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I've been wondering lately, is there any solution to make a lost/stolen phone really unusable even after flashing etc?
Yes i know a couple method about google dashboard or google email verification, but as a flashing junkies, i look at that method is easily crackable.
I've been wondering too, is there any tech to make the phone unusable via IMEI blocking (user requested)? Unusable means like maybe the phone will no longer getting SIM services even after switching to any SIM cards -or- better if it still locks the phone and showing user editable lockscreen info - both even after flashing/changing email (since IMEI will still intact even after flashing unless you format the EFS which will resut in blank IMEI = no SIM services).
Then the phone manufacture support it by making an imposible (or hardly possible) IMEI changes, it can do via software or dedicated IMEI chip hardware.
The point i'm trying to make is if there is a tech like that, it will surely making a higher chance of someone retruning an accidentaly found phone and wishing for a reward afterward rather than having a thought of flashing it then re-use/sell it. The cost of making a locked lost/stolen phone usable again should be high enough that people wont bother to do it.
Well i believe i'm not searching enough to found the answer, but i guess there isn't yet exist any techonlogy to make a lost/stolen phone barely/fully unusable even after changes via software/hardware. It's been almost 10 years since android cames up,
I think we should push this to google/phone manufacture.
It's just my opinion, let me hear what is your thought.
And i'm wishing too somebody get inspired and take an action (since i'm just a lazy guy)
PS: sorry if there is a grammar mistake.
Can do nothing with IMEI there are many easy ways to change IMEI number of android device ???
Hello,
I wasn't 100% sure if this was the correct thread or if I should have posted under the ROM section for this phone. We own a start-up company, and have signed some contracts with some larger companies. In one particular contract, we need to take certain security precautions.
My wife has purchased me a Samsung Galaxy S7 SM-G930W8 (the Canadian model). I live in the USA. It's unlocked and multi-csc (whatever that means). The product code is XAC (I believe that means unlocked). We contacted Samsung to verify that a USA sim card would work in the phone, which it does, and that it wouldn't lock the phone to that sim card, which it doesn't. So we're good there.
We explained the issue about the software. The phone comes with some software pre-installed that we cannot have on the phone if we're going to be using it as a company phone, which we would like to do. Samsung said we could disable most of the apps, which we were aware of, however, the contracts specifically states certain types of programs cannot be installed on our company devices.
I asked them if I where to gain root access and remove those programs, would it void the warranty. They said no. The only way we would void the warranty is if we dropped the phone and damaged it, or got it wet.
What would be the best way to go about removing these programs and trying to get a more cleaner version of Android? I understand that a ROM would have to be specific to this phone, because of the various hardware in the phone. But we are not looking for any "extra" programs that tend to come with ROMs to attempt and make them better. I noticed some ROMs for this phone include a custom installer, where we can pick and choose what we wanted installed. But they also come with customized kernels with various security features disabled (such as a fake version of KNOX).
Could someone recommend the best route to go here? Stability is extremely important, however, so is security. We cannot have unapproved third party apps / mods on the phone, but we have some leigh way there. For example, I could probably get around installing a custom recovery partition because the code on that custom recovery partition is not running while we're accessing company resources. If we have to go the route of using a custom ROM, we'd prefer one that supports over the air updates, but does not force them.
Any ideas?
Thank you and sorry for such a novice question. I had done a good bit of research into this and thought I found the perfect one, just to discover that it appears to no longer be supported and the thread on XDA has been deleted.
**EDIT: I should add that my wife upgraded it to Android 7, but I was afraid that would limit our options, so I downloaded the stock XAC ROM for this phone and used Odin to flash it back on, so it's currently running 6.0.1. I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not.
Thanks!
Am I reading correctly that you must completely remove the apps from the phone, not just disable them? The thread below describes how to disable system apps without rooting or otherwise modifying your phone's firmware.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s7/how-to/root-required-oreo-disable-apps-t3814249
Flashing modified firmware will disable Knox, which is something you might not want to do in your case. Also, if you're contractually bound as far as security precautions go, you're probably going to want to update to the latest Oreo firmware and keep it up to date with any security updates as they are issued by Samsung.
Hai Karate said:
Am I reading correctly that you must completely remove the apps from the phone, not just disable them? The thread below describes how to disable system apps without rooting or otherwise modifying your phone's firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I apologize in advance if I get your gender incorrect, a quick google search shows your name is unisex. I am going to assume you are a male, until otherwise told so. Yes sir, you are reading correctly that I must completely remove the apps from my company devices, including this phone. I appreciate that my wife bought it for me, but she doesn't fully understand the business like I do and I don't think she really thought it through. I imagine it costed a good bit of money, so I'd hate to have her send it back because I cannot remove the apps.
I appreciate the links to the threads, however, I already know how to disable the apps, but that is not enough. They physically cannot be installed based on what they're capable of doing (ie, a potential for viewing documents / schematics / pcb layouts labeled as confidential or highly confidential, or even worse, being poorly written in such a way where the program is exploitable and someone gains unauthorized access to our network, the certificates we have installed on the phone, etc.)
Hai Karate said:
Flashing modified firmware will disable Knox, which is something you might not want to do in your case. Also, if you're contractually bound as far as security precautions go, you're probably going to want to update to the latest Oreo firmware and keep it up to date with any security updates as they are issued by Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[/QUOTE]
Updating to Oreo is something that we will be wanting to do, but something I have been holding off on, in case I have to flash a modified firmware, or ROM as it's sometimes referred to. As for Knox being disabled, I actually believe that is something we are going to need to happen, have it disabled. We use special software that provides similar functionality that Knox provides, but is a lot more advanced. We actually use a few products for that.
I do have to admit that my knowledge regarding cell phone firmwares is a bit limited, although I do write firmware for other custom created devices. My worries with custom firmware are:
1) Certain security features (excluding Knox) might be disabled or removed (ie, the ability to encrypt the internal flash, encrypt the MicroSD card, having SELinux turned off, having secure boot disabled)
2) The firmware containing programs that most people would find useful but stuff I cannot have. If I have the ability to uninstall it, that's okay, I can do that. But if it's stuck, like it is now, where I can only disable it, that is not okay.
3) Something being installed without my knowledge.
Our security setup checks company phones to see if they're rooted, and if they are, it marks the device as non-compliant. I can have a device as non-compliant for a few hours....but if it's marked as non-compliant for a few days, one of the larger companies we're dealing with call to ask why, and then we have to do a secure session, where they login to one of our devices, but cannot physically click anything, just look, and have us go into various software to see why it's non-compliant, and, well, it's not fun.
We had it happen once because my wife accidentally sent an email from a personal device to a in-house email address, which never got encrypted, and it triggered a security audit, which was not fun at all and I'd rather not go through that again.
Are there no bloat-ware free signed official images or is there no way for a developer to import a signing key into the device to keep secureboot enabled? Also, out of curiosity, why would running a custom firmware disable Knox? In our case, that's something we need, however, I was just curious. And if we go the route of custom firmware, is there a way to show that it's gone, or will all the custom firmware's install a fake version of Knox?
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I really do appreciate it. I know how precious time can be, how busy a person can get, and I realize I have a lot of questions here, but I really need to make sure we're secure.
One of the programs we'll have on there is something called Symantec Endpoint Mobile. I am not sure if you have heard of it or not, but that provides virus protection, etc.
So CSC contains the regulatory information for my country and the providers....my phone is a Canadian phone. I thought Canada did not have Straight talk, yet, my wife's straight talk sim worked. I noticed in the recovery menu, it shows multi-csc. Does that mean my phone has the country specific stuff for more than one country? I'm wondering if I should try changing it to a US phone.
AP contains the kernel, the recovery partition, the system partition, and the bloatware, right?
BL is simply the bootloader.
If I could gain root on this phone without flashing a custom ROM or maybe somehow by just flashing something like TWRP without voiding the warranty, I could just modify the meta-data for the apps that I need to uninstall to allow them to be uninstallable, correct?
Since I went from a partial install of 7 back down to 6.0.1, my camera does not work. I'm wondering if it's because the ROM I used wasn't the correct ROM. It was the G930W8VLU2API1 ROM, minus the CSC, which was G930W8OYA2API1.
I've tried a factory reset, I've reflashed the ROM, using the non-HOME CSC, I've wiped the cache partition....still no camera. It simply says Warning Camera failed. I tried a few of the tricks I've read about on the net to fix it, but so far, no luck. Cleared the data and cache for just about every program, including the camera. I believe the problem might be because I have internet turned off right now, no sim card in, and even though I have automatic updates turned off, the phone still started to download an update.
Did Android 6.0.1 show Secure Boot status in Download mode? My wife, with the same phone, but the American AT&T unlocked carrier version (we paid full price), her's has a Secure Boot: Enabled. She's also running 8.0.0. With my 6.0.1, all there is is a Secure Download, which she also has, but no Secure Boot listed at all.
If secure boot is disabled, I should be able to flash any custom BL without tripping Knox, even if it's not signed.....right? I know with my datacenter, the bootloader changes even a bit, the servers and workstations are not booting, unless I sign the bootloader with my MAK.
**EDIT: Also, what exactly are these z3x things I see on the gsmhosting site? It's hard understanding exactly what they do based off their description because I don't think the developers native language is the same as mine. I go to z3x-team.com, and it almost looks like the device can do almost anything with the Samsung....upgrades, downgrades, unlock codes (wtf?), etc. Is it just a scam or are they worth the investment?
**EDIT2: I made a mistake. I guess there's some special Samsung Knox policy that gets applied to Samsung only devices, that configures it in some sort of way to make it compliant, so Knox has to stay.....
There are many sites selling Mix 3's some Chinese, some Global, some with locked bootloaders, and some with unlocked bootloaders, this thread is to help people "protect" the devices they have bought (or will buy).
It's through my understanding that the most "secure" way of protecting your phone & data from thief's is to have your bootloader locked, with no custom recovery, encryption on & usb debugging disabled right?
This is because with a unlocked bootloader, the thief has the ability to boot into TWRP (for example) & simply wipe your pin/password/lock off the phone completely, then just boot it up, factory reset it & sell it.
I know there is methods such as putting the phone in cold temperatures so you can retrieve the encryption keys from the RAM, but assuming the thief is just basic & what's to make some quick money off your phone...So...
What's the best way & most recommended thing to do with Xiaomi devices specifically, locked/unlocked, encrypted/not-encrypted, does it matter?, If not, why not?
Any help is appreciated! The more in-depth the better.
Even with a locked bootloader a thief can hold VolUp while booting, wipe phone and sell it. Wiping is possible in any case and thats not even the issue a stolen Phone is gone.
The issue are your data which can be stolen too when you have a unlocked bootloader. Simply boot to twrp connect usb and copy everything. But you can prevent that with encryption and enable "requires pattern to start". That way if your phone gets stolen the thief can still Install/use Twrp but he needs to enter a pattern to decrypt the storage. If he doesnt, twrp wont be able to read the partition and your data is safe. He can still wipe the Phone and sell it but you cant prevent that. I don't know if the pattern generates the encryption keys or retrieves them from somewhere but i'd assume it generates them, probably together with some device specific values, else that would be a flaw in my book. If someone could enlighten me here that'd be nice.
If your bootloader is locked he also can't access your data. Since stock recovers doesn't allow/support Usb-filetransfer. So a lockpattern is all you need there. Encryption shouldnt really matter against the normal thief.
I am going this way: Unlocked bootloader to get rid of Miui, Twrp to have a proper recovery menu, and encryption+pattern to save my data. Disable USB-Developer Options to prevent adb shenanigans.
But on the hand if you wan't to get really panariod a locked bootloader would be better since you still can read the system image from the phone from twrp, this means, and this is a easy way to do it, you could read it copy it to the pc and simply brutefroce the lockpattern. If you have the partitions you can simply try 3 patterns either it works or the phone locks itself up because you did 3 wrong. If it locks up you simply write the partitions back and try again. If you can do 3 in 30 seconds you are done in 45 days since there are only 390.000 different patterns on a 3x3 grid (which is what most people use since some Roms don't even allow for 4x4 or 5x5) but if you emulate it and can do 3 in 15 seconds you are down to 23 days. If you run it in 20 emulators you are done in 1 day. (That would be an awesome weekend project.) In emulation you could really optimize this since you can cut everything out what isn't needed for the attempt to encrypt the partition. you dont even need the screen to load, simply send the decryption module whatever the last module in the Numbers-from-touches-chain would have sent, everything that is loaded before the attempt to decrypt must be unencrypted therefore can be messed with, probably it's even universal across phones since that's a stock android thing. If it tries to write used attempts, save whatever what gets overwritten beforehand, let it write its thing, kill the process, revert changes and try again with the next set. Maybe you get it down to 3s or 4s for 3 attempts and boom you are at 6 hours to encrypt any android phone, no matter which version, with an unlocked bootloader which uses a 3x3 pattern. But your data would be really valueable to someone if they did this. You can't do that with a locked bootloader since you can't read the partitions or you could just use the 5x5 pattern, which you cant do on MIUI (i just tried and havent found where you could change it). But probably i have a giant oversight in there so this probably woudn't work
________________________________________________
On the other hand if you want to recover your phone you should make it as easy as possible to get the thief into your phone since you dont want them to run it off and wipe it. I DONT RECOMMEND THIS. But you could make a 2nd user who has no lock pattern on it. Concider your Data public at this point but while they are busy looking at your selfies you could use a app like prey to track the phone. But since Data are more important than a phone i'd never do or recommend that.
Or you could just buy a tin foil hat.
~phoeny~ said:
Even with a locked bootloader a thief can hold VolUp while booting, wipe phone and sell it. Wiping is possible in any case and thats not even the issue a stolen Phone is gone.
The issue are your data which can be stolen too when you have a unlocked bootloader. Simply boot to twrp connect usb and copy everything. But you can prevent that with encryption and enable "requires pattern to start". That way if your phone gets stolen the thief can still Install/use Twrp but he needs to enter a pattern to decrypt the storage. If he doesnt, twrp wont be able to read the partition and your data is safe. He can still wipe the Phone and sell it but you cant prevent that. I don't know if the pattern generates the encryption keys or retrieves them from somewhere but i'd assume it generates them, probably together with some device specific values, else that would be a flaw in my book. If someone could enlighten me here that'd be nice.
If your bootloader is locked he also can't access your data. Since stock recovers doesn't allow/support Usb-filetransfer. So a lockpattern is all you need there. Encryption shouldnt really matter against the normal thief.
I am going this way: Unlocked bootloader to get rid of Miui, Twrp to have a proper recovery menu, and encryption+pattern to save my data. Disable USB-Developer Options to prevent adb shenanigans.
But on the hand if you wan't to get really panariod a locked bootloader would be better since you still can read the system image from the phone from twrp, this means, and this is a easy way to do it, you could read it copy it to the pc and simply brutefroce the lockpattern. If you have the partitions you can simply try 3 patterns either it works or the phone locks itself up because you did 3 wrong. If it locks up you simply write the partitions back and try again. If you can do 3 in 30 seconds you are done in 45 days since there are only 390.000 different patterns on a 3x3 grid (which is what most people use since some Roms don't even allow for 4x4 or 5x5) but if you emulate it and can do 3 in 15 seconds you are down to 23 days. If you run it in 20 emulators you are done in 1 day. (That would be an awesome weekend project.) In emulation you could really optimize this since you can cut everything out what isn't needed for the attempt to encrypt the partition. you dont even need the screen to load, simply send the decryption module whatever the last module in the Numbers-from-touches-chain would have sent, everything that is loaded before the attempt to decrypt must be unencrypted therefore can be messed with, probably it's even universal across phones since that's a stock android thing. If it tries to write used attempts, save whatever what gets overwritten beforehand, let it write its thing, kill the process, revert changes and try again with the next set. Maybe you get it down to 3s or 4s for 3 attempts and boom you are at 6 hours to encrypt any android phone, no matter which version, with an unlocked bootloader which uses a 3x3 pattern. But your data would be really valueable to someone if they did this. You can't do that with a locked bootloader since you can't read the partitions or you could just use the 5x5 pattern, which you cant do on MIUI (i just tried and havent found where you could change it). But probably i have a giant oversight in there so this probably woudn't work
________________________________________________
On the other hand if you want to recover your phone you should make it as easy as possible to get the thief into your phone since you dont want them to run it off and wipe it. I DONT RECOMMEND THIS. But you could make a 2nd user who has no lock pattern on it. Concider your Data public at this point but while they are busy looking at your selfies you could use a app like prey to track the phone. But since Data are more important than a phone i'd never do or recommend that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really appreciate the time you took to type out this post, thankyou.
So my GF has doubt that her phone (Samsung A5) has been tapped by her ex BF who knew her phone pass and did take care of all devices they posses
Assuming that is the case, will the factory reset remove tracking software from her phone of will I have to flash her phone with fresh OS to be sure the software has been removed completely
gesaugen said:
So my GF has doubt that her phone (Samsung A5) has been tapped by her ex BF who knew her phone pass and did take care of all devices they posses
Assuming that is the case, will the factory reset remove tracking software from her phone of will I have to flash her phone with fresh OS to be sure the software has been removed completely
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the ex actually did something like that and embedded into the system partition on the device, a factory reset will not remove it.
You would need to flash the device with the firmware to remove it, you may even need to use the "re-partition" option in Odin when you flash the device.
It would also be wise to change the password on her Google account before flashing the device, to be thorough, change the password and maybe even the email/username while you're at it, then go to system settings and remove the account then sign back in with the new email/password, then flash the device, after flashing and booting, sign back in with the new account details.
I would also change passwords and account details for any other apps on the device, such as Facebook, Facebook Messenger, any other email addresses or other email apps and any other types of social media apps or other apps that require an email/username and password. Change any and everything on the device that the ex could have possibly had access to. If she also has other devices or PC's synced with her phone or email, I'd change the details on those other devices/PC's as well. If she has WiFi at home, change its password and maybe even see about changing the IP of her modem/router.
Then, after that, make sure she doesn't click on/open/download anything from anyone that she doesn't know, including multimedia texts/pics, it could be the ex trying to embed something again, opening it will just compromise the device again.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
While what Droidriven is saying is correct first things first. Has the phone been unlocked and/or rooted? If the phone is locked (*Not tampered) then all of that is overkill. Here's a simple test that you can do to see how at risk you are. Start the phone in Bootloader mode and see what it says at the top. It will either say Locked, Locked *Tampered, Unlocked or Unlocked *Tampered. Locked is exactly what it sounds like, the phone is factory locked. Unlocked again means exactly what it says, the phone is factory unlocked. The caveat is the Tampered. So you can unlock a phone and lock it back which will result in the tampered tag/statement. In which case anything could have been done or undone once the phone was unlocked even if it says locked. If the phone simply says Locked, there is no need to panic and simply factory resetting the phone will erase anything that the ex may have done or installed. If the tampered tag/statement appears that's when more detailed steps should be taken, as described by Droidriven. It is always advisable to change passwords after a breakup even if you don't suspect foul play as a precaution. If she fears foul play Google offers 2-Step verification, which I highly recommend anyway, which allows the account holder to use an Authentication app that randomly generates codes to access the account and also prevents anyone from accessing the account without the users phone in their direct possession. Google also offers security screening tools that allows users to see where they are signed in, when the last time that sign in point was accessed, and the ability to sign out of sessions that may still be active. Furthermore Google offers notifications that will text or email a user anytime a sign-in occurs allowing the user full disclosure and control over their account. Although not mentioned, Facebook also offers similar tools and notifications should the concern arise. First thing first however, find out how to log into your Bootloader and verify if the device has ever been tampered with and then work from there.
VidJunky said:
While what Droidriven is saying is correct first things first. Has the phone been unlocked and/or rooted? If the phone is locked (*Not tampered) then all of that is overkill. Here's a simple test that you can do to see how at risk you are. Start the phone in Bootloader mode and see what it says at the top. It will either say Locked, Locked *Tampered, Unlocked or Unlocked *Tampered. Locked is exactly what it sounds like, the phone is factory locked. Unlocked again means exactly what it says, the phone is factory unlocked. The caveat is the Tampered. So you can unlock a phone and lock it back which will result in the tampered tag/statement. In which case anything could have been done or undone once the phone was unlocked even if it says locked. If the phone simply says Locked, there is no need to panic and simply factory resetting the phone will erase anything that the ex may have done or installed. If the tampered tag/statement appears that's when more detailed steps should be taken, as described by Droidriven. It is always advisable to change passwords after a breakup even if you don't suspect foul play as a precaution. If she fears foul play Google offers 2-Step verification, which I highly recommend anyway, which allows the account holder to use an Authentication app that randomly generates codes to access the account and also prevents anyone from accessing the account without the users phone in their direct possession. Google also offers security screening tools that allows users to see where they are signed in, when the last time that sign in point was accessed, and the ability to sign out of sessions that may still be active. Furthermore Google offers notifications that will text or email a user anytime a sign-in occurs allowing the user full disclosure and control over their account. Although not mentioned, Facebook also offers similar tools and notifications should the concern arise. First thing first however, find out how to log into your Bootloader and verify if the device has ever been tampered with and then work from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, Samsung does not have bootloader mode, it uses Download Mode, otherwise known as factory mode or Odin mode. It also does not quite display the information that you described as you described it. Some Samsung devices may or may not display bootloader status as "locked" or "unlocked", I've never seen anything about Samsung devices ever showing anything about *Tampered. I've seen devices show "custom binary" or "official binary" and show system status as "official" or "custom", some show info for secure boot, activation lock, kernel lock or Knox warranty void.
But, none of this necessarily has anything to do with whether something could have been embedded into system. You can push things to system even if the bootloader is locked and without "triggering" anything or being "flagged" by the system.
Plenty of Samsung devices have been rooted without unlocking the bootloader, without tripping Knox or Qfuse and will show binary status as "Custom"(the one thing that does show that the device is rooted/tampered but still doesn't necessarily indicate any malicious code that might have been placed by the ex, just rooting the device and nothing else would give the same result), all locks at default status as "locked"(non-tampered) and system status as "Official".
Given that the ex was the one that took care of and managed all devices that she owned, I would just take the thorough route just to cover the bases just because there are so many points of entry that the ex could have set up among all of the devices/equipment that she has.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
While I'll give you that there may be differing nomenclature for the things I mentioned, I've never heard of anyway to reach the Root of a device without going through the Bootloader and without leaving some evidence. While I cannot find an actual picture of the bootloader screen, in the link below there's a picture of the recovery menu where you can see the second option on the Samsung A5 Reboot into Bootloader. Ultimately it's up to the OP but becoming tech savvy enough to root a device is not for everyone. If the device shows no signs of being rooted, to learn how to root a device just in case seems less than worthwhile. OP you could also try one of the root detectors on the Play Store.
https://www.teamandroid.com/2017/01/28/enter-recovery-mode-samsung-galaxy-a5-2017/
VidJunky said:
While I'll give you that there may be differing nomenclature for the things I mentioned, I've never heard of anyway to reach the Root of a device without going through the Bootloader and without leaving some evidence. While I cannot find an actual picture of the bootloader screen, in the link below there's a picture of the recovery menu where you can see the second option on the Samsung A5 Reboot into Bootloader. Ultimately it's up to the OP but becoming tech savvy enough to root a device is not for everyone. If the device shows no signs of being rooted, to learn how to root a device just in case seems less than worthwhile. OP you could also try one of the root detectors on the Play Store.
https://www.teamandroid.com/2017/01/28/enter-recovery-mode-samsung-galaxy-a5-2017/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This tells me that you aren't familiar with Samsung devices because plenty of Samsung devices have been rooted without unlocking bootloader, I couldn't even begin to count them all. Unlocking bootloader is really only necessary if flashing a custom recovery or custom ROM. Not all Samsung devices are rooted by flashing a custom recovery to gain root. Most of the Samsung devices sold in the US have locked bootloader that cannot be unlocked by any means whatsoever, yet these devices can be rooted. Obviously, they have been rooted without unlocking the bootloader.
Yes, it may have the "reboot bootloader" option in recovery, if selected, that will boot you into download mode/Odin Mode. Typically, what you are describing with bootloader mode applies to devices that use fastboot, Samsung does not use fastboot, it isn't compatible with fastboot, adb works with Samsung but fastboot does not work with Samsung in any way, shape, form or fashion.
And it is possible to root a Samsung device, then install something in system and then remove root immediately after(which means that root checker will not see anything) and it won't show anything in Odin mode, won't trip Knox or Qfuse and still show Official in Odin mode. If it is rooted, then an app is pushed to system then root is immediately removed and this was all done without rebooting the device in the process, then the bootloader, Knox, Qfuse and all that never even detects that root was ever there because it was removed, which means it never gets loaded at boot for the bootloader and other security coding to see that root was there. Some can be rooted and then flash TWRP using Loki without unlocking the bootloader, which "shouldn't" be possible with a locked bootloader, yet, it is done.
I'm just saying, it isn't always as detectable as you imply.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
There are many reasons why people need to root their phones. We're glad to have phones like the Pixel 3 with unlockable bootloaders. Google requires that the bootloader remains unlocked to have a rooted phone. A security warning about the unlocked bootloader is displayed every time the phone starts.
In an ideal world, once the phone is configured the way the owner likes (including root), it should be possible to re-lock the bootloader, entering a password required to unlock again, and perform lock and unlock without wiping the phone.
With the current status quo, what steps can the owner take to improve security and reduce the attack surface of a stock but rooted Pixel 3 - from both wireless and app-borne threats, as well as physical threats (e.g stolen phone)?
timg11 said:
There are many reasons why people need to root their phones. We're glad to have phones like the Pixel 3 with unlockable bootloaders. Google requires that the bootloader remains unlocked to have a rooted phone. A security warning about the unlocked bootloader is displayed every time the phone starts.
In an ideal world, once the phone is configured the way the owner likes (including root), it should be possible to re-lock the bootloader, entering a password required to unlock again, and perform lock and unlock without wiping the phone.
With the current status quo, what steps can the owner take to improve security and reduce the attack surface of a stock but rooted Pixel 3 - from both wireless and app-borne threats, as well as physical threats (e.g stolen phone)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just the usual stuff, use a strong pin or passcode to access the device. And don't side load apps from shady sources.