Edit: Important: The newer V4 version of LeSec may no longer be usable for non-Chinese speakers. See this post #17 here, also to discuss alternatives
For all you Lenovo users out there,
I wanted to (re-)introduce this application. Because I have the impression that many Lenovo phone users rather quicly move on to migrated ROM's from for example APKHOT/Smileyvvv/Etotalk etc, where this app is cooked out.
You may want to reconsider going back to it, if it will still work on your phone with whatever ROM you have. It is really a very useful utility:
Firstly, it is a virusscanner. Not sure how useful a virusscanner is on Android, and as I want to avoid that discussion in this thread, that is the last I say about it.
It is also anti-spam. You can black- or whitelist SMS and Calls. See screenshots for an impression. Very useful.
Anti-theft is there. Send SMS upon SIM change, or remotely instruct the phone to send location or self-destruct. I suspect, but did not try, the SMS instruction is stored in /system, so a data-wipe will not undo this. But a good hacker will fully flash, so it only protects against noob thieves, like all anti-theft apps.
But those are common functions, readily availible in other apps. But now for the interesting feature:
It has a firewall. If that is the correct name. Or an app-wall. An permission-wall? You know those apps that you download that for some reason want permission to send SMS? Why does it need that? Or why does it want to read my contacts?
Well, you can per-app decide to block a permission. This app does not need to read my contacts. That app does not need to send SMS. And it will show you if an app tried to anyway. How cool is that?
Guest- and Childmode. Hide some apps. After all, we do not want junior to see daddies tripple-X rated apps. Or the wife. Which is why you can also hide certain contact's and call-history entries (wink, wink). It may also apply to banking apps and your bookie, though that is a bit more boring. Oh, and in Child mode the radio turns of as we want to protect junior from radiation...
Some of you that use Etotalk or APKHOT ROMS may have noticed the notification area buttons to these last two that were dead because this app was missing.
We could of course worry about whether this app in itself is not a spy, reporting everything you do to the Chinese government. But you may not be aware that this is true for *any* Chinese clone you buy. Typically those clonemakers do not release the kernel or framework source, so such a spy would be in there, not in a de-installable app. And if you are really worried about it, make sure you get a phone where you can install CyanogenMod compiled from source.
Personally, I doubt either Lenovo or China is interested in me, and if they do it means they have a Infinitesimals bigger datastore to clog their machinery before they find something on people like Liu Xiaobo or Tenzin Gyatso, which is actually a good thing. But I suspect the app is simply without such sinister intentions.
Anyway, attached is the version I got from my phone. From a Lenovo A750 ICS 4.0.3 S306. But I suspect it works with any phone that uses the Lenovo Framework, so any Lenovo ICS phone that has a not too heavily modded ROM. It did also work on the ICS 4.0.3 Lenovo P700 ROW S113 (Rest Of World edition) edition.
I provide update.zip installers for MT6575 and MT6577 (because I know their partition table). It probably also works on Lenovo Framework phones based on MT6573/MT7513 or even MSM7227/MSM7527, maybe even GB ones. But then you need to take the two *.apk files from inside the zip file, and copy them manually into /system/app, as the update.zip installer will not work for that.
But do try, and please report back if it does or does not work on your phone/rom. There is also an uninstall package. Oh, and you are messing with /system, so as always, at your own risk, ensure you can always flash back a working ROM or have a Nandroid backup before you experiment.
Your zip didn't work on my A789, which is using the apkhot based rom available on forum.china-iphone.ru. After extracting the apk files, copying to /system/app and manually setting permissions, it's working like a charm.
Thanks, I really missed it. On the most recent cooked roms, I miss many things available on the Lenovo official ones, like the fm transmitter, or the butterfly-like widget on the default home screen. Some cookers tend to leave out any non standard apps without even taking some time to know what they do. Not all Chinese apps are rubbish or impossible to understand, and Lenovo is a serious company.
Ok, here you have the FM radio and transmitter of the A789, but it probably does not work, as it is Odex'ed.
And I uploaded seperate installers for MT6575 and MT6577
Also, on your APKHOT, please confirm it actually blocks permissions and blacklists SMS. I am not sure how much the APKHOT deviates from the Lenovo Framework, so merely being able to install and configure may be too soon to tell.
PS: why not try my factory-cleaned A789 ROM? It comes with all those apps by default, and I now have 3 positive feedback.
Come to think of it, why did I take this security app from A750, when A789 is newer....
Edit: Because they are both the same version. In fact the LeSec has not changed since Dec 2010, according to the internal dex binary.
I have tested call blocking and it works, but it isn't so important, since call blocking is a built in feature of the Mediatek framework. You can block calls from any contact you have on your Google account just out of the box, and it works great. I've tested older phones which used older Mediatek chipsets and that feature has been part of the Mediatek framework since MT6573.
The FM transmitter won't work that way, since it is odexed. But it doesn't work deodexed, either. I've just got a deodexed version of the app, thanks to a friend from another forum, and it doesn't work very well. It works, but I had to stick the phone to the antenna on my radio in order to hear something. People I've talked to say that the transmitter works great on the stock Lenovo roms, so maybe it's just some incompatibility with the apkhot roms.
The only reason I'm not using your rom (which I have downloaded) is that I wanted to setup the phone in Spanish, and the rom I'm currently using is the only one I've found which contains that language. Just a quick question: is there any noticable performance increase on the s227 based roms? If so, I don't care using the phone in English, since I just want the most feature rich rom.
Thinking it twice, I've remembered another reason. One of the things I like most about the apkhot rom I'm using is that the external sdcard is mounted on /sdcard and not /mnt/sdcard2, which avoids problems with many apps. I tried one of the newest apkhot roms, based on s227, and none of the tricks to exchange /sdcard and /mnt/sdcard2 worked with it.
I'll reply to that in the A789 thread, as we seem to deviate from the security app.
cybermaus said:
Edit: Because they are both the same version. In fact the LeSec has not changed since Dec 2010, according to the internal dex binary.
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Click to collapse
I remember there was an update of that app on my A750 with your ROM. Now with apkhot I installed that package posted above and I have the older / original version. But there is no update offered...
That was probably on the S148 Gingerbread ROM. That one has an older version. I know, because I messed up trying to install it, as I had that older GB version and the new ICS one both in my Titanium backup. Also, the Dec 2010 date is probably false, I just got OTA ROW_S114, and it too had all files timestamed to Dec 2010. But I am certain the LeSec from S306 and S227 are the same, the binary compared identical. Official version is V3.5.1.3.5.2.0041 and the update button tells me there is no newer.
Every so often it does update the virus/blacklist signatures, but that is not the app itself. Current virus signature 2012.09.14 Current harasment (blacklist) 2012.07.11
But if you find a newer one, please do let me know.
I've been trying LeSec further and it works, but I found a problem I wasn't able to fix, so, until I found a solution, I've freezed it with Titanium Backup. The problem is that I'm using Go SMS Pro, instead of the default messaging app, since I need to write SMS in Spanish and the default app doesn't support Spanish characters like accents, etc. Go SMS Pro works, but every time I send an SMS, LeSec thinks an unauthorized app is trying to send an SMS in the background, and shows a popup to let you decide whether to allow it or not. I haven't found a way to disable that, and it's a bit annoying having to click two buttons everytime I want to send a message.
Its probably a silly question, but you did go into LeSec->ChargeShield-SMS and ensure that your app was allowed to send SMS in background?
Probably for reasons of 'likely form of attack' the SMS apps are (unlike other permissions) by default in a 'Warning' setting, but if the warning does not come to the foreground on your phone, it may simply not work.
Also, rather than freezing LeSec completely, you could go into ChargeShield, and simply turn of the ChargeShield.
cybermaus said:
That was probably on the S148 Gingerbread ROM. That one has an older version. I know, because I messed up trying to install it, as I had that older GB version and the new ICS one both in my Titanium backup. Also, the Dec 2010 date is probably false, I just got OTA ROW_S114, and it too had all files timestamed to Dec 2010. But I am certain the LeSec from S306 and S227 are the same, the binary compared identical. Official version is V3.5.1.3.5.2.0041 and the update button tells me there is no newer.
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Click to collapse
No, I used the S148 just some days and updated to your S306 V1.2 and simply stayed there, because it works very well. After some time it offered me an update and the user interface changed a bit with that update. The way how you set privacy on app level and so on. The update button itsself never worked for me either.
Sadly, backup never worked on that rom. I found that out as I wanted to try apkhot. To be honest, I didn't try on apkhot, yet.
A few minutes ago, I was offered a 4.1.4 version and installed it. Now it's purely chinese
Maybe I have to reboot the phone for english...
From the design it is a version newer than the version I wrote about...
leFloyd said:
A few minutes ago, I was offered a 4.1.4 version and installed it. Now it's purely chinese
Maybe I have to reboot the phone for english...
From the design it is a version newer than the version I wrote about...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, before you put the old one back, safe this one for me will ya.
cybermaus said:
Well, before you put the old one back, safe this one for me will ya.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want the old one back - I want this one to be english
How do I save it? Any idea where it has downloaded it's update? This was done within the app...
Well, it would have simply replaced the two apk's in the /system/app folder.
So look for:
LenovoSafeCenter.apk
LenovoSageWidget.apk
or something similar, it could have changed its name, or added a 3rd component.
Got the files?
Sent from my Lenovo A750 using xda app-developers app
Well, it seems that Lenove Security (LeSec for short, and LenovoSafeCenter officially) is becoming less usuable. As mentioned above, it is fully Chinese, no Engrish anywere.
I had a look at the new V4 of it, even decompiled it. Not only 100% Chinese, but is hardcoded in the app, there are no resource xml files that we could translate. A big pity.
Also, there is one app (Waze, a social car navigation app) that in the latest version is incompatible with LeSec. Though it is at this moment the only incompatibility I ran into, it is also a pity.
That may mean we need to find an alternative:
For now, these two has shown up:
LBE : Somehow, I think LBE is actually the company that makes Lenovo LeSec. Or at least, there logo is shown in the about menu of LeSec as part of the "in cooperation with" mentions. Maybe the reason why the free LeSec is limiting itself?
Anyway, I am trying out LBE at the moment, to see how it works.
pDroid : pDroid looks promising. Specifically, they are promising ICS support, but right now, only GB, so one to keep an eye on, but not availible to us just yet.
Permissions Denied : A Paid app. But if it works well, it may be worth it. Not looked at it yet.
So, LBE seems to work well. It does not have the hiding of apps for 'child mode' and 'privacy mode'. Nor does it have the 'anti-theft' or 'virus-scan' but it does the permissions thing well.
I tested, it nicely prompted/blocked permissions. And to be honest, using a slight more clear interface. If it is permissions, which was indeed what I was after, LBE seems to do the job. I also like I can block internet use separate for 3G and Wireless. Very useful.
One problem though: Waze is failing in the same way as with LeSec. Even if I make it a 'trusted' app. It seems the latest version of Waze simply does not like to be looked at too closely.
anti theft
I cannot input number In anti theft . for ex if I write +35989xxxxx I need two more digits but it does not allow it. If I write in national format 0899.... I have to write more digits than the phone number has. Any solution?
As mentioned, while I started enthusiastic about LeSec, it is now focussing too much on China alone. Not as good internationally.
Try using one of the other anti-theft solutions.
Thank you in advance. First of all I am still a beginner in knowledge here. My Alcatel fierce 4 TCL 5056N seems to have been hacked and is now being remotely accessed and controlled by an unauthorized 3rd party. I may be way off base but I think my phone may have been exposed to a R.A.T.. Temporarily rooted long enough for someone to modify the kernel and other system coding, which I cannot access myself with an unrooted phone, installing some sort of sub-OS with limited user setting options and a completely different named storage platform,( I.e. emulated, bdef55, self), and not even factory resetting my device helps because it reboots into the sub-OS they installed. They are screen overlaying buttons, and toggles are being reversed in real time before my eyes, settings and options are disappearing from one minute to the next and I've somehow found myself poking around in some windows software on a PC that is used to develop Android software, maybe sdk, not sure but was Linux coding and looked like it was meant for me. I was on the other end of this hack for a few minutes tho but my lack of knowledge made this useless to me. I have downloaded many an app trying to combat this issue but to no avail. Although unsuccessful I have seen a few thing I don't understand but could possibly be helpful for you to identify exactly what my issue is. One thing is an app I downloaded said that a trust cert has enabled a malicious trust agent and my system is being remotely accessed by a third party. The rest is beyond my understanding but I'm going to list a few tidbits you may recognize. LIB, Kinguser, kingroot, persist, unremovable/???/xxx, code Aurora, bootstrap something, libnfc, system/framework/Apache/xml, bin, user value=0 or 1/2, managed provisioning, also a .base ext. on a bunch of sytem apps below the same app without and a few of others. I don't know if that's helpful but it's all I can remember. Symptoms are apps closing on their own, microphone and camera being remotely enabled, unable to update Google play services or store and being forced to use an obviously older and modified version with possible replica apps with restrictions, unexpected reboots, in settings/apps/permissions apps like gallery, when you click battery and then the little i button for info, it says it's a system app and all of the sudden the disable and force close buttons become un-highlighted and unusable and so on and so forth. Lastly, my home wifi is infected I think as well because my roommate is having the same issues. I've tried(unsuccessfully) to root my phone so I could manually remove some of these apps and extra coding and such but it seems impossible because of a locked bootloader. Tried about 10 different ways without success so I've just about given up and smashed the damn thing but then you geniuses popped into my head so I beg of you, please help me or if nothing else, tell me to proceed with the smashing...lol! Thank you very much for your time. P. s. I'm new to XDA dev website so maybe drop me a line at [email protected] with directions back to this thread. Had a bit if trouble navigating here. Thanks again and have a great day! -Spencer
Experienced heartbreak in purchasing slider & flip phones off of eBay, which worked for seller only days before, but then learning that Verizon will not activate any new lines for 3G, slider, flip, CDMA devices. This has always been a great way to give kids a first phone, a phone that will only do call & text. So, turned to old family inventory or new companies that specialize in a modern phone with internet or social media interaction. Enter Gabb Wireless or Pinwheel. Landed on Gabb Wireless, but my bride wants me to try to mod an old Verizon bone stock Galaxy S5. Of course...& I'm sure many of you have been there...some guy we know was able to do it with his kid's phone...so now I should be able to do it. Never mind this guy is a software dev and most likely using an iOS phone. So, gauntlet thrown down, challenge issued. I've been doing a lot of digging & don't know if this can be done with this build. Here's what we have:
G900V, bone stock Verizon
Build number = MMB29M.G900VVRU2DQL1
Security patch level = 8/1/17
Let me know if any other specs would be helpful.
Thank you kindly.
EternalWorth said:
Experienced heartbreak in purchasing slider & flip phones off of eBay, which worked for seller only days before, but then learning that Verizon will not activate any new lines for 3G, slider, flip, CDMA devices. This has always been a great way to give kids a first phone, a phone that will only do call & text. So, turned to old family inventory or new companies that specialize in a modern phone with internet or social media interaction. Enter Gabb Wireless or Pinwheel. Landed on Gabb Wireless, but my bride wants me to try to mod an old Verizon bone stock Galaxy S5. Of course...& I'm sure many of you have been there...some guy we know was able to do it with his kid's phone...so now I should be able to do it. Never mind this guy is a software dev and most likely using an iOS phone. So, gauntlet thrown down, challenge issued. I've been doing a lot of digging & don't know if this can be done with this build. Here's what we have:
G900V, bone stock Verizon
Build number = MMB29M.G900VVRU2DQL1
Security patch level = 8/1/17
Let me know if any other specs would be helpful.
Thank you kindly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure why you don't just go buy a burner flip phone from Walmart? I thought those could still be activated.
If not, you'd have to disable the portion of the kernel that handles data. Let's be honest, this is a ~10 year old device so you won't find much assistance unfortunately.
Oh yeah, forgot, this is Android 6.0.1.
As for the query, you're right...I could do the burner/fip/slider thing, perhaps...but, truly, it appears all carriers across the board are throwing off 3G devices as fast as they can. I did see some of the rough service basic phones have 4G capability, but can't justify price on those things. Tough balance to strike as we're doing some traveling where VZW is the only network that's really reliable...& trying to get a child the best camera possible on the devices we have, so they can take pics of stuff they may never see again. Old basic phones are pretty challenging to text on, too. Anyway, we have an old iPod Touch someone threw away, plus the S5. S5 has the better cameras. But it's one of the last builds they sold for Verizon...and I don't ever remember there being a way to unlock the bootloader on that build...the G900V. But, regardless, I still can't find a way to shut down mobile & Wi-Fi on it. I think they have a Verizon family app that will let you shut down the web, but it is extra per month, of course. Appreciate the feedback, for sure. This is just the DIY kinda life, I reckon: constantly trying to refurb, reuse the old stuff, fix stuff yourself, do without...all to live w/in your means & save dinero.
EternalWorth said:
Oh yeah, forgot, this is Android 6.0.1.
As for the query, you're right...I could do the burner/fip/slider thing, perhaps...but, truly, it appears all carriers across the board are throwing off 3G devices as fast as they can. I did see some of the rough service basic phones have 4G capability, but can't justify price on those things. Tough balance to strike as we're doing some traveling where VZW is the only network that's really reliable...& trying to get a child the best camera possible on the devices we have, so they can take pics of stuff they may never see again. Old basic phones are pretty challenging to text on, too. Anyway, we have an old iPod Touch someone threw away, plus the S5. S5 has the better cameras. But it's one of the last builds they sold for Verizon...and I don't ever remember there being a way to unlock the bootloader on that build...the G900V. But, regardless, I still can't find a way to shut down mobile & Wi-Fi on it. I think they have a Verizon family app that will let you shut down the web, but it is extra per month, of course. Appreciate the feedback, for sure. This is just the DIY kinda life, I reckon: constantly trying to refurb, reuse the old stuff, fix stuff yourself, do without...all to live w/in your means & save dinero.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean there is a way to unlock the bootloader if you look on XDA. https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...ootloader-using-dev-bootloader-kk-mm.3337909/ The Verizon S5 was the worst model out of all of the US carrier variants.
EternalWorth said:
This has always been a great way to give kids a first phone, a phone that will only do call & text. So, turned to old family inventory or new companies that specialize in a modern phone with internet or social media interaction. Enter Gabb Wireless or Pinwheel. Landed on Gabb Wireless, but my bride wants me to try to mod an old Verizon bone stock Galaxy S5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this thread is almost a year old, and I'm sorry I'm late to the party, but I had the same idea!
My kids had been using Gabb Wireless for a while, and we were mostly happy with the service, but I wanted the option to install other useful apps on their phones without giving them access to the web. So, I bought a couple of old Galaxy S5 SM-G900V (Verizon version) phones, and I think I've succeeded in modifying them in a way that will prevent the kids from surfing the internet or installing their own apps. I thought I'd post my method here, in case anyone is still interested. Here's what I did:
Install Safestrap Recovery. (Follow this guide, up to and including the step where you install Safestrap. Skip the remaining steps in the guide.)
Boot into Safestrap Recovery and flash jrkruse's “slightly de-bloated” stock Marshmallow rom from here.
Use either ADB or Safestrap to remove any system apps that would allow kids to browse the web or download their own apps. (To delete unwanted system apps using Safestrap recovery, click Mount and make sure the system partition is mounted. Also make sure the “Mount system partition read-only” box is unchecked. Then go back and click Advanced > File Manager, and edit or remove system files as desired.) The web browser is already removed from jrkruse's rom, but I also removed the following apps:
from /system/app:
Gmail2
SamsungSetupWizard
SecEmail_K
InteractiveTutorial [This is the Samsung Help app.]
SamsungAppsWidget_Phone_Carrier_VZW
from /system/priv-app:
Velvet [this is the Google search app]
SamsungUpdates [this includes the Samsung Apps store and “Galaxy essentials,” which would allow kids to download and install their own apps]
GoogleOneTimeInitializer
SetupWizard
from /data/app:
com.android.vending-1 [this is the Google Play Store]
Edit the settings APK file to disable the option to remove the option to install apps from “uknown sources” (Settings > Security > Uknown Sources) so that users can’t enable that option. This will prevent kids from installing apps by sideloading (e.g. copying apps from a friend's phone via SD card.) Apps can still be installed via recovery or ADB, but most kids won't know how to do that.
To edit the settings APK properly, you could follow this guide, but I used a much hackier method and basically just sabotaged the security_settings_misc.xml file inside SecSettings.apk, so that the settings app crashes if the user tries to open and modify those settings.
I've attached my modified settings file. You can put it on the phone's SD card, then use Safestrap to copy it to system/priv-app/SecSettings. Save the original settings file first (or just rename it and change the filename extension) so that you can restore it later if needed.