Z5 SD Card file decryption - Xperia Z5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I had been having issues with my Z5's wifi and bluetooth not working for a long time, after troubleshooting all I could decided to factory reset the phone to see if that would fix it. It didn't, but I've also lost access to the encrypted files that were on the SD card. Android 7 uses file-based encryption so I can see them but they're unreadable. After some googling I tired the "Backup SD Card > Format SD Card > Encrypt with same passcode > Copy files back over" trick without success. I have access to the old phone, I know the pin, and I have the encrypted files. If there anything I can do here to decrypt those files? Information on exactly how android nougat derives the encryption key is hard to find. I'm guessing it's a combination of the PIN and some environmental data like the serial #.

Related

Anyway to recover SD Card after full device reset?

Hi,
I restored a back-up on my HD2 today and, for some reason, the phone wouldn't accept my unlock PIN (these are enforced by our Exchange Server policy). This lead to an full reset after five failed attempts.
What I didn't realise is that it would also wipe the SD Card. I've tried a few recovery apps (Active Recovery, Recuva) but they're not detecting any files.
I'm not sure what WM6.5 does to the card - but surely there isn't enough time on the reset to completely overwrite all the card data?
Has anyone had an experience of recovering files in this situation - or is this a lost cause?
Thanks,
Mark.
Storage Card - Not Installed after failed PIN attempts
Just had the same issue...
Created an email account for our exchange server - which popped up something about a policy change that requred a password to be set.
Unfortunatly, I picked a 3 digit pin.
When you go to unlock - a 3 digit number won't unlock the screen - it wants to dial instead. Hence 5 failed attempt and woops - the device is reset.
Now the phone is running again - but I don't even see the Storage Card.
Looking at settings - system - memory - storage card shows it as not installed?
Any ideas how to get the SD card to appear again?
THANKS!
Help with storage card!
Same thing just happened to me. My TP2 reset itself after password attempt failure. I removed my card as it was resetting (when I realized it was wiping out). Now I can't get the phone or my PC to recognize the card. Any way to recover the data or just the card? I can't even recognize it to reformat.
bohica1972 said:
Hi,
I restored a back-up on my HD2 today and, for some reason, the phone wouldn't accept my unlock PIN (these are enforced by our Exchange Server policy). This lead to an full reset after five failed attempts. What I didn't realise is that it would also wipe the SD Card. I've tried a few recovery apps (Active Recovery, Recuva) but they're not detecting any files.
I'm not sure what WM6.5 does to the card - but surely there isn't enough time on the reset to completely overwrite all the card data?
Has anyone had an experience of recovering files in this situation - or is this a lost cause?
Thanks,
Mark.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bummer! Seems to me you have a System Center Mobile Device Manager controlled device Explain the lot to your companies Admin and blame the OEM
Personally I'm glad I installed Device Status which gave me a 'Format' option within Settings - System and I've used it; I can't recount how many times..
By The Way what does this nirsoft_USB_DEViEW application do for you ??!
Device Status
How do you install this device status utility ?
Encountered this one last time but the problem with me is that my memory card was toasted after using some freeware to recover sd cards. So be careful.

Decrypt SD card after factory reset

Hello guys,
Im annoyed with my sensation, it was shutting down itself in my pocket every 10minutes so I decided to do a factory reset.
But I forgot that my SD card was encrypted, and now it says "Damaged SD card" when I put the card into the phone.
Do someone have the same problem ? or any idea to mount the partition on linux or whatever ?
I've already tried to set the same pin as before to lock/unlock the phone, but I haven't any prompt for password, it wants to format the card ...
Thanks for your help
underbreak said:
Hello guys,
Im annoyed with my sensation, it was shutting down itself in my pocket every 10minutes so I decided to do a factory reset.
But I forgot that my SD card was encrypted, and now it says "Damaged SD card" when I put the card into the phone.
Do someone have the same problem ? or any idea to mount the partition on linux or whatever ?
I've already tried to set the same pin as before to lock/unlock the phone, but I haven't any prompt for password, it wants to format the card ...
Thanks for your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, that's a really messed up problem.
I doubt you can make the phone read the contents of the SD Card.
However, what you could do is, format it via the computer & then use a recovery software (like Recover My Files) to get back all your important data.
kgs1992 said:
Hey, that's a really messed up problem.
I doubt you can make the phone read the contents of the SD Card.
However, what you could do is, format it via the computer & then use a recovery software (like Recover My Files) to get back all your important data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This BLOWS. I just had my phone repaired and they factory reset it.. now I get this error. Man that SUCKS. I have one app (Car Data Manager) that may not be backed up automatically and last backup may be missing some recent data.
Getting same problem...

[Q] SD card can not be decrypted any more. Help !!

Hello,
I have a big problem..... This is it:
1. I had my Samsung Note 10.1 and my external SD card encrypted
2. Due to problems with apps I decided to reset the tablet
3. Before the reset, I had to decrypt the Tablet, but i was not told to do the same with the sd card, so I let the sd card enrypted
4. I decrypted the tablet and I did the reset
5. I did start the tablet, I encrypted the tablet again with the SAME password as before
6. But I cannot open the files, I see them in the explorer, but the apps can not open them as they are encrypted.
7. There is also not the posibility in the settings to decrypt the sd-card.
What can I do ?
Thanks
Sorry to hear that, the only way to recover the data on your sdcard is to restore a previous complete backup of your device (cwm backup). This way you restore the encryption master key and you will be able to access the data on your sdcard again. If you haven't got a backup you loose
The master encryption key used is randomly generated at the time of intitial encryption. Decrypting en reencrypting your device will result in using a different master key.
---quote from: http://source.android.com/tech/encryption/android_crypto_implementation.html---
"The master key is a 128 bit number created by reading from /dev/urandom. It is encrypted with a hash of the user password created with the PBKDF2 function from the SSL library. The footer also contains a random salt (also read from /dev/urandom) used to add entropy to the hash from PBKDF2, and prevent rainbow table attacks on the password.
---end quote--
Thanks a lot for your answer. I have already expected that. I thought, that the encryption key being generated is only using the passwort like in the really very well programed software truecrypt. It allows very good security combined with very good usability. It would be much better if the android developers would to the same. I try to suggest that to the android developers.
So now I am going to format my SD card and try to calm done due to the loss of important data :crying:.
Thanks and Happy New Year

How to encrypt external sd card In case its compromised

Ive read this can be done incase your external sd card is stolen or lost where u can passcode encrypt the entire card where if someone trys to view jpgs images or video anything for that matter they get a blank image..
Is this a Computer pc encryption deal or native to being done right from the device or an app.
And are they're any downsides to doing it and being able to view yourself from your device while encrypted
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
lojak29 said:
Ive read this can be done incase your external sd card is stolen or lost where u can passcode encrypt the entire card where if someone trys to view jpgs images or video anything for that matter they get a blank image..
Is this a Computer pc encryption deal or native to being done right from the device or an app.
And are they're any downsides to doing it and being able to view yourself from your device while encrypted
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings -> Security -> Encrypt External SD Card (and Encrypt Device).
Keep in mind that it's not worth much if your phone is turned on when the attacker steals it. No matter what.
Against the ordinary thief it'll do fine.
Soooo
stealing the phone gives the person 100% access to the SD card? atleast the iphone has the numeric or alphanumeric password feature and 10 mistakes before Wipe.
L1gh7n1ng said:
Keep in mind that it's not worth much if your phone is turned on when the attacker steals it. No matter what.
Against the ordinary thief it'll do fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely right. Still looking for a way to lock out federal forces in case my phone gets "arrested". Any ideas or recommendations?
Encryption of external sd... still is supposed to make any file on sd pass code required. .. as in if someone takes the card out tries it in a pc or other phone they'll see black or blank images .
Essentially making it like Iphone proof .
Only thing can be done is a fat 32 format to clear card.
But I havent tried cause I don't wanna take risks of loosing vital info .
As far as the last post about federal people compromising your phone .... well trust me if they get your phone they can hack anything
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
what you really need is truecrypt.org/
It might be possible to port it to Android and then use it on the SD card.
In fact it appears it has been done here: code.google.com/p/cryptonite/
stupid 10 message posting crap gawd, someone covert those to real links for people.
shaten said:
what you really need is truecrypt.org/
It might be possible to port it to Android and then use it on the SD card.
In fact it appears it has been done here: code.google.com/p/cryptonite/
stupid 10 message posting crap gawd, someone covert those to real links for people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to only encrypt sdcard contents. I'd probably want my /data encrypted as well.
Product F(RED) said:
Settings -> Security -> Encrypt External SD Card (and Encrypt Device).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to ressurect an old thread. But there is no such option for Cyanogenmod cm-12.1 (Lollipop+). is there a way to encrypt the external sd card?
mrplice said:
Sorry to ressurect an old thread. But there is no such option for Cyanogenmod cm-12.1 (Lollipop+). is there a way to encrypt the external sd card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I once hacked me an EncFS-script that mounts an encrypted folder on my sdcard as sdcard0 and the rest of the sdcard as sdcard1. I use it on my phone since more than a year now without any problems:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-sensation/development/mod-encrypt-sdcard-encfs-t3027711
It may run without any changes on your phone, too. Otherwise you only have to change some paths in the script or ask me for help.
bastei said:
I once hacked me an EncFS-script that mounts an encrypted folder on my sdcard as sdcard0 and the rest of the sdcard as sdcard1. I use it on my phone since more than a year now without any problems:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-sensation/development/mod-encrypt-sdcard-encfs-t3027711
It may run without any changes on your phone, too. Otherwise you only have to change some paths in the script or ask me for help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice. By looking at that thread I see that you are using encFS. What i have in mind is a full partition encryption (just like LUKS, for instance). Do you know if that would be possible?
mrplice said:
Thanks for the advice. By looking at that thread I see that you are using encFS. What i have in mind is a full partition encryption (just like LUKS, for instance). Do you know if that would be possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think by "full partition encryption" you mean "encryption of the file system".? Because if you only mean encryption of "all files on the sdcard" - that's what I actually do. I also wrote three points about my decision for EncFS.
You could try to use TrueCrypt in the same way I use EncFS, but with an encrypted partition. Apart from that I'm not aware of any (easy) way to encrypt the file system. Android uses dm-crypt for internal encryption, but I don't know if and how you can use it to encrypt the sdcard.
The latest luks manager (2.5.1) allows you to encrypt external sdcard, which should me mounted on boot or manually and unlike Encfs, no password is stored in plain text. To have a password stored in plain text is no security at all.
optimumpro said:
[..] unlike Encfs, no password is stored in plain text. To have a password stored in plain text is no security at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only out of interest:
I wanted to prevent access to the data on my sdcard if I lose my device. The password is stored on encrypted /data, only readable by root. In what way do you consider that "no security at all"?
bastei said:
Only out of interest:
I wanted to prevent access to the data on my sdcard if I lose my device. The password is stored on encrypted /data, only readable by root. In what way do you consider that "no security at all"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In 2 ways: First, a security model that relies on a separate encryption process that is not provided in that model is not secure. What if data partition is not encrypted? Second, you can't rely on permissions only, if permissions alone were enough, we wouldn't need disk encryption at all. Textsecure used to have a glaring security hole: all sms were stored on disk in plain text. Moxie didn't say encrypt your data, he instead fixed the issue.
optimumpro said:
In 2 ways: First, a security model that relies on a separate encryption process that is not provided in that model is not secure. What if data partition is not encrypted? Second, you can't rely on permissions only, if permissions alone were enough, we wouldn't need disk encryption at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funnily enough Android M is saving the encryption key for adopted storage in the exact same way as I did it for my Enfs-folder.
bastei said:
Funnily enough Android M is saving the encryption key for adopted storage in the exact same way as I did it for my Enfs-folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You still remember? I meant no offence.
Adopted storage: even if this is true, it is still OK, because I don't think you can encrypt adopted storage without encrypting data partition. In other words, there is no way in M the encryption key could be read without first decrypting data. In your case, it is possible, since encrypting SD is independent from encrypting internal data partition. But if I were Google, I would still not save the encryption key in plain...

How I unbricked "Decryption unsuccessful" The password is correct but... (Apps2SD)

How I unbricked "Decryption unsuccessful" The password is correct but... (Apps2SD)
Hello, I don't usually post in tech forums, I usually the guy that only reads,
but this is the time when i could not find the straight answer to my problem and had to google the solution out of similar posts, so I decided to glue everything together and write my solution to this particular situation,
so I might save a lot of time to someone who got in exact or similar situation.
Sorry for my crappy English, but here we go.
What this post trying to solve:
You stuck at boot loop: "Decryption unsuccessful" The password that you entered is correct but unfortunately your data is corrupt.
and how to make it work Apps2SD with Huawei P9 SD card with enabled password protection.
Basically my Huawei P9 (EVA L-19) with Android 7.0 Nougat got running out of internal space, and i am really a heavy user on apps. Kirin 955 handles just fine as long as it has at least 10Gb of internal free space.
I have SD card 64Gb, but huawei stopped support, native move apps to SD, long time ago. My device is rooted, so I was searching for a solution. There is few apps that can transfer your internal memory apps to SD by using root, but the one that actually worked for me is Apps2SD. The thing is, my SD card is password protected (Huawei native function) I want to keep this function in case of device getting stolen.
Problem is, many third party apps that move your apps to SD, does not know anything about Huaweis SD card password feature. In fact (as far as i tested) only Huawei phone allows you to enter password and show contents of SD card, no PC, or for example Samsung phone will recognize this SD card.
So i was messing with Apps2SD, partitioned my SD card in to 2 primary partitions, 1- exfat, 2- Ext3. It works kinda fine, but after reboot, there is delay, Huawei unlocks SD card after main boot part, and Apps2SD does not understand this and show that it failed to mount second partition.
In this case, Apps2SD starts giving you solutions, one of them is this ADVANCED mounting option. It does not tells u about any dangers, nothing really.
I chose that option to see if it will be able to see second partition contents faster, rebooted - boom bricked.
You see the message: "Decryption unsuccessful" and asks you for decryption password. It might be SD card password, not sure, it does not matter, because you can type ANYTHING and it always say:
"The password that you entered is correct but unfortunately your data is corrupt". And gives you only option: fully data factory reset. Now hold your horses, dont press that. I just knew that this is bull**** and no way
my personal data is corrupted, its just some hadshake issue. (I was right i fully recovered everything up n running)
Assuming you got in this mess, your device must be rooted and you probably have TWRP recovery, cause Apps2SD work only with rooted devices.
To recover from "Decryption unsuccessful" boot message and restore all data and settings:
Got to TWRP recovery by holding power button and volume UP (after phone vibrates, hold both buttons 2sec more and then release power button, and then after 2sec more release volume up, cause if
you do this too fast, u will end up in wifi recovery by Huawei, and it wont work anyway cause your device rooted).
Then go to advanced and file manager, locate sdcard folder (this will be internal memory, not external), you should be able to see all of your personal files! Copy them to flash drive by connecting with OTG.
What we gonna do now is: do a full nandroid backup: TWRP, backup, check: BOOT, SYSTEM, DATA. and do a backup to flash drive connected with OTG or hard drive if it works for u.
After backup is done, go to WIPE, select format data, select DATA partition and see what original file system it uses. Now format in any other system, then reformat again to your original file system.
DATA partition somehow lost its encryption handshake key and this caused the problem, reformatting fixes it.
Now do a full wipe as if you would install new rom, wipe: system, data, storage, cache, dalvic cache.
Restore your previous nandroid backup, reboot to system,now your phone should boot with all the apps and settings just as you left.
You might be missing some pictures and other media in main storage, just connect your P9 with usb cable to pc, and restore previously backed up media from flash drive manually in pc interface (copy paste, replace all),
some small minority files might wont copy, don't worry about it, Im not sure but they are mostly indexing files, all ur media will be back in place.
Now, how to make Apps2SD work with this configuration?
Don't use that advanced method to find SD cards second partition, use any of first 3, the 3rd one worked for me just fine, cause its SU library based one.
Don't move your apps fully to SD, or they will "disappear", move everything except APK, ODEX, DEX (Lib is optional, you usually can move this one just fine). SO basically app core will stay in main storage but cache and app data will be on second SD card. This way, after you reboot your phone, you will have to wait like 3mins and App2SD will link your files to apps itself just fine. It might will show some errors right after reboot, but after Huawei unlocks its card, files will be linked, and apps wont be "gone" cause app core still stays in main storage.
This way i managed to save a lot of space and move most of app storage to SD card, P9 became very responsive, even in 2018 this is a really fast smartphone.
Sorry for a messy post, I'm not a writer, but I hope this helps to someone!
Thanks a lot, you saved my phone-config! ) This step "...and see what original file system it uses. Now format in any other system, then reformat again to your original file system." was unclear to me, as TWRP didn't give me the option to choose a file system, but in the end it worked out fine without just as well.
dalektehgreat said:
Thanks a lot, you saved my phone-config! ) This step "...and see what original file system it uses. Now format in any other system, then reformat again to your original file system." was unclear to me, as TWRP didn't give me the option to choose a file system, but in the end it worked out fine without just as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So glad this helped someone
dalektehgreat said:
Thanks a lot, you saved my phone-config! ) This step "...and see what original file system it uses. Now format in any other system, then reformat again to your original file system." was unclear to me, as TWRP didn't give me the option to choose a file system, but in the end it worked out fine without just as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you run into this issue?
If it was due to updating Magisk to v19.x (on Huawei with Nougat / EMUI 5)?
In that case, there is an easier solution, just flash back Boot img with Magisk v18 1 and everything will continue to work as it did (without any need to reformat, factory reset, etc), see
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ap...v1-universal-systemless-t3432382/post79493919
zgfg said:
How did you run into this issue?
If it was due to updating Magisk to v19.x (on Huawei with Nougat / EMUI 5)?
In that case, there is an easier solution, just flash back Boot img with Magisk v18 1 and everything will continue to work as it did (without any need to reformat, factory reset, etc), see
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ap...v1-universal-systemless-t3432382/post79493919
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not entirely sure what caused it, but I suspect Apps2SD just like in the original post (I installed/tried to use it shortly before the problem occured).

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