Samsung SD-Card 'Full Disc Encryption' not encrypting? - Security Discussion

Ok, I hope I'm not a total noob about this but I've enabled the external card encryptions ever since I've gotten my phone (Galaxy S5, Android 6.0.1). It's also visible activated when going into "Security > Encrypt external SD card"
SD card encryption has been turned on.
Selected options:
Full encryption
The options above have been applied.
SD card encrypted.​
Well, it ain't.
As I've just know uncovered, I can use this card in any other phone/tablet or access it via card-reader in windows; without any constraints.
I've also tried my Galaxy Tab A6 (10.1 2016, Android 7.0) with the same conclusion (this tablet has its internal memory encrypted and secure boot turned on).
Wth is going on / am I doing wrong?
Thanks for any feedback, answers and the likes!
PS: sorry if I'm in the wrong forum; security sounded quite fitting^^

Ok, I think I found the "error": for me, full disk encryption means that the drive is fully encrypted and cannot be opened/viewed/mounted without the key.
But, it seems under Android it only means the files itself are encrypted... this means you can browse all directories and see all files but you cannot open them!
Hm, not the best type of encryption imho...

Related

Cannot access internal or external storage...

Hi,
Did a search but could not find anything like this.
Problem with my new Gemei G9T Android 4 Tablet. Until 3 nights ago it functioned normally, but 2 days ago I switched on and there was a problem accessing storage. File Browser and ES File Explorer cannot access internal SD, nor can QuickPic, MoviePlayer, or Music. Icon continuously shows ‘preparing SD card’. Settings accesses most functions, except ‘storage’ and ‘developer options’ which cause it to freeze. Tried factory reset – did not work. Most apps work fine, but not Camera or Gallery. Cannot access external SD or USB storage, or connect to laptop. Entering sleep mode causes power off. Normal powering on and off now require two presses with time gap between. All of these functions were fine previously. Have you any suggestions, please?
Brian44 said:
Hi,
Did a search but could not find anything like this.
Problem with my new Gemei G9T Android 4 Tablet. Until 3 nights ago it functioned normally, but 2 days ago I switched on and there was a problem accessing storage. File Browser and ES File Explorer cannot access internal SD, nor can QuickPic, MoviePlayer, or Music. Icon continuously shows ‘preparing SD card’. Settings accesses most functions, except ‘storage’ and ‘developer options’ which cause it to freeze. Tried factory reset – did not work. Most apps work fine, but not Camera or Gallery. Cannot access external SD or USB storage, or connect to laptop. Entering sleep mode causes power off. Normal powering on and off now require two presses with time gap between. All of these functions were fine previously. Have you any suggestions, please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to take out your SD card and put it in a Card reader, remember to do it while your device is off or unmount it from memory settings, try to swtich on your device later and connect it to your computer and check if it connect through USB or not.
Try some system tools?
Brian44 said:
Hi,
Did a search but could not find anything like this.
Problem with my new Gemei G9T Android 4 Tablet. Until 3 nights ago it functioned normally, but 2 days ago I switched on and there was a problem accessing storage. File Browser and ES File Explorer cannot access internal SD, nor can QuickPic, MoviePlayer, or Music. Icon continuously shows ‘preparing SD card’. Settings accesses most functions, except ‘storage’ and ‘developer options’ which cause it to freeze. Tried factory reset – did not work. Most apps work fine, but not Camera or Gallery. Cannot access external SD or USB storage, or connect to laptop. Entering sleep mode causes power off. Normal powering on and off now require two presses with time gap between. All of these functions were fine previously. Have you any suggestions, please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing databaiz's suggestion to take out the card isn't an option because it's the internal sd card, right? If so, for the one-in-a-million chance that the external card is screwing with the bus, I'd take the external card out and reboot anyway, just to make sure; if it works OK then, I would check the external card as databaiz suggests. But assuming it still doesn't work, next question is, do you have a terminal app installed? Please try the 'mount' command and let us know what you see. One other question, will it still go into fastboot mode? Can you see it from your computer when in fastboot mode (the details of how to do this depend on whether you have windows or linux/macOS - I can maybe help with the latter, but not the former).
It could be bad card
It could be bad card.... Remove and test in card reader...
cannot access internal or external storage
Thanks guys, I have been booting without external memory, with problems still the same. So, cannot be problem with external SD.
The internal SD card is not accessed properly. When I go to settings>Apps>All, the line at bottom shows Internal storage 4.1 MB used, 798MB free. (I have uninstalled most apps to see if that helped – it did not.) So, something is accessing the internal SD, also apps are running which must be off the internal SD.
I do not know what a terminal app is, Urilabob. I have downloaded it but what do I do with it?
At: [email protected]:/ $ I keyed in # mount [enter] , making:
[email protected]:/ $ # mount [enter]
But nothing happened, just another line of: [email protected]:/ $
Also, what is fast boot mode – this is not the same as sleep mode? This is all new to me. Appreciate your help.
My laptop is Windows 7.
Brian44 said:
Thanks guys, I have been booting without external memory, with problems still the same. So, cannot be problem with external SD.
The internal SD card is not accessed properly. When I go to settings>Apps>All, the line at bottom shows Internal storage 4.1 MB used, 798MB free. (I have uninstalled most apps to see if that helped – it did not.) So, something is accessing the internal SD, also apps are running which must be off the internal SD.
I do not know what a terminal app is, Urilabob. I have downloaded it but what do I do with it?
At: [email protected]:/ $ I keyed in # mount [enter] , making:
[email protected]:/ $ # mount [enter]
But nothing happened, just another line of: [email protected]:/ $
Also, what is fast boot mode – this is not the same as sleep mode? This is all new to me. Appreciate your help.
My laptop is Windows 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I replied earlier but it seems I messed up so the reply didn't appear.
My problem is I know unix fairly well, and android is very similar, so I forget what is the same and what's different. Sorry, the command you need in the terminal is "df". That will show you a list of what partitions are mounted on your system. I'm guessing you're going to see /system, but not /mnt/sdcard. Why, I don't know. It's possible that the sdcard partition has got corrupted - but suspicious that the external card is also having problems. Is it possible that either the tablet or your pc crashed while you were copying files between them? Or that you disconnected the cable between them before telling the tablet to go out of connected mode? Either of those could explain corrupted partitions. Unfortunately fixing them may not be easy.
There are three different ways to connect your tablet to a computer. One is so it looks like external disks. I got the impression you already discovered this, and that it has now stopped working. The other two require you to install (parts of) the android development system on your computer. The simplest one is adb mode. Please google it to see how to use it. This might give you a chance to check the state of your partitions. The other is in fastboot mode. Fastboot mode is an alternative way of starting your computer, that goes into a fairly bulletproof, but very simple, mode that allows you to do various things on your tablet (it gives you very low level access to the tablet - powerful but dangerous). I'm pretty sure it will still be working. How you get into fastboot mode depends on your tablet; you'll need to google it. And how you access it in fastboot mode is fairly different on windows. So I'm not the best adviser. But please be careful - it's easy to brick the tablet in fastboot mode, you need to make sure you completely understand any steps you might take, especially any that might write to the tablet (of course, reading from it is safe). And of course the simplest alternative is simply to completely reinstall the tablet (sorry, I forget the android term for this). That should restore things OK, but it will mean you lose all your data and will have to reinstall all your applications.
cannot access internal or external storage
urilabob said:
Sorry, I replied earlier but it seems I messed up so the reply didn't appear.
My problem is I know unix fairly well, and android is very similar, so I forget what is the same and what's different. Sorry, the command you need in the terminal is "df". That will show you a list of what partitions are mounted on your system. I'm guessing you're going to see /system, but not /mnt/sdcard. Why, I don't know. It's possible that the sdcard partition has got corrupted - but suspicious that the external card is also having problems. Is it possible that either the tablet or your pc crashed while you were copying files between them? Or that you disconnected the cable between them before telling the tablet to go out of connected mode? Either of those could explain corrupted partitions. Unfortunately fixing them may not be easy.
There are three different ways to connect your tablet to a computer. One is so it looks like external disks. I got the impression you already discovered this, and that it has now stopped working. The other two require you to install (parts of) the android development system on your computer. The simplest one is adb mode. Please google it to see how to use it. This might give you a chance to check the state of your partitions. The other is in fastboot mode. Fastboot mode is an alternative way of starting your computer, that goes into a fairly bulletproof, but very simple, mode that allows you to do various things on your tablet (it gives you very low level access to the tablet - powerful but dangerous). I'm pretty sure it will still be working. How you get into fastboot mode depends on your tablet; you'll need to google it. And how you access it in fastboot mode is fairly different on windows. So I'm not the best adviser. But please be careful - it's easy to brick the tablet in fastboot mode, you need to make sure you completely understand any steps you might take, especially any that might write to the tablet (of course, reading from it is safe). And of course the simplest alternative is simply to completely reinstall the tablet (sorry, I forget the android term for this). That should restore things OK, but it will mean you lose all your data and will have to reinstall all your applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Urilabob. The command df had an effect!
Shows Filesystem with figures for Size, Used, Free, and Blksize (4096), next to each of the following:
/dev, /mnt/asec, /mnt/obb, /system, /data, and /cache. The figures are all different except Blksize.
/mnt/sdcard is not shown.
Does this tell you anything useful?
I have never been able to access the tablet from my laptop with Windows 7. My son’s laptop has an earlier Windows, so I checked today and found that his Windows Explorer finds the tablet (as 2 disks, A and F) and asks “Please insert a disk into Removable Disk H:” (and same for F.
By the way, this problem started when I downloaded the (automatic) firmware update direct to the tablet, not via laptop. But the wifi signal was weak, and files may have been corrupted. I have since downloaded the complete, latest firmware to the laptop (with strong wifi signal), but do not know how to get it into the tablet!
Have not yet done anything on adb or fastboot modes. Will Google adb tonight.
Not worried about losing data or apps.
Thanks again, Brian.
I'm guessing that your tablet is rooted? If so, do you have an app like superuser? I remember having to go through some options to give my file explorers access to my SD card. You may have accidentally set you SD card to be off-limits or something. If you haven't already done it, see if giving an app like ES File Explorer superuser access will help.
Also see if you can enable USB debugging. For my nook color, I have to enable in order to access usb mass storage for one of my memory units. See if you can access your internal SD card content through USB debugging.
cannot access internal or external storage
SacTappingUni said:
I'm guessing that your tablet is rooted? If so, do you have an app like superuser? I remember having to go through some options to give my file explorers access to my SD card. You may have accidentally set you SD card to be off-limits or something. If you haven't already done it, see if giving an app like ES File Explorer superuser access will help.
Also see if you can enable USB debugging. For my nook color, I have to enable in order to access usb mass storage for one of my memory units. See if you can access your internal SD card content through USB debugging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your thoughts. My tablet is not rooted. And I cannot enable USB debugging, because Settings freezes when I tap Developer Options to get to USB debug. I am just learning about Android - seems to be 2 partitions on the internal storage, one about 2.6GB with apps and other things on (which is accessible), and the other partition must be about 13GB, but has not been accessible since the automatic firmware update.
Sounds like the update caused you issues. If you have everything backed up with your Google account I recommend that you do a factory data reset and see if that fixes your issue.
cannot access internal or external storage
MissionImprobable said:
Sounds like the update caused you issues. If you have everything backed up with your Google account I recommend that you do a factory data reset and see if that fixes your issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset would be great, if it worked, but it does not function.
Can you exchange the device?
Brian44 said:
Factory reset would be great, if it worked, but it does not function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so from your df listing, it's clear that sdcard is not getting mounted. That's a pretty low-level function that is failing. The fact that factory reset also doesn't work suggests (doesn't prove) that the sdcard partition at least has a corrupted filesystem, and quite possibly the partition itself has been corrupted. Could a spotty OTA update do that? I'm surprised - I would have thought they would use fairly high level functions for OTA updates, precisely because any drop-out could cause corruption if you use low-level disk access. But who knows - the mysteries of google? Another possibility is that the sdcard is physically bad, and maybe the update just caused you to get into the bad region (with the dynamic memory mapping in flash memory, once something goes wrong it's almost impossible to figure out what). At this point, I'd be going back to the distributor if possible (you said it was new, right)? I think even if you were an android guru, and knew exactly how to do a complete rebuild from scratch, you would be risking that the device itself is faulty - and that the rebuild would mean you couldn't prove that the device was at fault (rather than your rebuild)...
Best Wishes
Bob
cannot access internal or external storage
urilabob said:
OK, so from your df listing, it's clear that sdcard is not getting mounted. That's a pretty low-level function that is failing. The fact that factory reset also doesn't work suggests (doesn't prove) that the sdcard partition at least has a corrupted filesystem, and quite possibly the partition itself has been corrupted. Could a spotty OTA update do that? I'm surprised - I would have thought they would use fairly high level functions for OTA updates, precisely because any drop-out could cause corruption if you use low-level disk access. But who knows - the mysteries of google? Another possibility is that the sdcard is physically bad, and maybe the update just caused you to get into the bad region (with the dynamic memory mapping in flash memory, once something goes wrong it's almost impossible to figure out what). At this point, I'd be going back to the distributor if possible (you said it was new, right)? I think even if you were an android guru, and knew exactly how to do a complete rebuild from scratch, you would be risking that the device itself is faulty - and that the rebuild would mean you couldn't prove that the device was at fault (rather than your rebuild)...
Best Wishes
Bob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Bob for all your help. This seems like the end of the line with this tablet. I expected this might be the case, and emailed DinoDirect two days ago for a refund, as I am heading overseas next week and want to resolve the matter before I go. They responded that "we will contact our related department to process your case priority". I have been aware that any actions I might take could invalidate the warranty, and this has inhibited me a bit. I will forward your latest comments in support of my refund claim.
I learned some basics of Android from all this!
Good wishes, great talking to you.
Brian
Just for a great justice :victory:
Got same bug on my Gemei G6, guess it hapens after i connect dc cabel to a fully charged pad that was charged in off mode and turn on. So i just download last firmware fro Gemeitech.com, unzip it on SD card and tnen turn on pad with pressed Home and Power buttons that must be pressed untill robot with green rotating belly appears what mean start of flashin` Thats it.
Got the same issue in Huawei Ascend P-7, I just switched off the mobile, removed the SD card and turned it back on after 5 minutes ....... and that was it, all issues resolved. Just the thing was that once SD card was re-inserted, problem came up again. So i have decided to copy SD card data to PC via Card Reader and format it or get new SD card

problem with SD card migration with SM-G900p sprint OTA 6.0.1 update

hi I have a problem where I cant get in my eyes the best fetcher in MM update. I cant seem to make my memory card work as internal storage I have a tablet with the same memory card and that feacher works just fine. is this a setting in a odd place or did Samsung take it out
It's not enabled on samsung devices but there is a way to do it. I do think have a link to where but people say it's the same was you enable it on an s7.
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA-Developers mobile app
zune70 said:
It's not enabled on samsung devices but there is a way to do it. I do think have a link to where but people say it's the same was you enable it on an s7.
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's sad that Samsung would do that. I hope there is a dev that is willing to fix this. I am more then willing to test.
I found a fix its tested and working on my sprint S5 with the new update 6.0.1
only one thing I noticed some times the apps don't go to memory card so they have to be manually put there the old way by going to the app and telling it to go to the SD card
follow the steps in this link
http://www.modaco.com/news/android/...e-adoptable-storage-on-your-s7-s7-edge-r1632/
also here is the walk though from the link its stats its for the s7 but I have the S5 and it works for that as well so Enjoy
f you've been following the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge, you may have read that adoptable storage, a Marshmallow feature that lets you use the microSD card just like internal storage, is missing. The S7s do include a feature where you can move apps to SD card, but it's not quite the same. The good news? You can enable the feature using ADB and it seems to work great, including in hybrid ('mixed') mode.
In order to set adoptable storage up, you will need a computer with working 'adb' and, of course, a microSD card in your phone, the faster the better (I personally use a 128GB EVO+ in my own device. Here's the process!
1. BACK UP THE DATA YOU HAVE ON YOUR MICROSD CARD. Your card will be formatted by this process, so make sure you have saved any pictures, videos etc. from your card to your PC before you start.
2. Decide how you want to split your card. You can either commit 100% of the card to internal storage, or split between internal storage and conventional SD. This option is useful if you like to unplug your card and put it in your PC. I would probably recommend committing the whole card.
3. Open your command window / terminal on your computer and type the 'adb shell' command (with your phone connected of course). You will need to enable USB debugging in developer settings (which in turn is displayed by tapping the build number of the device 5 times) in order to see the option.
4. Type 'sm list-disks' to list the disks available for adoption. It'll look something like below - take note of the disk ID (disk:179:160 in this example).
5. Partition the disk. For this we use the 'sm partition DISK TYPE RATIO' command. For example, to partition the disk above as fully adopted storage (aka private) I'd use the command 'sm partition disk:179:160 private'. If I wanted a 50/50 split between adopted and regular, I'd use the command 'sm partition disk:179:160 mixed 50'. Easy right?
6. This process will take a while, but when it's done, the Settings -> Additional Settings -> Storage view on your device should show the new Internal Storage. Note that, for some reason, the total space isn't reported correctly as you can see in this image, however everything seems to work OK. When you install apps, they will generally install automatically to the storage with the most space available, although you can manually move things around if you want to, perhaps for performance reasons (the real Internal storage will likely always be a bit faster).
7. If you want to see another view of how you are doing for space, you can use a third party tool such as FreeSpace or FreeSpace Plus.

Adoptable storage, missing external SD card, double internal card in Windows

I can't seem to find this exact problem anywhere, so forgive me if its been posted somewhere already.
I used MoDaCo's method to enable adoptable storage quite some time ago. I partitioned my
SD card into 2 volumes and kept one as an external SD card and one for the adoptable storage.
Initially, when I would plug my phone into my Windows pc, it would recognize both an internal and external card. Now, it does not. I *think* the change may have happened around the same time I upgraded to nougat.
Currently the phone seems to recognize both partitions - in fact the camera defaults to putting new photos on the external partition. When I go to Settings> Device Maintenance > Storage it lists :
53.5GB / 64 GB for the internal and an "SD Card" with 12.6GB / 23.4 GB.
ES File Explorer lists:
Internal Storage - 19/34 GB
External Storage - 12/23 GB
However, when I plug it into my PC, it shows my device, i double click on my device and it shows 2 hard drives, both with the same size. And if you click on either, you access the exact same files - which are internal files.
Anyone have any idea how to fix this? I would really appreciate the help.
Thanks!
I have attached a couple of screenshots from the PC and the phone in case it helps clear up my less than clear explanation. Thanks again.
Since it looks like this is some odd twist of fate that has bitten me in the ass - I have a followup question. If I turn off my phone, remove the flash drive, and put it into a PC machine will everything be ok or will I wind up crying myself to sleep at night? In other words, since there are 2 partitions (the encrypted, adoptable storage one and the normal external sd card one), windows should ignore the encrypted and just see the external SD one right? If I do this, windows isn't going to freak at the encryption and jack something up is it? I would rather not have to reinstall all the apps I have on the card.
Thanks again in advance.

Data Recovery from encrypted SD card after Factory Reset without decrypting !

I own a Samsung ON 7 phone and I was using a class 10 Sandisk memory card which was encrypted by the device in the lock screen and security menu and with no other third party software. Now I have done factory reset on my phone and accidentally forgot to decrypt the SD card, now SD card is detectable and all the files are there and visible as well. but i can't open any file. What to do, please help ! :crying:
Are you sure you have permissions set correctly? Can you just plug your phone into a computer with a USB cable and move the files over that way?
Also, those Sandisk SD cards are crap. I had a few of those cards and every 6 months they would fail and go read-only I/O error, never with more than 25% of the space used. Your card could just be being a Sandisk.
DIsclaimer: I don't actually know what Android uses for encryption, I assumed LUKS or something similar. It's possible that Android has the dumbest encryption scheme ever and lets you see the filenames in an encrypted volume, but that seems really unlikely.
I was in a similar situation recently and was looking for advice on the forum. I connected my SD card to a PC and restored the files using the Uneraser program. I think that this option can help many.

Question How to disable encryption/decrypt the external SD Card on Android 10

Hi, I have an Android 10 phone (Nokia 2.2, using Android One) and I realize there is apparently no option to disable the encryption of the SD Card.
In the options menu, under Encryption & credentials, there is an "Encrypt phone" section that just says "Encrypted", with no option to disable it.
This is very unconvenient since I need to be able to put the SD Card on my laptop to copy files more reliably (through the USB cable sometimes for no reason the transfer crashes, removing the files from the phone before copying them to the laptop, causing unrecoverable data loss).
But until the SD Card is encrypted, it is of course unreadable from the laptop.
Maybe Nokia's officially published source code for some phones (although not the 2.2), can be used to decrypt the SD card? If so, how?

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