I am wanting to encrypt my phone and sd card. I have been reading around about it all week and still don't understand a few things. I though that the encryption was like blackberry encryption, where you put the password in every time you turn the phone on to the screen lock. After a bit of reading, I understand that the "decryption" is only done at boot up by putting the password in once. After that, you have to put the same password in at the screen lock simply because of a limitation of Android not allowing two different passwords. I do know that there are new ways to use a different password on the screen lock, and even a pattern lock, that's not my issue.
Here are my questions....
1) If the device is technically decrypted after boot up, is the screen lock the only security on the phone once it's turned on?
2) Does the screen lock of an encrypted device have any stronger security than that of an unencrypted device? If not, it seems like the phone is still very vulnerable as long as it's turned on.
3) Finally, on a Blackberry, a wipe is performed by erasing the encryption key. This makes an almost instant wipe of the whole phone and sd card. I know an encrypted device has to be wiped the same as an unencrypted device, but is Android programmed in a way that the encryption ket is wiped first, in case someone pulls a battery or forces a phone off during a wipe? I know that's far-fetched, just curious about how it works.
I have a phone that I use for corporate purposes so there is a password requirement for each wakescreen.
This is obviously absurd, so I used Xposed module to "nuke" the password. The coorporate app still thinks there's a password and I've never lost my phone, so that's good.
However one shortcoming of this is, if on the off chance I do lose my phone, using Prey, or Android Device manager, I cannot "lock" the phone, because the xposed module takes it out.
I'd like to do the full encryption, still keep the password "nuked", but somehow be able to reactivate the lock, or at the very least shutdown the phone remotely in case I do lose it, when it comes back on the password will be active.
I could perhaps use tasker to accomplish this, but it's a bit tricky.
TlL;dr
Password Lock must think it's on, but not. (so corporate app doesn't boot me out)
Phone must be able to be remotely locked - or turned off.
The Cerberus App, does exactly what is needed, including full wipe, reboot, etc.
https://www.cerberusapp.com/
Full device encryption on mobile devices is useless for several reasons:
https://security.stackexchange.com/...ny-advantages-to-android-full-disk-encryption
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
definitely sounds like there's an issue there. Do you have a custom recovery? If so, you could boot into that, pull some data and see if it opens. If it does, yeah its not encrypted.
Not worth mentioning degradation. All encryption always has and always will have performance degradation. It's par for the course
That sounds like a good idea. If it's not encrypted, then I guess the only method is to wipe and reinstall again.
mattkroeder said:
That sounds like a good idea. If it's not encrypted, then I guess the only method is to wipe and reinstall again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so. You can't reverse the encryption flag without a wipe I dont think
mattkroeder said:
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
kenshin33 said:
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went ahead and wiped the phone again. I reinstalled lollipop and made sure to enable a lockscreen PIN before I enabled encryption. It seems to have encrypted properly. It prompts me for my PIN at boot up now.
You make a good point about encryption making it more difficult for someone to get a hold of me if I lose the phone though.
Same problem here, with Nexus 5 and Android v5
My work Exchange server enforces a security policy to the phone which forces you to enable encryption. So I went ahead and did that, and the email app is still saying that encryption needs to be enabled. When I reboot the phone I never get prompted for a PIN to decrypt the device, yet in the settings screen it says it is encrypted.
I'm going to have to re-flash. Is it possible the issue is caused by leaving the bootloader unlocked? or is this is a bug?
EDIT: Update. Reflashed, but first thing I did was relock the bootloader and enable a security screenlock PIN, *then* encrypted the phone. Now it's prompting me for a PIN on boot and looks like it's worked. Hope the Exchange email policy stays happy this time, as it worked before for about a day before it complained about the lack of encryption
this worked for me also
I did what was stated below and it worked....
1. reflashed,
2. locked bootloader
3. created lock pin
4. encrypted, THEN
5. added MDM control (MAAS360) and exchange email.
It seems to work OK now.
Thanks!
JoyrexJ9 said:
Same problem here, with Nexus 5 and Android v5
My work Exchange server enforces a security policy to the phone which forces you to enable encryption. So I went ahead and did that, and the email app is still saying that encryption needs to be enabled. When I reboot the phone I never get prompted for a PIN to decrypt the device, yet in the settings screen it says it is encrypted.
I'm going to have to re-flash. Is it possible the issue is caused by leaving the bootloader unlocked? or is this is a bug?
EDIT: Update. Reflashed, but first thing I did was relock the bootloader and enable a security screenlock PIN, *then* encrypted the phone. Now it's prompting me for a PIN on boot and looks like it's worked. Hope the Exchange email policy stays happy this time, as it worked before for about a day before it complained about the lack of encryption
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mattkroeder said:
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you set up a screen lock pin the phone will ask you then if you would like the PIN to be enabled or not at boot.
kenshin33 said:
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for OT, but how can you remotely brick your phone? Just curious in case I ever need to. Don't live in the best of neighborhoods. I can remote wipe, track, take pics. The normal lost/stolen stuff, but I haven't heard of remotely bricking a phone ever.
Nexus 5 still looking to be encrypted
Only a temp fix---Both my Nexus 7, and Nexus 5 just started asked to be encrypted again....
This is still a problem with Lollipop
thegasmaster said:
I did what was stated below and it worked....
1. reflashed,
2. locked bootloader
3. created lock pin
4. encrypted, THEN
5. added MDM control (MAAS360) and exchange email.
It seems to work OK now.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wipe efs partition (I do have a backup on my computer) and the phone is no longer a phone.
Just to be clear, you can enable encryption on Android 5.0, and it will not force you to lock the phone. (Like the PIN screen and boot lock). When you buy a Nexus 6/9 the data partition is encrypted but there's no lock set. The following is from this article;
First, the encryption doesn't help much if you haven't set a passcode. Ludwig said studies have shown that roughly have of users don't set passcodes on their devices, largely because they find it inconvenient to keep entering them dozens of times a day. Lollipop will still encrypt your data, but it will also automatically decrypt it in normal use. So if you don't have a passcode, much of your information will be available to anyone who picks up your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if you've enabled encryption, and gone through the process, you're phone data partition is encrypted. It's just not locked down until you use some kind of phone lock too. BTW, the article goes on to describe the limited usefulness of having an encrypted data partition and no phone lock;
Lollipop's encryption still offers some limited protection even under those circumstances—for instance, by protecting stored data against anyone who tries to read it directly from the phone's memory. That could shield user passwords and other sensitive data from attackers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As to why Exchange policies don't see the phone as encrypted is probably due to another issue.
Setting PIN to be required at startup after encryption possible fix
I now have my Nexus 5 & 7 working with exchange on Lollipop using this-
1. Reflashed Lollipop
2. Let phone reinstall all my apps
3. Locked bootloader.
4. Set a screen lock PIN
5. Encrypt phone
6. Set screen lock PIN to be required on start up (this was missing before!)
7. Installed MDM control via Mass360-all policies look to be met, including encryption
8. Installed my exchange account via Gmail
//code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79342
Updated thread with solution
---
* It used to be that when I did a reboot or shutdown and restart, I would have to enter a password before the system fully started.
* But now the phone boots into the phone without putting in my password. I can reboot the phone and it will boot all the way to the Lock screen, and I can unlock the lock screen with my fingerprint or my backup password.
* I am concerned that somehow my device is either no longer encrypted or that there is some setting which has stored the boot password.
--
Solution :
For those of you who find they have this problem and have not solved it, I found a solution that works, related to a bug (feature?) in Accessibility.
Apologies if this was suggested further in the thread, and that I'm replying to an old post. But I recently had this problem and figured out a solution.
- Accessibility was enabled and for some reason this cached the boot password. So- when I removed the app (rights) and turned off accessibility, and changed (reset/reentered) the password in security settings... On next boot the phone correctly asked me for password.
YMMV.
subs said:
I posted this elsewhere... But I'm having the same problem. Any thoughts? I can post more details, but don't want to repost this everywhere that I see people having the same unresolved problem.
---
* It used to be that when I did a reboot or shutdown and restart, I would have to enter a password before the system fully started.
* But now the phone boots into the phone without putting in my password. I can reboot the phone and it will boot all the way to the Lock screen, and I can unlock the lock screen with my fingerprint or my backup password.
* I am concerned that somehow my device is either no longer encrypted or that there is some setting which has stored the boot password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, please try not to bump threads almost a year old. I realise that it might have taken you a while to actually reach this thread, but hear me out.
Opening a new thread is always better, since software versions, features and devices are most likely different, along with different device usage habits/users.
You say you're having "the same problem"... as.. who exactly? There's a bunch of different specific "issues" that relate to encryption. Be specific.
For instance, you mentioning fingerprint sensor leads me to presume that you are not using a Nexus 5.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk