Marshmallow => Applock fails after resuming from Super power mode? - Security Discussion

So my phone is upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the new Android offers some interesting features including powerring off, restarting, using SD card as part of internal memory... without having to root the phone :good:
But there is a feature that is frustrating, at least for me, I'm using Applock to lock some apps like Facebook, Messenger, Photos... so event if I have to lend the phone to someone for a couple of minutes nothing would happen The problem is that if that person is malicious, he or she could defeat the Applock app by entering the Super power mode (from the pulling down menu) and close it immediately, when the phone is back to the normal mode, the Applock app is gone, all the previously protected apps are now freely accessible to everyone :crying:
For those who don't have Marshmallow yet, the Super power mode is a special mode in which the OS will kill all running apps to save battery, giving you access to just three basic functions Phone, Contact and SMS.
So the solution is that we need a password for entering and resuming from Super power mode because sometimes we have to give the phone to someone else for whatever reason, e.g girl friend making a call, kids playing games... you know it.

Related

[Q] strange android screensaver after calls?

I have a friends galaxy S here that shows various pictures of androids whenever she is done making calls or when the phone comes out of idle. I want to remove this but I cannot figure out which app is doing this. Anyone have a clue? I'd like to avoid doing a factory reset just to get rid of that annoying app.
Had this problem long time ago on Hero and it was caused by a game that asked to me to press a button as many times as possible to get a highscore. Though I doubt it's the same here, so I would download a task manager and see what app from the recently installed apps takes your CPU the most after a call.

Bizarre black box lorem ipsum bug

Has anybody ever seen anything like this? I'm experiencing a black box popping up maybe 20 seconds or so after booting that is unclosable with lorem ipsum text in it, here are some screenshots:
[xda won't let me post links yet so bear with me and fill in the rest of these urls]
imgur /LYCMosA.png
imgur /fsh6nWh.png
imgur.com /tde44HA.jpg
The box cannot be closed, and anything above it doesn't respond to touch input, but everything below it can still be used (like the shortcuts to chrome, contacts, etc. in the last screenshot). This box persists everywhere, including the lock screen.
Additionally, when I go to the lock screen the screen starts turning on and off rapidly, forcing me to reboot by holding the power and volume down key into maintenance mode.
I am able to start the phone in safe mode with no problems (safe mode disables all apps that aren't samsung or google), making me believe it's a third party app that is causing the issue and not something in android. But before I begin the awful task of uninstalling apps one by one to see which is the one that's causing the issue I figured I'd turn to reddit for help.
Additional info: I'm on verizon, the phone is rooted and I'm on 5.0.2
Flash with stock 5.1.1 ROM via odin.
Update: If you're reading this from the future it was cerberus, the security app. Really ****ing pissed because I uninstalled just about everything else because I didn't want to uninstall my security app until I had my phone back at my house (just tempting fate too much). Oh well, at least I've figured it out.

Wiko Lenny 3 + Marshmallow + Root + Xposed + Autostart bug

This is not meant to be a detailed tutorial, but rather an overview of the struggle I had to root and modify a Wiko Lenny 3 (with links for convenience), so others can benefit.
About a week ago I purchased a Wiko Lenny 3, a device with minimal RAM specs (1GB) for Marshmallow. This creates problems with app-notifications due to the Phone Assist (/system/vendor/operator/app/ApePhoneAssist) and Protected Apps (/system/app/CustomWhitelist) software that is pre-installed by Wiko to compensate for the low RAM.
First, I freshstarted the phone and put in the basic configuration. I immediately updated the system to OTA version V54.
Then I flashed TWRP 3.0.3-0 with SPFlashtool from this site:
http://www.needrom.com/download/recovery-twrp-wiko-lenny-3/ .
There is also TWRP 3.0.2 available but that DID NOT WORK on my phone:
http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6isv8b6duCrbjdJbDVlRFpONlk/view
After that I rooted the thing via TWRP with SuperSU.zip, and installed Xposed via TWRP. I debloated the phone by removing most Google trash.
I use Syncthing to sync the contents of my external SD card to other devices. But Syncthing needs write permission on the SD card and Marshmallow mounts the SD card read only, and can only give write permission to the ./Android folder on the SD card. I fixed this with XInternalSD. The other option, Marshmallow SD Fix 2.0, DID NOT WORK.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/xposed-disablesignaturecheck-t2789267
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/xposed-marshmallow-sd-fix-write-t3403263
So far, so good. However, after a while I noticed that FaceSlim (lightweight FB client) did not send push notifications. FaceSlim works perfectly on my old KitKat phone and also on a Lollipop tablet. So I checked running processes with OSMonitor and it turned out that FaceSlim was not being autostarted at boot. Some other services were not autostarted at boot as well:
AFWall+
Applock
DataStats
EZ Wifi Notification
FDroid
MaterialFBook
WiFi Automatic
Xprivacy
I have K-9 Mail installed as well but that app actually DID send notifications, for a while at least, later on it would not work anymore.
DataStats would not stay on screen if I forced closed it after starting it manually.
AFWall+ would only start if I added the widget on the home screen.
I tried every recommendation, like disabling doze mode for all apps and whitelisting the apps in Wiko's "Phone Assist" app, an overly aggressive resource manager that is shipped on Wiko phones, probably to make up for the low RAM. Nothing would autostart the apps.
So, I decided to flash the phone to its original state, using the official vanilla ROM from Wiko (V54), just to see if rooting screwed up the phone:
http://nl.wikomobile.com/maj.php?telephone=1246
After flashing the phone, I tried to get notifications from FaceSlim, but that still wouldn't work, so i guess the problem was not in my rooting the phone.
I also tried to flash TWRP again but this DID NOT WORK WITH THE DOWNLOADED ROM FROM WIKO (as opposed to the OTA update). TWRP got installed, but the phone would hang at startup at the Lenny logo, not booting to the UI.
Fortunately I had a TWRP backup of the old system and I flashed it, I could again boot into the UI now.
I found that other users experienced similar behaviour:
http://www.android-hilfe.de/thema/a...enachrichtigungen-funktionieren-nicht.781196/ (German)
http://android.stackexchange.com/qu...ground-sync-processes-wiko-lenny-3-what-to-do
As said earlier the Wiko has two pre-installed apps that manage autostart behaviour and power management.
1 - The "Phone Assist" software has a "Boot Optimize" screen. This feature does work for some apps, but not at boot level. When I deny autostart for AFwall+, it comes up after a reboot and is killed shortly thereafter. If I disable everything in Boot Optimize, the switch for Applock and Wetteronline returns to enabled after a reboot. Moreover, it cannot prevent Instagram from starting, one power hungry app.
2 - Phone Assist also has a "Power Management > Power saving" mode presumably to restrict network acces for apps in screen-off mode. This could be the same as the 3rd party Doze apps on Google Play that use a local VPN to restrict per-app network acces in standby mode. It is debatable if this saves much power, and there could be a security risk.
3 - Phone Assist also has in "Power Management > Advanced > Gear icon > Whitelist" (free translation, my language is Dutch) a screen to "whitelist background apps". If you whitelist an app here, it is simultaneously enabled in the previous menu ("Power Management > Power saving"), so I suspect this menu is redundant.
After playing around with the various settings in "Phone Assist", NOT A SINGLE APP WOULD START AT BOOT ANYMORE, even if I whitelisted all.
4 - The "Protected Apps" feature, found in the Android Settings, will allow you to whitelist apps for autostart. If you put this app in default mode, it will select some apps to start at boot by itself. If you whitelist apps, they indeed do start at boot. But "Protected Apps" has a limit of four apps that are allowed to autostart. This makes use of the phone for social networking/email very limited. Some Huawei phones have this feature too, and also with a limit of four apps. This is clearly an attempt to make up for the low RAM in this device, preventing users from running too many background apps. "Protected Apps" overrides all "Phone Assist > Boot Optimize" settings, making the latter effectively useless.
5 - On top of that there is the native Marshmallow Doze mode, which requires that you whitelist apps from Doze power management.
As you can see this is a complete mess. To enable/disable an app from autostart or power saving modes you have to visit two to five configuration screens. Tinno is the company that programmed this disaster (http://tinno.com/homepage?lang=en). Actually Wiko phones seem to be rebranded Tinno phones.
"Phone Assist" also has a junk cleaner (powered by Purify) that notified me once in a while asking me to delete SEVERAL GIGABYTES of junk. I had absolutely no desire to try that one ...
You can find so-called fixes on youtube for background apps that don't start, which involves installing QuickShortcutMaker, and enabling Low RAM via One Clean. That does not work on this phone.
There is a way to circumvent these autostart/powersave restrictions without removing the Wiko apps. With Link2SD or LuckyPatcher you can convert a user app to a system app. That way the app will start at boot and will send you notifications as well.
However, I wanted to get rid of this badly programmed mess altogether, and keep my apps running as user apps, so I have removed Phone Assist, its separate uninstaller, One Clean, and Protected Apps.
After deinstalling Phone Assist with SDmaid I manually removed "/system/vendor/operator/app/ApePhoneAssist" and "/data/dalvik-cache/arm/[email protected]@[email protected]@@[email protected]@classes.dex"
In /system/build.prop I edited the line "ro.tinno.whitelist.set=true" to "ro.tinno.whitelist.set=false". I don't know what that line does exactly, but it's just to be on the safe side. I think this setting is overwritten if you reinstall Phone Assist or Protected Apps.
I whitelisted some Social Media and Mail apps in Marshmallow native Doze mode.
After a few reboots some of my autostart apps started to reappear at boot, but not all. Only after I started the missing apps manually from the launcher they would appear after a reboot, and persist.
Later, I made a TWRP backup, and after that I wiped the cache and dalvik/art-cache with TWRP. Evertyhing went well.
Wiping the dalvik-cache can be a risky thing, it once left me with Android trying to optimize nine apps at every boot. I turned out that those were apps that I converted from user app to system app, and back. I removed those apps and reinstalled them and the optimization at boot went away.
So now every app starts at boot as it should, but it would be nice if this "Protected Apps" feature would not have a limit of four apps to boot, because then we would have a nice integrated boot manager. If anyone can find out if it is possible to modify this limit I would be much obliged
EDIT: So, three years later and I still have this phone. I have recently installed update v59 and encountered the same problems. After deleting PhoneAssist and ProtectedApps only a few of my apps worked right, and that was only after multiple reboots. Other apps would still not show notifications. However after I edited /system/build.prop and changed this line to "ro.tinno.low_memory=false" all apps suddenly worked correctly. Maybe this would even work with PhoneAssist and ProtectedApps still installed, but I don't care to find out at this point.
Didn't work for me, but...
Hi,
If someone has the same problem and stumbles on this post...
Setting ro.tinno.whitelist.set=false didn't work for me, probably because I aggressively modified the stock ROM to remove most of the vendor apps (including this PhoneAssist and Bootclean crap).
What actually worked for me was to set ro.tinno.low_memory=false. After that, all apps supposed to start at boot, actually did.
Once I'll finish my tests and use the phone for a couple of weeks, I intend to post a complete guide explaining how to uncrappify this phone (it's wonderful what you can do once you manage to successfully flash TWRP).
Wiko Lenny 3 2 gb RAM and 16 gb ROM
Hi guys, I have a clone of Wiko Lenny 3 commercialized in Tunisia under the name of EVERTEK EVERSTAR PRO 2. The device that I now has 2gb Ram and 16 gb of Internal storage, but the original version of the Wiko Lenny 3 has only 1 gb Ram. I confirm that is exactly the same device same processor same camera and screen. So I was wondering if I can flash my phone with the official Wiko Rom ? Does android indentifie Ram and Internal storage from the Phone ? Pleaaase Help me .. and sorry for my English
MoonSweep78 said:
Hi,
If someone has the same problem and stumbles on this post...
Setting ro.tinno.whitelist.set=false didn't work for me, probably because I aggressively modified the stock ROM to remove most of the vendor apps (including this PhoneAssist and Bootclean crap).
What actually worked for me was to set ro.tinno.low_memory=false. After that, all apps supposed to start at boot, actually did.
Once I'll finish my tests and use the phone for a couple of weeks, I intend to post a complete guide explaining how to uncrappify this phone (it's wonderful what you can do once you manage to successfully flash TWRP).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I installed update v59 and "ro.tinno.low_memory=false" works for me too, thanks!

[Resolved] How to prevent android 4 from auto-closing background apps ?

Hello, for example, when I switch from a game to the browser for a few minutes, when I come back to the game it restarts completely, right now the only solution I found to this is to switch back to it regularly to keep it open, which is annoying and ridiculous. I tried dev option to allow 4 background apps, it didn't work, I did read about battery optimization but my phone is only on android 4.1.2 with no way to upgrade it so I don't have this option.
So, is there some app or modification I can do to avoid this ? If it's the only solution, it would even be fine if some autohotkey-like script would automatically switch back and forth to it as a hotfix.
turn off battery optimization
Unfortunately it's not present in android 4 unless I'm mistaken.
If anyone have the same issue here is a workaround I found: I stop absolutely everything, adblock, music player, onedrive (which I even force stop so it doesn't reopen itself half an hour later), even a tiny app that just forces the phone to stay in landscape mode, and I never switch off the screen and avoid to press the home key, this way I have exactly one current and one background app that stay open.

An app to disable airplane mode?

I haven't flown in 40 years and probably never will again. For a lot of other people I know too having a button on a phone that can disable radios is a time bomb. It gets turned on at least a few times a year by accident, after it's been forgotten about and sometimes looks like an internet outage. What if you install an app with a switch that sits in Settings and the only purpose of it is to disable airplane mode. Maybe it puts up an overlay on the screen saying airplane mode is disabled, or maybe it reverts to normal on each reboot, whatever.
The permission to do this would probably have to be allowed when the app was installed.
Not possible without root.
Why don't you edit your quick settings toggles to remove that button, so there is no accidental activation?
Hmm, I can't seem to do that myself on my own phone so I don't see how to tell someone else to do it. I'm on an Android 9 phone but I don't see a way to make a permanent change. The setup in question is my 93 year old mother on her Kindle.
I haven't done much Android programming or have a sandbox but I was remembering how in early days of Linux you were root until you created another user. So whoever installs an apk isn't root? Not really root but with a couple of priveliges.

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