "brick" the phone after a full data wipe.
If you are worried about your data, either phone is good (don't unlock bootloader and don't oem unlock). If you are worried about the hardware, you are responsible for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An Android phone works exactly the same way. If you wipe it from recovery, FRP (factory reset protection) kicks in, Once that happens, you are required to log on to the last account that the phone was used on (just like Apple). If you don't know the previous account and or password, there's no way you can use the phone.
You can factory reset from settings without triggering FRP though. Doing so removes all accounts from the phone and anybody can then use it. It's assumed since you are in settings, you've already logged on when you last booted the phone. A thief wouldn't be able to get into settings to reset it as he or she wouldn't know the password to unlock the phone.

robocuff said:
An Android phone works exactly the same way. If you wipe it from recovery, FRP (factory reset protection) kicks in, Once that happens, you are required to log on to the last account that the phone was used on (just like Apple). If you don't know the previous account and or password, there's no way you can use the phone.
You can factory reset from settings without triggering FRP though. Doing so removes all accounts from the phone and anybody can then use it. It's assumed since you are in settings, you've already logged on when you last booted the phone. A thief wouldn't be able to get into settings to reset it as he or she wouldn't know the password to unlock the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. I didn't know that. Thanks for that info

dbrohrer said:
Cool. I didn't know that. Thanks for that info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And if you really want to perfectly protect all your encrypted files, never open the bootloader. Because there's no way to flash something in the phone if the bootloader is closed. And there's no way to Open the bootloader without wiping all your personal data in the process.
Now if you decide to open the bootloader, files are still encrypted, so it's not a big deal.
Regarding the annulment of an Android device, when it is stealed: That happens with any modern Android phone. Basically, Google bans the phone from their cloud servers. A phone without google account is like an iPhone without Apple/iCloud accounts, almost useless.
P.S.: an open bootloader in Android is like a Jailbreak in iOS, but totally OFFICIAL and supported by Google/Android. You don't lose any functionality like with Jailbreak (if that thing still exist today...).
From my point of view, Google should ask PIN before accessing Fastboot mode and Recovery mode. but this is just to prevent a bad joke from a friend or something like that. (Not when your phone is lost forever, you just want to ban that device from Google servers so can't be used again).

robocuff said:
An Android phone works exactly the same way. If you wipe it from recovery, FRP (factory reset protection) kicks in, Once that happens, you are required to log on to the last account that the phone was used on (just like Apple). If you don't know the previous account and or password, there's no way you can use the phone.
You can factory reset from settings without triggering FRP though. Doing so removes all accounts from the phone and anybody can then use it. It's assumed since you are in settings, you've already logged on when you last booted the phone. A thief wouldn't be able to get into settings to reset it as he or she wouldn't know the password to unlock the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure about that? I believe that factory reset still triggers FRP thus the black market trade in bypassing that check on lost and stolen devices.