[Completed] Major security issue discovered with Note 4 - XDA Assist

Hi
I'm having a weird problem with my Galaxy Note 4.
When it boots up, regardless of what type of screen lock I have (pattern, fingerprint etc) it boots to the homescreen and stays there for several seconds before the lock screen appears, so the phone is essentially completely unlocked for several seconds - you can do anything - open apps etc.
I phoned Samsung and they said there must be a bug in the firmware, and needed the phone sent back to them to reflash it. I didn;t want to do that, so instead I reinstalled the firmware using Samsung Kies.
The problem still remained.
However, I've now worked out it only does this with a certain microSD card in the phone. If that specific card isn't in it, it boots straight to the lock screen as it should do.
Obviously I can avoid using that particular card, but that doesn't address why or how it got like that in the first place.
Does anyone have any ideas? Is it worth reflashing a ROM from Sammobile using Odin instead of Kies/
Any advice much appreciated.
Thank you

I've narrowed the problem down to the SD card, not my phone. I've tried it in 2 different phones (a Note 3 and an S4) and with both phones, as soon as it boots up, the status bar appears allowing you to pull it down and access settings and notifications, without ever having to unlock the phone.
Surely there should be no way that a phone should be able to open itself up like that, just by having an SD card put onto it? I could format the SD card but I'd like to work out what's going on!

jack880 said:
I've narrowed the problem down to the SD card, not my phone. I've tried it in 2 different phones (a Note 3 and an S4) and with both phones, as soon as it boots up, the status bar appears allowing you to pull it down and access settings and notifications, without ever having to unlock the phone.
Surely there should be no way that a phone should be able to open itself up like that, just by having an SD card put onto it? I could format the SD card but I'd like to work out what's going on!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello and thank you for using XDA Assist.
We cannot provide technical support nor can other members reply to your posts here on XDA Assist. That said it's EXTREMELY unlikely that the mere presence of an SD Card would cause the symptoms you describe unless that card contains some unexpected software that is automatically invoked at boot time. It is generally deemed wise to always format an SD card in the device before using it, even it it was factory "pre-formatted". Looking at what is actually on that card might give you some good clues, but otherwise I suggest that you ask your question with all relevant details in the friendly general Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting forum at http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help. That's a good place to start where members familiar with your symptoms might be able to advise you.
Good luck!
EDIT: Member has now posted in the suggested area. Thread closed.

Related

[Solved!] Apps disappear

Hello guys, and before you ask, yes i looked all over the place. So i'm coming from an HTC Inspire, originally had the mt3g and nexus one. I really liked the screen of my wife's infuse so decided to get one myself. so i found one on craigslist that was reasonably priced and was hoping i didn't get ripped off because i'm having issues.
So it wasn't rooted or unlocked, which i had to do myself, which wasn't really an issue, since i consider myself a very capable user. got cwm and even installed a couple different roms. one thing i noticed when installing them however is that apps would periodically disappear.
I couldn't figure out why it was doing it at first, and then upon my research found no one really that had a similar problem.
example. Going from the original rom, i installed R3volution. No problems, i loved it, however after installing Go Launcher and a few addons i didn't already have (i didn't wanna use titanium seeing as how i was coming from the Inspire) i rebooted to make sure my system was doing okay, but things didn't really go so well.
After i rebooted i found that Go Launcher wasn't installed at all. I couldn't even find it. I was going to find it on the Market but couldn't even find that either. I was very disappointed and kind of anxious to find out why it was doing this. After researching, i found it may have been apps2sd. I completely removed my sd card, followed the same steps and had the same results. i have no idea why it does this.
I've had similar issues with the original factory image but not to this extent. If anyone has a solution or some kind of input i would HIGHLY appreciate it. I really love this phone and i'd hate to have to tell my friend i can't sell him my inspire lol.
prophetjinn said:
Hello guys, and before you ask, yes i looked all over the place. So i'm coming from an HTC Inspire, originally had the mt3g and nexus one. I really liked the screen of my wife's infuse so decided to get one myself. so i found one on craigslist that was reasonably priced and was hoping i didn't get ripped off because i'm having issues.
So it wasn't rooted or unlocked, which i had to do myself, which wasn't really an issue, since i consider myself a very capable user. got cwm and even installed a couple different roms. one thing i noticed when installing them however is that apps would periodically disappear.
I couldn't figure out why it was doing it at first, and then upon my research found no one really that had a similar problem.
example. Going from the original rom, i installed R3volution. No problems, i loved it, however after installing Go Launcher and a few addons i didn't already have (i didn't wanna use titanium seeing as how i was coming from the Inspire) i rebooted to make sure my system was doing okay, but things didn't really go so well.
After i rebooted i found that Go Launcher wasn't installed at all. I couldn't even find it. I was going to find it on the Market but couldn't even find that either. I was very disappointed and kind of anxious to find out why it was doing this. After researching, i found it may have been apps2sd. I completely removed my sd card, followed the same steps and had the same results. i have no idea why it does this.
I've had similar issues with the original factory image but not to this extent. If anyone has a solution or some kind of input i would HIGHLY appreciate it. I really love this phone and i'd hate to have to tell my friend i can't sell him my inspire lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bad flash..start over.
use adam outler uckj4 or mine uclb3. follow ops.
get into cwm recovery. wipe everything.
reflash rom of choice
I'll try that tomorrow. Thanks.
A fresh start sounds like a good idea, but it could still be apps on the sd card. The physical sdcard you removed is different than Android's "sd card," which is actually just the /sdcard directory on the built in memory.
Did you try going into Settings/Applications/Manage Applications and then clicking on a app that appears to be missing? Sometimes i have issues with apps or their widgets and it gets fixed by going to there and clicking "Move to phone."
Anyway, good luck.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk
MattSoRaven said:
A fresh start sounds like a good idea, but it could still be apps on the sd card. The physical sdcard you removed is different than Android's "sd card," which is actually just the /sdcard directory on the built in memory.
Did you try going into Settings/Applications/Manage Applications and then clicking on a app that appears to be missing? Sometimes i have issues with apps or their widgets and it gets fixed by going to there and clicking "Move to phone."
Anyway, good luck.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually did that but it only works with my rooted stock rom. i really want to use the custom roms.
I also used odin to return to stock, is that similar?
So i did it but when i tried accessing recovery mode, it scrambles my display. no idea why...
Qkster and Matt you guys did me a great service, thanks a bunch. I did both and it appears to have fixed it. i ran into a spot of trouble when i installed gb because i couldn't enable dev mode in usb (it auto-shut off) and recovery was just a bunch of jumbled data, but i eventually got it working.
I'm not running revo and will probably try a few other roms! I'm a little hesitant since my phone hasn't been this stable in a while and i aim to keep it that way for a while lol. You were right about it not being a good flash, wiped everything again and went back to oem to fix it. I also had to remove apps from the micro-sd on the original rom, newer roms appear to do this automatically so that's nice lol.
Again thank you both!
prophetjinn said:
Qkster and Matt you guys did me a great service, thanks a bunch. I did both and it appears to have fixed it. i ran into a spot of trouble when i installed gb because i couldn't enable dev mode in usb (it auto-shut off) and recovery was just a bunch of jumbled data, but i eventually got it working.
I'm not running revo and will probably try a few other roms! I'm a little hesitant since my phone hasn't been this stable in a while and i aim to keep it that way for a while lol. You were right about it not being a good flash, wiped everything again and went back to oem to fix it. I also had to remove apps from the micro-sd on the original rom, newer roms appear to do this automatically so that's nice lol.
Again thank you both!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good to hear you got it working.
change the title of your thread to:[SOLVED] Apps disappearing.
Hit the thank buttons...we love it.
hey qkster
i having this app dissapear problem also.. i just flashed SAUROM ROM to test and every time i reboot my phone it would disappear and i went into manage apps i can still see it but when i try to move it over to sd it would say " failed to move application. application not found" but all the apps i store on external sd would be there.. any ideas? another bad flash?
Fast Boot option may be the culprit
In case anyone checks this old thread...
I did not need to move anything back onto my HTC Droid Incredible phone (either memory or internal storage)
I did find a neat tweak that appears to work for just about any sdcard in any Android device, as long as the option exists in the Android OS settings
CUT TO THE SOLUTION BELOW -- SEARCH FOR ////
Some (not all) of my apps moved to SD (all by Titanium Backup Pro) have begun to disappear and (sometimes) reappear without warning after I began to add and delete large Virtual Machines created in QEMU from my 16GB SanDisc class 10 microSD card on my HTC Droid Incredible running rooted stock Verizon Android Froyo 2.2.3. I know this thread is far from my phone's "home base", but from what I can tell this problem with disappearing apps located on an sdcard is NOT determined by hardware or even Android version.
I also happen to use LauncherPro by Federico Carnales instead of the built-in HTC Sense launcher. I noted elsewhere on XDA that a user had suggested that because at least some (maybe all) launchers start before the SD Card that this may be a problem, especially if changes are made to the sdcard that the launcher did not perform, or was not active during their performance by other apps such as Titanium Backup. That fits my situation, because I unmounted the SD, physically removed it to a PC, and added/deleted large VM files to save (lots) of time. No problems of this sort before I did this, so there must be some connection.
I noted that other users have tried reformatting SD, substituting different brands of SD, using newer/older SD etc. None of these reliably helped. So I skipped these options.
//// The (simple!) solution I tried that SEEMS to work (only time will tell!) is buried in the main Android Settings (accessed from the Menu button while in Home screen). Under "Applications" there is a setting "Fast Boot" that I checked long ago and forgot about (it seemed like a good thing to do at the time). The text warns "Turn off to use some Market apps" (that shows the age of my 2-yr old used phone and Android OS -- ohmygosh!-- because it refers to Market rather than Google Play Store!) Anyway, I unchecked the option and rebooted the phone.
Yes, it took a bit longer to boot (maybe a whole minute!), but after waiting about another minute ALL my home screen apps had normal icons and loaded properly. Titanium Backup Pro batch scenarios confirmed there were no apps in a forced uninstalled state (i.e. I had not done the deed, the system somehow had done it or at least rendered the apps "invisible" to Titanium, which decided they needed reinstallation).
The only odd behaviour was that auto brightness was turned off after I unchecked Fast Boot and rebooted. Going into Android Settings > Display and rechecking "auto brightness" took care of that. No other oddities or strange behaviours thus far (but it has only been about an hour).
I will report back here on this thread only (Samsung Fascinate > Fascinate Q&A > What just happend? apps on sdcard) if anything else requires reporting. Silence implies success!
link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1873670
(I am copying this post to other relevant threads, but will not post anything further elsewhere -- only there. This is a bit arbitrary (although this thread appears to be the most recent active one on this topic), but I hope this approach pleases the XDA sysops/admins) :angel:

[Completed] Can't set pin or password, sd card unmounting

Hello everyone,
I have Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Omega Rom android 4.4.2
I installed an anti theft app called 'Android Lost'.
I installed it on my phone and went on to their site to try out some of the commands after it had registered with my google account and whatever else it does. I sent a command to my phone to lock it with a pin. My phone received the command but it didn't do what it was supposed to do. It removed the pattern lock that was on my phone and left it open to unlock without any sort of password or pin. I tried the command again and it did not work.
I gave up as I was in a rush to leave and left the house. I then tried to set a pin on my phone again and the option wasn't grayed out or anything but when I selected it and set the pin, my phone would freeze and then after a minute it would unfreeze but "swipe" would be selected. I was able to set a pattern but nothing higher security than that. Also, even when pattern was selected and I tried to set a pin, it would set it back to "swipe". I also noticed that now I am always getting a message that says "my sd card can now be removed safely" even when I didn't select for it to be removed.
I uninstalled the app and it unregistered me from the servers and all of that, but everything is still the same. Still getting the sd card message, and still can't set a pin.
I have tried the method of incorrectly entering my pattern and using google to change to a pin, that didn't work, just set it to swipe and the sd card message was still appearing.
I also tried clearing all credentials like someone mentioned, but the option is grayed out so I can't select it, and my sd card isn't encrypted and either is my internal storage.
I even went as far as manually going to each credential and disabling it, this did not fix anything either.
Today after not having any replies on the Android Lost website, I decided to factory restore my phone after backing everything up.
This, to my surprise, still did not fix the problem. Now I have a wiped phone and still can't set a pin, and am still being told my SD card can be safely removed.
I tried factory restoring several times, still no fix.
I am so lost at what to do, maybe there is a cache I can clear or something on top of restoring the phone to clear the credentials as they all seem to be the same still after restore, or maybe it has something to do with my google account, or a server still sending commands to my phone or has set a lock on it. I'm not sure.
Thanks for reading, sorry if it was a bit long, I rarely post to forums as I can usually solve problems by myself by searching.
All help appreciated!
The purpose of XDA-Assist is to direct people to the proper place to ask a question, for you this should be here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-3/help
But a quick side note, reflashing your ROM should fix your issue as if this app changed something in /system then a factory reset won't change it back. If ref lashing won't help then I would suggest to ask in your device q&a forum linked above
Best of luck!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
demkantor said:
The purpose of XDA-Assist is to direct people to the proper place to ask a question, for you this should be here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-3/help
But a quick side note, reflashing your ROM should fix your issue as if this app changed something in /system then a factory reset won't change it back. If ref lashing won't help then I would suggest to ask in your device q&a forum linked above
Best of luck!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot demkantor,
I just reflashed the rom then, doesn't look like the problem is fixed.
I will go ahead and post in that section now, thanks again!

[Q] Phone is locking up

Hello all!
For starters, I have scoured the forums, and although there are reports of phones rebooting, I did not find this exact issue so here goes:
- Regardless of which ROM I load, including stock using Konane's method via .tar/Odin, or CWM and flashing seemingly any rom the phone is VERY slow.
- I have ruled out the SD card by removing it, and also placing a known good card from another of the same phone in.
- When the phone finally boots, (It take a very long time) when i push any icon, it takes EXACTLY 10 seconds for the app or whatever to open.
I am completely perplexed and any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!!
Barry

External card reading notification issue

I have read on many forum about the issue of the external SD being somehow "ejected". People tried every possible solutions, including buying new SD cards, reformatting, etc. I had this issue myself. I did not find any solution neither anyone has found one on other forums. But 2 days ago I did found it.
Everytime you restart your phone, the issue will come back. In order to get rid of the constant notification, here is what I found. It is not a hardware problem (bad connection, etc) neither a software issue as everybody believes.
It is simply that the phone need to scan the SD everytime you restart it. And the notification will continue to come back until you do this.
1) open the notification. This will bring you directly in your SD content.
2) open each folder you have on it. This will make the phone scan it's content. And you have to do it in order to get rid of the notification.
This needs to be done everytime you restart the phone. Once you have done the 2 steps above, your SD content will stay "locked" untill you start the phone again.
I have been a long time member of xda and I did not post for over 2 years. So if my post is not in the right section please do not hesitate to move it to the right section / tread.
Thank you and I really hope this will help a lot of of us.

[Completed] Help: Mobile Data Lost, possibly SIM tray problem

Hello,
All of a sudden, mobile data was disconnected and nothing I've tried managed to restore it. Even resetting the phone to factory settings. The same SIM card gets data connectivity on a different phone, a different SIM on this device doesn't get data.
I've been looking at the radio log but I don't really understand what's going on there. I can see various SIM IO errors, though, so I am thinking it could be a hardware issue, maybe a broken pin.
If you know your way around a log, please take a look and let me know what you think.
The device is a Sharp SH-06E, Android 4.2, latest build version (01.00.10).
cheeseus said:
Hello,
All of a sudden, mobile data was disconnected and nothing I've tried managed to restore it. Even resetting the phone to factory settings. The same SIM card gets data connectivity on a different phone, a different SIM on this device doesn't get data.
I've been looking at the radio log but I don't really understand what's going on there. I can see various SIM IO errors, though, so I am thinking it could be a hardware issue, maybe a broken pin.
If you know your way around a log, please take a look and let me know what you think.
The device is a Sharp SH-06E, Android 4.2, latest build version (01.00.10).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
Please read the description and Sticky threads for XDA Assist. Our purpose here is to guide NEW members to the correct section for their questions. As a Senior member, you are expected to use the search features provided to you to find the correct section to post.
Thanks for understanding.
Thread closed.

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