To prevent hardreset of Hermes - 8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General

Hi,
Is it possible to prevent hardreset of the Hermes device by third party (said a theft), at least a password prompt. If this is not possible, would it becoz of the nature of the ROM come with Hermes or HTC hardware engineering missed that out ? thanks.

It is not possible because of the nature of hard reset: it is intended to restore the device functionality even if the owner forgot all the passwords.

Lurker0 said:
It is not possible because of the nature of hard reset: it is intended to restore the device functionality even if the owner forgot all the passwords.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to intercept the hardreset process on the Hermes via 3rd party app or registry hack, to prompt for a password before proceeding ? or it has to be incorporated into the ROM ? it would be great if this is possible

HR is performed before any apps are loaded. It also removes any user data and settings, including installed 3rd party apps. This is by design.
What do you want just contradicts to the whole HR idea.

Related

Cannot remove programs (always appear ERROR)

Hi,
When I tried to remove one of my programs, using remove programs, there is always this ERROR: (the name of the software) was not completely removed. Do you want to remove it from the list of installed programs? Then after I choose yes, the program is still exist.
Can anyone please explain to me what happen with my pocket pc, and how can I remove the software compeltely?
Is it related to pocket mechanic that I am using, because I usually always delete the registry?
yahyae said:
Hi,
When I tried to remove one of my programs, using remove programs, there is always this ERROR: (the name of the software) was not completely removed. Do you want to remove it from the list of installed programs? Then after I choose yes, the program is still exist.
Can anyone please explain to me what happen with my pocket pc, and how can I remove the software compeltely?
Is it related to pocket mechanic that I am using, because I usually always delete the registry?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same error here always.. would love a good answer...
Also have the same problem on and off. A hard reset took care of it...
I have the same problem. I know the Universal and the Blueangel are two very different devices but even so it is the same error message. I have hard reset it 3 times and it still has the problem.
is this a WM5 flaw? :?
Maybe.
What I do to make sure I totally uninstall everything is install the same application back in. The Universal will then show a window stating that you are installing a program already installed and that it will be removed first before proceeding with the installation. After the automatic uninstall, I just opt to cancel the install process and the original application is now uninstalled completely.
Another suggestion, the latest version of Pocket Mechanic has a new feature to handle all uninstall options in the Universal. I have to say, I have not tried it yet.
yahyae said:
Hi,
When I tried to remove one of my programs, using remove programs, there is always this ERROR: (the name of the software) was not completely removed. Do you want to remove it from the list of installed programs? Then after I choose yes, the program is still exist.
Can anyone please explain to me what happen with my pocket pc, and how can I remove the software compeltely?
Is it related to pocket mechanic that I am using, because I usually always delete the registry?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lots of people have had this (Including me)
The solution is to make sure the app isnt starting when rebooting i.e uncheck any today plugins, make sure the app isnt being started by the windows\startup\ location. Check the application to make sure there are no options set to automatically start i.e for pocket mechanic check that no auto cleaning etc options are checked - and then after all that soft reset your device. Then try to uninstall - should work.
There is something resident in the program memory causing the program not to be uninstalled - you need to find it and stop it from restarting prior to soft resetting your device.
Hope this helps.
Matt
Yes that's the solution I think. for this I use SPB Pocket Plus "safe mode" option if some program wants to be uninstalled.
I boot the machine "safe" and uninstall everything I want :idea:

Anti theft solution

Can anybody advise to the best program for anti-theft solution for the TyTN working on WM5?
My requirement are:
1, It launches from ext-rom sothat it survives hard resets. Please note that if it's not certified it will not install from ext-rom on WM5.
2, It will send a sms to a predefined number without letting the thief know. This will be done: A, when a new sim is inserted. B, If the device owners identity is changed or deleted.
try IIWPO with the "unsigned Hack" before (read it somewhere here on the board)
I'll try to use the same @ my next Hardreset - will report here when done...
found the link
put Default_Signed_DisableSecurity.CAB from this thread in ext_Rom to be installed first of all
Lio said:
Can anybody advise to the best program for anti-theft solution for the TyTN working on WM5?
My requirement are:
1, It launches from ext-rom sothat it survives hard resets. Please note that if it's not certified it will not install from ext-rom on WM5.
2, It will send a sms to a predefined number without letting the thief know. This will be done: A, when a new sim is inserted. B, If the device owners identity is changed or deleted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The anti-theft app can only go so far as much as how well the thief knows about WM devices, as far as WM devices is concern, a flash of a ROM will wipe everything, I mean EVERYTHING!
So it doesn't matter where you put the anti-theft app start-up, the best bet is only that wishing the thief doesn't really know anything about WM devices.
My opinion goes like this after a number of tries on different brands of these anti-theft app with or without GPS functionality, as long as the pick-up / thief swap the SIM, the device should simply lock and with some info for the pick-up / thief to return to (basically you), any attempts of breaching that level should be a total wipe-out of the whole thing including the SD card itself.
However, as I said, if the pick-up / thief deliberately flash your device with a ROM before using it, nothing will work, because if the pick-up / thief knows about hard-resetting your device to get away from anything, he / she might as well know about flashing a ROM is the best way afterall, as there are so many info about this skill posted on this forum, I do not see it as any kind of high-level skill set at all.

Soft-/Hardreset via Cabfile

Hi altogether,
I need to softreset/hardreset a WinCE/PocketPC/Windows Mobile based device using a CabFile (one for Soft- one for hardreset). Does anyone know, how to do this?
Thanks in advance.
P.S.: I already searched the forum, but found nothing between thousands of threads with Softreset,... in it.
Well the first of all can you program in C / C++?
If the answer is yes then you will have to write a setup.dll for the cab that will do the reset.
Here is an article for soft reset that will work on any WM device and on many CE devices (it is OEM choice to implement this part, so some CE devices like PNDs do not have it).
For Windows Mobile 5 and up it is recommended to use the ExitWindowsEx API instead.
As for hard reset there is a problem: this article works for pre WM 5 devices, but because of the flash storage on WM 5 and up the implementation of hard reset was left to the OEM so there is no generic way to do it by software.
Tools like Tweaks2K2 and SKTools provide this feature as a standard.
Cheers
hrb
yeah with persistent storage hardreset changed
good thing too if it was easy to program a hardreset
it could cause alot of problems when / if more virus's
will come to pda's
I don't mean to scare you Rudegar, but there is a very simple way of forcing the user to do a hard reset himself, on any WM device. I am not going to publish it here, but lets just say if someone wanted to make a virus, lack of programmatic hard reset would not be a consideration at all.
well after wm5 a hardreset at least dont cost people all their nonbackupd data
I know this is getting the thread off track and I apologize, but the whole point of "hard reset" is to lose all data. Unless you keep is on SD in which case it doesn't matter what OS you are using.
You are probably thinking of power loss and not HR.
Thanks for the info. I'll check your hints.

SecurIt 1.1: Sim/IMSI checking opensource security for us all

I'm been working on this for a little bit now since I found all the existing apps don't work well in WM6 or don't work well in a custom rom. This is a open source program (as all of mine are) and I welcome help/donations/and comments. Bug reports will be helpful in this first release as I certainly consider this a alpha release at the moment.
What it does:
once setup at every boot it compares your IMSI number with the one stored, if it's a match it plays a little sound and that's it. If it's not a match, it locks the device and displays your email and a request to please get it back to you. It also send you the "new sim's" imsi and phone number via a SMS.
------------------------------
SecurIt 1.1 (BETA) by Shadowmite
------------------------------
TODO: Build in SMS rule filtering thus adding remote control
Lock out activesync connections?
Protect the datafile from being deleted, or keep a backup in registry.
NOTE: THIS DOES NOT WORK WITH CDMA PHONES!
Version 1 (BETA) Instructions:
This security applicatioon can run loaded normally via a cab file to your device, or via being cooked into a rom. It will require your phone able to run unsigned code (most roms at this site are fine in this regard). Furthermore it does require the .NET Framework so it's really for WM6 devices, WM5 will be more tricky and is left up to the user to figure out how to make it all work.
When first run the program resides in \windows and must run from there. If you ran the cab installer it will have created a shortcut for you into the Programs folder.
The application comes up with a form showing you the current device imei, imsi, and phone number. You need to enter a password (needed to disable security programmatically or change SIM info), a email you can be reached at my a "finder" of your phone, and a SMS phone number you'd like alert messages sent to. Once done click set. Finally, click Enable security.
The application then sets itself up to autorun upon boot and if the SIM matches, it plays a little sound file to let you know everything is fine. If the sim is found to have changed, it will lock down the device until a password is entered. Meanwhile it shows your contact email and has sent the alert sms to you with the new imsi and phone number.
If you enter the proper password the program will take you to the settings screen where you can reenter the password and make changes to the settings and resave them. Simply clicking enable security without making changes will keep the settings as they are.
Clicking disable security will remove the autorun entries and remove the data file the programs keeps at \windows\SecurIt.dat.
The data file keeps 5 lines, MD5 hashes of your imei, imsi, password, and also your email and sms phone number as plain text. Thus stealing this file does not enable retrieving the password or easy changing of the imsi. Deleting this file however would remove security. Furthermore activesync will still link to a locked device. Knowledgable people about these devices could therefore defeat this security, however it's goal is to keep the casual theif / finder out of the phone.
This program is a work in progress and I welcome help with modifications to it as well as bug fixes. Source can be found at:
svn://www.shadowmite.com/shadowmite/SecurIt
To cook this into a rom, you need 3 files. 2 of them need to be generated when you first install it like normal and set it up. Copy the SecurIt.dat from \windows and the SecurIt.lnk from \windows\start up to your rom as well as the SecurIt.exe file. It's that simple. Enjoy!
History:
1.1: Fixed all kinds of bugs causing security to crash with various sims
1.0: Initial release
If you like my work and would like to help insure I continue to have time for this, please consider a donation to: foglemATshadowmiteDOTcom
Shadowmite, thnx for starting an "opensource" project for this. I havent tried it yet, will try once I reach home.. But I had a cpl of suggestions\questions:
1. Why do u keep email and sms phone no in plain text instead of encrypting them as well?
2. Instead of storing config in a file, store the config in registry which lessens the chances of someone finding out about the prog and deleting the file to disable security.
nice work as usual...
shantzg001 said:
Shadowmite, thnx for starting an "opensource" project for this. I havent tried it yet, will try once I reach home.. But I had a cpl of suggestions\questions:
1. Why do u keep email and sms phone no in plain text instead of encrypting them as well?
2. Instead of storing config in a file, store the config in registry which lessens the chances of someone finding out about the prog and deleting the file to disable security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
number 2 is in the TODO list...
#1) we could encrypt them as long as it's not a one-way hash like the first 3 lines, however those are the bits of data we don't mind the theif/finder seeing afterall as they are the means to get the phone back to its rightful owner. I suppose we could hide them but the phone number will be on his next bill for sending it a SMS and the email is displayed on the locked screen.
And as walshy said, #2 is certainly on the todo, but locking our activesync connections is a bigger concern and I believe completely doable.
#1) we could encrypt them as long as it's not a one-way hash like the first 3 lines, however those are the bits of data we don't mind the theif/finder seeing afterall as they are the means to get the phone back to its rightful owner. I suppose we could hide them but the phone number will be on his next bill for sending it a SMS and the email is displayed on the locked screen.
And as walshy said, #2 is certainly on the todo, but locking our activesync connections is a bigger concern and I believe completely doable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, and sorry abt the #2, I missed the TODO part..
Keep up the good work..I myself was thinking abt making smthing similar but now I think I'll drop my idea to make a different one, as this seems to be a better idea (opensource is always better )..
I hope I can make some contribution to the code if possible..
shantzg001 said:
ok, and sorry abt the #2, I missed the TODO part..
Keep up the good work..I myself was thinking abt making smthing similar but now I think I'll drop my idea to make a different one, as this seems to be a better idea (opensource is always better )..
I hope I can make some contribution to the code if possible..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What advantages does this give over "Mobile Justice"..another similar util...my rom has Mobile Justice cooked with it which makes it hard to remove.
famewolf said:
What advantages does this give over "Mobile Justice"..another similar util...my rom has Mobile Justice cooked with it which makes it hard to remove.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you like that software and have it working properly use it. Maybe you'd like to post in every rom thread asking why not use some other rom while you're at it?
Shadowmite said:
If you like that software and have it working properly use it. Maybe you'd like to post in every rom thread asking why not use some other rom while you're at it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not using Mobile Justice which is WHY I asked what advantages YOURS had over theres for COMPARISON. If it had additional features I was going to recommend it for addition into XM6R3 (the next release of the current rom), but with an attitude like yours I won't bother with further review.
famewolf said:
I'm not using Mobile Justice which is WHY I asked what advantages YOURS had over theres for COMPARISON. If it had additional features I was going to recommend it for addition into XM6R3 (the next release of the current rom), but with an attitude like yours I won't bother with further review.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you dont bother with a review but bother with a slagging ... take your "fame" somewhere else...
Ok, for starters mine isn't based on assuming every device has a GPS built in (while technically being a Trinity owner I should go that route). I instead base mine on nicely locking down the interface so far with a polite message to get the device back to the owner. Furthermore mine is trivial to build into a cooked rom which was my main reason to write it. I tried every security app out there over the last weekend without any of them working "properly" and figured the best way to get one is to write one. In addition mine is open source, mobilejustice is not.
Now then, you said you're not using it... But the last post said you had it cooked in? WTF? Need some help deciding what you use and don't use?
my rom has Mobile Justice cooked with it which makes it hard to remove.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not using Mobile Justice which is WHY I asked what advantages YOURS had over theres for COMPARISON.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shadowmite said:
Now then, you said you're not using it... But the last post said you had it cooked in? WTF? Need some help deciding what you use and don't use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) The rom I currently have installed comes with Mobile Justice preinstalled.
2) I have not configured and am not currently using Mobile Justice
3) The author is currently taking suggestions for software to include in the next revision of their rom.
What part of any of those statements are you having difficulty comprehending?
Perhaps you and the gentleman from Melbourne should both grow up and quit reading an insult where one was not intended.
Well than back on track... Give it a try and see what you think. I really want feedback from folks outside the USA as I believe it will not properly catch your phone number of the "thief's sim" however if the sms works it should still get the phone number to you obviously.
The GPS coord. request feature is a nice one and will have to go on the todo list.
well, well, fights apart, what drew me to this app over the other apps was the opensource nature as mentioned by Shadowmite because I, like shadowmite, was not happy with the other apps doing things properly or just because I wanted somethings to be done differently..
@shadowmite:
1. I have a few ideas of getting "coordinates" and sending to the original owner even on non-GPS devices ..Maybe we can discuss some things later on once the basic structure of the app is ok.
2. Couldn't find the source code of the app on ur site..(May be am just one dim-witted dim-sighted git ) Please point me to it..
You'll need svn to get it, windows users: http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.n...vn/TortoiseSVN-1.4.4.9706-win32-svn-1.4.4.msi
svn://www.shadowmite.com/shadowmite is my master repository for all projects.
cool, I do have TortoiseSVN installed at home..Will check it when I go back..
Will it sustain a hard re-set ? Dont think so.
@shailesh, for sustaining hard resets, it has to be cooked into the rom, pointed out by shadow on post 1..
I don't know if something else can be done for this (writing into ext rom is one option but that is not possible for most devices now)
Sounds like a great piece of software. And open source is a great idea too.
I did tried several others like this one (Eye on the thef, Ultimately Theft Alert ...) some features were still missing :
First an autoconfig method :
As already said, whatever your storage methode is (file or registry), you 'll everytime lose the configuration when a hard-reset is done on the device. The only one possibility i can imagine is to store your "installer" program on extended rom with the ability to add an external config (encrypted) file as a parameter.
Installation will be handled by the autoconfig process, using this external file. Config will probably needs to be stored on extended rom too. It's not peace of cake to create an extended rom, but easier that cook a rom.
This feature won't be very helpfull if there is no way to generate a config file automaticaly base on settings done by user : kind of export process.
On standart start/soft-reset, your program will run as it does actually, but when a hard-reset, is proceed, programm will reinstall unattented and will still be running after boot... No way to easily remove it. Bad effect is that it will also be difficult to update programm/config.
Secondly, i'd like to have the a way to "format"(or encrypt) a memory card remotely.
Do you thinks those could be part of your TODO list ?
Will try it on few next days and i'm ready to help you translating it in french
hi shantzg001,
thanks for replying,
My mistake, did not read the whole text.

Can a hardreset be blocked?

In an other forum is a discussion about "Sprite Terminator" and one user says that the program even has a password protection against hard-reset.
I really could not believe this, because i think this is so much low-level that no program can prevent this.
Or am i wrong?
Christian72D said:
In an other forum is a discussion about "Sprite Terminator" and one user says that the program even has a password protection against hard-reset.
I really could not believe this, because i think this is so much low-level that no program can prevent this.
Or am i wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think it could be blocked. I supppose it could work like a BIOS password on a PC, though I haven't seen an implementation of that in years. Essntiallly it locks the PC from booting without the password.

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