Related
This actually applies to most HTC handsets, heck, maybe most phones, but this is the Dream forum and I wanted to talk about the Dream (since I own one). I actually had realized this the day I first rooted my phone, but it had been on the back of my mind until today when I ported MCR 2.6 for the Dream and saw the laughable WaveSecure app. I then thought about posting this general warning for Dream users and hopefully we can brainstorm and bring this big security hole to an end.
WaveSecure is an app that runs as a high priority process in your phone and it can do silly things such as disallow the usage of the device or access to the data on it by placing a locking screen on your phone. To enable your phone back, you enter a pin. Does that sound familiar? Ofcourse, your phone already has a lockscreen. The app also has a few backup and restore features, but nothing that hasn't been done before. Probably the only worthwhile feature is the ability to lock your phone remotely (but then the lockscreen was already active anyway).
Our rooted phones are different than stock ones, though. If you lose your phone and a knowledgeable person gets a hold of it, all they have to do is reset the phone, hold Home and Red, and voila, they have access to ALL your personal data inside your phone. I'm not only talking about the SDCard here, because accessing that data is so stupidly simple, but your phone writes enormous amounts of personal data to /data. There you can find account logins for all your installed apps, contacts info, you can find browser cache info and if you do your banking on your phone's Browser and have cookies set, well, they're all there. I've looked through several of the files in /data and most things there are dumped in human readable format, so a crook wouldn't even have to try very hard. I found my home's wifi hidden SSID AND 22 character lenght alphanumerical WAP2 encryption key in a file, and both were labeled as such .
One solution I see is easy, modify recovery to give you an option to prompt for password on start. But there's still the fact that, with the device on, we can still adb remount and then adb pull /data, so the adb binary would also have to be re-written for this purpose.
There's still yet another problem, though. Fastboot... Most of us are running a flavor of an Engineering SPL (either Death SPL or Hard SPL), and even if we block /recovery and /system, a crook can still fastboot flash boot and fastboot flash system and with a minimal booting image (no android runtime, only enough in /bin to boot a linux system) he can still get adb pull /data access.
That's where I'm at a loss, though. How do we patch SPL to prevent unauthorized usage? Are there any other security gaps I might have missed?
Comment, discuss, develop.
I'm confused. Wiping clears out the /data partition. Where are you getting all this data from post-wipe?
And that's exactly why I carry my important data safely with me. Wipe clears out the /data partition as much as "Emptying the Recycle Bin" erases deleted data in Windows.... meaning, it's still there. Although flash memory is better at deleting data, it can still be easily recovered, but then again, how are you supposed to wipe if you don't have the phone with you. I didn't see anything about remote wipe. Also, any person with two neurons firing would think right away about removing the battery and SIM before attempting anything.
Also, so let's say a wipe did clear /data entirely and you were able to remotely wipe EVERY SINGLE TIME the phone was lost or stolen (I once went a week without realizing I had lost my phone, paying that kind of bill and talking to Customer Service for hours on end is no fun), it still doesn't mean that the security gaps are not there. I still think they should be fixed, even if to foil people not interested in the data at all but on using the phone for their own. Don't you hate it when people find phones on the street, and instead of trying to return it they take it to their nearest mom & pop phone shop and have it unlocked, etc?
Oh, I see what you meant XD. Edited my post.
I've noticed this too, but the safest way to secure it is to have android encrypt the files as they are put on the data partition. Even then, that data is still unsecure. We should file an issue with the google code page for android and have them worry about it
Well, this has actually been considered...
For 'droid 1.6: From the home screen, Menu --> Settings --> Security --> "Use secure credentials". It is, of course, up to the application to make use of secure credentials. This is something that you should question the developers of secure applications about.
Other times, you may note that applications like "Password safe" will password protect and encrypt their data sets.
So it is definitely up to you to ensure that the applications that you use are written with security in mind.
Now for your home wifi password... does that really matter that much? They have to actually be IN (or very near to) your home to make use of it.
B-man007 said:
I've noticed this too, but the safest way to secure it is to have android encrypt the files as they are put on the data partition. Even then, that data is still unsecure. We should file an issue with the google code page for android and have them worry about it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No device can be more secure than being encrypted (assuming use of strong encryption). There is most definitely NO WAY EXCEPT encryption to secure your data.
I guarantee that EVEN WITH a no-root recovery partition and a no-fastboot bootloader that enforces system image signatures, that the data on the device *CAN STILL* be read off it.
It is definitely impossible to secure these devices against being read through something like jtag. And if it is read through jtag, the only thing that can possibly protect your data is encryption.
is it possible to do a complete wipe of the device? i know its not permanent but i figure if i quit banking online after i wipe the phone then i am no longer succeptible to that form of theft
I bet this is making some people that sold their rooted G1's nervous right now lol
this is the same issue blackberry users have, , even with a remote wipe ,there was concern that data can still be retrieved. That's also why the secret service is so concerned about the president having and using one daily, if its ever lost or stolen, ,,well you know, ,,
So rooted or not android is not the only platform with this issue. .
I would like to address this
"Don't you hate it when people find phones on the street, and instead of trying to return it they take it to their nearest mom & pop phone shop and have it unlocked, etc?"
Did you know if you called any cellphone carrier that you have and told them your phone was lost/stolen they will put the IMEI or ESN on the lost/stolen list, and then it can no longer be active on their network and from what I hear any other networks.
card13 said:
I would like to address this
"Don't you hate it when people find phones on the street, and instead of trying to return it they take it to their nearest mom & pop phone shop and have it unlocked, etc?"
Did you know if you called any cellphone carrier that you have and told them your phone was lost/stolen they will put the IMEI or ESN on the lost/stolen list, and then it can no longer be active on their network and from what I hear any other networks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on where you are, here in Canada, if it gets blacklisted by Rogers, it will still work on Fido (which happens to be owned by rogers).
There is also the possibility of rewriting the IMEI. Not exactly a major difficulty.
I have an idea. Since that, if someone gets hold of your phone physically, there's no way that he/she will be restricted from accessing the data, unless it's encrypted properly.
Therefore, to enhance the security, the data (or at least, /data) should be encrypted all time. I'm not familiar with Linux so I have no idea if it's doable or not, but that's a start.
That way, even if someone gets hold of your phone, and flash/hack/cheat all kinds of things, fastboot, recovery, adb... He/she will still be unable to access your data.
To do this, the bootloader (or the init script?) needs to implement a way to unlock the data.
To further increase the security, remote shutdown and wipe should be implemented as well.
Remote lock will NOT work because, while a phone is locked, it means it's running, and the data is already unencrypted at that point, and while I don't have much knowledge in hacking. I think a serious-enough person can hack the phone and get the data.
Of course, this still doesn't solve the problem that, if you, or your family member, is being held at gunpoint.
Just my 2 cents.
1) No changes to bootloader. Bootloader is not relevant to encrypted /data. The changes would be to add in the appropriate encryption scheme to the kernel. Also, to mount the /data partition using the selected encryption method, and to prompt at the appropriate time (mount time) for password. This would be DURING BOOT.
2) The reason you don't want to do this is that d/encryption eats CPU and memory.
bug666 said:
I have an idea. Since that, if someone gets hold of your phone physically, there's no way that he/she will be restricted from accessing the data, unless it's encrypted properly.
Therefore, to enhance the security, the data (or at least, /data) should be encrypted all time. I'm not familiar with Linux so I have no idea if it's doable or not, but that's a start.
That way, even if someone gets hold of your phone, and flash/hack/cheat all kinds of things, fastboot, recovery, adb... He/she will still be unable to access your data.
To do this, the bootloader (or the init script?) needs to implement a way to unlock the data.
To further increase the security, remote shutdown and wipe should be implemented as well.
Remote lock will NOT work because, while a phone is locked, it means it's running, and the data is already unencrypted at that point, and while I don't have much knowledge in hacking. I think a serious-enough person can hack the phone and get the data.
Of course, this still doesn't solve the problem that, if you, or your family member, is being held at gunpoint.
Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lbcoder said:
1) No changes to bootloader. Bootloader is not relevant to encrypted /data. The changes would be to add in the appropriate encryption scheme to the kernel. Also, to mount the /data partition using the selected encryption method, and to prompt at the appropriate time (mount time) for password. This would be DURING BOOT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So that's the init scripts?
lbcoder said:
2) The reason you don't want to do this is that d/encryption eats CPU and memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And battery, may I add?
To what extent is the question, I don't think it's a must-have feature for everybody, but think some may be willing to put up with the trade off...?
bug666 said:
So that's the init scripts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mainly kernel, but yes, some adjustment would have to be made to the init.
And battery, may I add?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Certainly. Anything that eats CPU eats batter.
To what extent is the question, I don't think it's a must-have feature for everybody, but think some may be willing to put up with the trade off...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A better implementation would be to encrypt *some* data, i.e. application home directories, but specifically NOT the ~/lib directory. Because really, do you CARE if your APK's or dalvik cache are encrypted or not? This would minimize the performance impact (to negligible) while providing the desired data security.
Also, encryption on a per-application basis would allow this to be done withOUT having to pause bootup to ask for a password... it could be done more intelligently on first-access-attempt.
Anybody tried using Walkie Vault (http://www.walkie-vault.com/)...? Can it encrypt the data/home folder...?
A system-wide usable encryption system that different apps may make use of is a good idea, but is it on Android's agenda yet...?
It hasn't quite entered the collective consciousness that the connected smartphone, as configured today and if logged into online services, is the ultimate personal identity device. Unlike other personal effects we keep on us at all times (id cards, keys), a Google login gives a thief potentially a treasure trove of data to exploit without requiring any further identification to the phone other than the lock screen (assuming the user has set one). Once it becomes a big enough issue we may see solutions such as:
- Built in biometric identification (fingerprint scan, iris scan) replaces lock screen.
- OS framework requires apps storing sensitive user data to store into encrypted databases, authenticated from above biometric keys.
- Carriers, digital identity providers (e.g. Google, MSN) providing remote wipe as free standard services and accessible over the phone, not just a web page.
No computer is 100% secure.
Biometrics are often easy to fool.
3 of the fingerprint scanners I have encountered were easily by-passed with a pencil, and a rubber glove. Not to say they are all like that, but some are super simple to get around. Myth busters bypassed one with a photo copier and a sharpie. My buddy bought one super cheap, and put it on his wife's computer to make her feel safer. We bypassed it by breathing on it. (it was super cheap)
The current "Lock" on the G1 is like that super cheap biometric scanner. Your fingers leave behind oils. Oils are what leave the marks on the screen. Breathe hot air on the screen and you can see the pattern of the lock sequence. Some lock.
Note to self: remember to wipe off screen everytime you unlock phone.
I think that the best way around this is to remove all the data from the phone in the first place. For several years now I have been telling my friends that google's ultimate goal will be server side data storage that you log into to use.
The world of cell phones is headed this direction as well.
Google voice, Google Chrome, Google Docs, Cloud....all operate under the idea that you connect to the data, manipulate it, save it, then (ideally) your device forgets it was there.
If you want to stop cell phone theft, you have to hard code the phone to accept only one set of data, and any attempt to change that data in a way not prescribed by the phone will result in the destruction of the data and the usability of the phone. Not real cost effective for a device that lasts on the average of 18 months.
Another option is to make a daily use phone. Only good for 24 hours. Then you have to get a new one. Make them cheap, and disposable.
Common users would freak out over having to back up the data all the time, or you would need a uplink storage location like...oh say Google voice, Google Chrome, Google Docs, Cloud.
The average consumer has no clue what that thing in their hand is capable of doing, storing, or tracking. The techno geek is the problem and much like ROM's, what stops a Techno geek today, won't necessarily stop him tomorrow.
In the mean time, wave secure at least offers you the satisfaction of telling you when someone has put a different sim in your phone.
And it will scare the crap out of someone when they pull out the sim card. it is very loud!
But I agree the android system needs a better lock.
Maybe a mod could be prepared to separate /data into a cryptfs system, only trouble is that to make it secure a start/unlock password would need to be entered.
has anyone done this yet? I noticed it in the settings, but it said it can take up to 1 hour... just wondered if it was worth while.
if you have done it, does it slow anything down, and how long did it take you to run?
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
iamdarren said:
has anyone done this yet? I noticed it in the settings, but it said it can take up to 1 hour... just wondered if it was worth while.
if you have done it, does it slow anything down, and how long did it take you to run?
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried but it appears to not work. You have to be plugged in and fully charged (seems to work from 90% ish), and you have to have unlock PIN set. But once you have selected and confirmed encryption, the screen blanks except for a green line drawing of an Android logo, and then after a minute or so the screen blanks out and then you wait...and wait....and wait...and wait. I gave up after 4 hours.
If at any point you switch screen on, you get the PIN prompt: enter PIN, and you're presented with the blank screen with green line diagram of android logo. I've left it like this for several hours. In the end I reset, and got my device back - but still unencrypted. I've also tried without ever trying to log in until at least 4 hours have elapsed, in case the login attempt disturbed the encryption.
I have logged a defect with Asus for this and a couple of other things, and this morning got a response back saying that "We're still looking into this", which seems to suggest that they agree it is a problem.
Cool in gonna try now, at 95percent battery.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
That didn't seem to do anything.... I saw the green android with cog body, maybe I need to give it more time. I will set out before i go bed.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
I'm wondering how the encryption is handled, is it software or hardware enabled. I have seen with PC's that use software encryption that there is a performance hit and if the encryption is handled by hardware, like a hardware enabled HDD encryption, there is little to no performance hit. The PC I tested the software encryption on took forever to boot vs the hardware enabled one.
Havoc6266 said:
I'm wondering how the encryption is handled, is it software or hardware enabled. I have seen with PC's that use software encryption that there is a performance hit and if the encryption is handled by hardware, like a hardware enabled HDD encryption, there is little to no performance hit. The PC I tested the software encryption on took forever to boot vs the hardware enabled one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must have used some strange encryption application or had an old computer.
Try truecrypt - on modern (2 core) computer there is practically no performance hit whatsoever (decrypting and even encrypting on the fly is faster than hard drives - on SSD it could be too slow though). The same goes for standard encryption used by Ubuntu (it's very probable that Android tablets use the same method).
Truecrypt (and probably most other full-disk encryptions too) work like that:
- all the data on hard drive is encrypted (edit: it's encrypted all the time, never, ever is decrypted data written to disk),
- when system reads data - it's decrypted before being send to applications,
- when system writes data - it's encrypted before it's saved to the disk.
Also - Tegra2 should have a part handling encryption and decryption so it could be at least partially hardware encryption.
Your right, it has been a while since I have used encryption due to a bad experience early on. I'll give Truecyrpt a try. The software I used before was Safeguard Easy.
iamdarren said:
That didn't seem to do anything.... I saw the green android with cog body, maybe I need to give it more time. I will set out before i go bed.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I left mine overnight, and it still was not encrypted. I had even done a factory reset beforehand to minimize the amount of data to encrypt.
I'm pretty sure this doesn't work. I'll post as soon as I get a reply from Asus.
It did not work, maybe this feature isn't ready yet?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
As a feature, it's not ready for prime time. I have it working on the xoom, but every reset it erases my timezone and sets it to GMT. Also, it uses the same PIN as your lock screen, so if you have a numeric pin for easy access, anyone who sees it now knows your encryption password as well. It really should be two different passwords. I intend this weekend to reset my machine and remove the encryption, because it doesn't serve the purpose it was supposed to serve.
Bump. Any info from Asus? I started it at ~7pm. It's midnight, and on the last few power-ups I get nothing except the green android logo after I enter the PIN. So it seems it's still not doing anything? Gonna reset now I guess.
Same problem here with a Transformer TF-101 Build number HRI66.TW_epad-8.2.3.8-20110423
See nothing but a android robot after enter the PIN. 7 hrs later I manually shutdown the machine.
Same here on the Modaco ROM.
Left it on the android pic for 9 hours... it didn't lock the screen or anything, and at the end, the accelerometer still worked when I rotated the screen, but I had to power off and on to get it back.
What does the encryption do, anyway? Does it stop you being able to load files on from the PC? Does it ask for the password when you plug it into the PC?
So no one has been able to get encryption working? I was just going to test this out and saw this thread. Thanks.
I've seen someone talking about some minor issues when running with encryption, so someone got it working.
That MIGHT have been on xoom, but I think it was the transformer.
Just thought I would share my experience with the encryption feature in Honeycomb since some people can't get it working:
At first I couldn't get it working like some people on this thread, I too was stuck on the green wireframe Android for hours on end until I discovered I could still exit back to the homescreen by pressing the home key on the keyboard dock. This happened on both the stock Asus 3.1 ROM and v1.4 of the PRIME! ROM (installed via nvflash).
I then updated recently to v1.5 of PRIME! via CWM and I can report that I was able to encrypt my Transformer after this update. It displayed the green Android wireframe logo for a few seconds, then rebooted and went into the encryption progress page. I had not really done much with the ROM other than change a few small settings and add my Google account, so the encryption was complete in less than an hour. I think the 'hour or more' estimate Google gives within the encryption description text is probably more accurate if you've installed a few more apps afterwards, but of course your timing will vary.
Furthermore I think that the encryption is likely only partial, because I was then able to flash one of the zip files from this thread via CWM without any issues or prompts. Otherwise I'm sure it would've thrown some kind of error such as not being able to mount the system partition or something of that ilk.
Finally (lol ) I also found this page on the Android source website outlining the details of the encyption implementation in Android Honeycomb for anyone interested. There is a mention somewhere of the 128-bit flavour of the AES algorithm being used to encrypt the master key.
Hope this helps anyone trying to get encryption working on their Transformer .
yet another absolutely useless feature, besides bricking the thing for whoever tries to steal it. keeps your data safe.. even from yourself.
i noticed a problem when inserting a microsd (into the pad itself) that it would not be able to boot as long as this is inserted. i am guessing this is because it tries to decrypt the microsd (that is not encrypted) and therefore is stuck in boot.
This is another aspect one should expect if this was a pre-release software. I am extremely disappointed with this product so far, mostly because of the software. most of (not any of the cameras) the hardware (including the keyboard) is pretty good
I did it 2 days ago, and it worked flawless. It tooks about an hour. I use it since and I have no problems at all.
The only thing is that I have to insert the SD card again each time I power on the transformer. Any idea how to change rhat?
fjoesne said:
yet another absolutely useless feature, besides bricking the thing for whoever tries to steal it. keeps your data safe.. even from yourself.
i noticed a problem when inserting a microsd (into the pad itself) that it would not be able to boot as long as this is inserted. i am guessing this is because it tries to decrypt the microsd (that is not encrypted) and therefore is stuck in boot.
This is another aspect one should expect if this was a pre-release software. I am extremely disappointed with this product so far, mostly because of the software. most of (not any of the cameras) the hardware (including the keyboard) is pretty good
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You likely have ASUS to blame for this, as my understanding is that the Thinkpad tablet deals properly (from the spec anyway) with SD cards attached to the device even to the point it can additionally encrypt them. Again we are all early adopters, Honeycomb was sort of an experiment for Google, and Ice Cream Sandwich is the real next version of the andoid platform.
And encryption is hardly a useless feature, it means Google is finally trying to consider enterprise usage of their products which is very important to the further growth of the platform.
My old (preordered in July) stock 16 GB Nexus 7 (4.2.2) which was stolen approximately 3 weeks ago was returned to me today with a flat battery. The thief said, "I could not get into your tablet to wipe its data. I'd like to return it to you and apologize for trying to make a quick buck."
During the three weeks it was missing, I remotely disconnected my Google account from the device by enabling two-step verification, and bought a new 32 GB (NO SCREEN SEPARATION ISSUES ).
He handed it to me, and promptly left the scene. Ecstatic, I rushed to the nearest outlet to charge the sucker up and use it again (I was thinking "WHOO HOO! TWO NEXUSES, NOW I CAN EXPERIMENT AND CRAP!"). However, while I was expecting to see my data, I found the device to have been wiped. The thief said that he had never had any experience with android devices, which leads me to believe that there is a wipe feature built into the Nexus.
Is there one or did this guy lie and actually get into it, steal whatever he needed and wipe? Should I be concerned? I checked the serial number and it IS the same device.
Sent from my [NEW] Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Well I know on iPhone after 10 failed attempts it wipes data but on android, I know it can disable your device but it usually makes you enter your password. If you disconnected your account its possible it wiped the device as well
Sent from my Nexus 4 @1.72 GHz on Stock 4.2.2
The stock recovery wipes everything and you can launch it without the OS, so no screen-unlock password is needed to do that.
OTOH, starting up the boot loader and then the recovery is not obvious to someone without android familiarity, but the instructions to do so are certainly readily available on the internet (e.g. here)
The story is rather odd - if you use the stock recovery to wipe the tablet, it is no longer locked by a password or gesture, so it is not obvious why someone that could wipe the device with the stock recovery would be unable to simply start the device up and notice that it was ready for configuration.
Then again, from your story it sounds like the thief isn't the brightest bulb in the room.
Either that or he was a CIA/Mossad agent and they planted hardware bugs in your device with the intent of returning it to you all along.
bftb0 said:
The stock recovery wipes everything and you can launch it without the OS, so no screen-unlock password is needed to do that.
OTOH, starting up the boot loader and then the recovery is not obvious to someone without android familiarity, but the instructions to do so are certainly readily available on the internet (e.g. here)
The story is rather odd - if you use the stock recovery to wipe the tablet, it is no longer locked by a password or gesture, so it is not obvious why someone that could wipe the device with the stock recovery would be unable to simply start the device up and notice that it was ready for configuration.
Then again, from your story it sounds like the thief isn't the brightest bulb in the room.
Either that or he was a CIA/Mossad agent and they planted hardware bugs in your device with the intent of returning it to you all along.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, excellent theory! But my question is, what would a CIA agent want with a Canadian teenager that has a love of android?
Anyway, I'm going to try to find out more about it on Monday.
Here where I work I was loaned a Nexus 10 for some experimenting and installing apps that would be used by other employees out in the field. I'm not a developer, or for that matter, very familiar with android and it's capabilities. As a followup, I don't know why I was chosen as the tablet guy.
Why I'm here, though, is because 2 weeks ago the tablet disappeared from my desk. A colleague thinks another department wanted to do some work with it, but if that was the case I'd like to think they would have let us know by now. I found on the local craigslist a tablet that could be the same one. Low price, and just a couple days after it disappeared.
Said colleague thinks that if the tablet was ever turned on and connects to the internet, that it would check in and we could track the location. I'm not sure that's the case. If it was, though, could someone turn it off? If they didn't know the password, is there a way to wipe the tablet anyway? And finally, is there a way to spoof the serial number so any attempts to recover/identify it would fail.
So, I just realized how this could look like I was trying to do those things myself. If that's a concern, just answer in a way that could answer my questions without letting me or anyone know how do those things.
I don't know about serial spoofing, but whoever has the account password MIGHT be able to access it on Android Device Manager, if you enabled that before it went missing. Without that or some other anti-theft app you've PREVIOUSLY launched (an app won't run until you manually fun it for the first time), I think you may be boned
I've been under the impression that my office is a pretty safe and secure place. I regularly leave thousands of dollars of camera equipment in the open without a second thought, so a $400 tablet seems like an unusual thing to disappear. With that said, I didn't even think to install any sort of tracking or security app. If anything turns up, I'll post about it here.
mattslote said:
I've been under the impression that my office is a pretty safe and secure place. I regularly leave thousands of dollars of camera equipment in the open without a second thought, so a $400 tablet seems like an unusual thing to disappear. With that said, I didn't even think to install any sort of tracking or security app. If anything turns up, I'll post about it here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may be out of luck, sadly, then. The most yoau can do is change the linked Google account's password.
Hi All,
This is my first post on XDA and I hope that I'm posting in the right place!
I have a Nexus 4, 4.4.2 which has never been rooted. For what it's worth, I've always run AV software (Lookout from day 1, subsequently Kaspersky) and only downloaded from the Play Store. (I have always had 'Unknown Sources' unticked). I'm pretty careful with permissions.
In hindsight (a wonderful thing) things started shortly after one of the Kitkat OTA updates. Not absolutely sure which…
One evening, my lock screen clock suddenly showed my time as 3 hours ahead (i.e. Moscow: I'm in the UK) along with a rectangle giving my home time zone time. I googled the symptoms and it seemed widely reported so I just put it down to an update bug and carried on.
However, I've recently been having large, unexplained, data spikes in seemingly innocuous programs. Specifically, I had a 6GB spike attributed to Opensignal. I uninstalled Opensignal, but the data use continued, albeit on a smaller scale, reported in Data Usage as 'Removed Apps'. This was definitely data use *after* the program was removed: I altered the sliders to focus on the time after uninstall.
To be on the safe side, I gritted my teeth and performed a factory reset and altered my important passwords.
However, this is happening again.
'Removed App' data use has started increasing once more and have just had another large data spike attributed to, of all things, Kaspersky. Over 600MB in a day. All data is now turned off, but possibly too late?
Do I have to assume that the phone is well and truly hacked? If so, am I going to have to unlock and root the phone and side load a factory image from Google, or is there an easier route?
Many thanks in advance for any help.
Cheers,
Edward.
muso_ed said:
Hi All,
This is my first post on XDA and I hope that I'm posting in the right place!
I have a Nexus 4, 4.4.2 which has never been rooted. For what it's worth, I've always run AV software (Lookout from day 1, subsequently Kaspersky) and only downloaded from the Play Store. (I have always had 'Unknown Sources' unticked). I'm pretty careful with permissions.
In hindsight (a wonderful thing) things started shortly after one of the Kitkat OTA updates. Not absolutely sure which…
One evening, my lock screen clock suddenly showed my time as 3 hours ahead (i.e. Moscow: I'm in the UK) along with a rectangle giving my home time zone time. I googled the symptoms and it seemed widely reported so I just put it down to an update bug and carried on.
However, I've recently been having large, unexplained, data spikes in seemingly innocuous programs. Specifically, I had a 6GB spike attributed to Opensignal. I uninstalled Opensignal, but the data use continued, albeit on a smaller scale, reported in Data Usage as 'Removed Apps'. This was definitely data use *after* the program was removed: I altered the sliders to focus on the time after uninstall.
To be on the safe side, I gritted my teeth and performed a factory reset and altered my important passwords.
However, this is happening again.
'Removed App' data use has started increasing once more and have just had another large data spike attributed to, of all things, Kaspersky. Over 600MB in a day. All data is now turned off, but possibly too late?
Do I have to assume that the phone is well and truly hacked? If so, am I going to have to unlock and root the phone and side load a factory image from Google, or is there an easier route?
Many thanks in advance for any help.
Cheers,
Edward.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know you probably isn't going to like this, but for the most part, apps like Kaspersky and lookout does a lot of phoning home, thus use a lot of data. Some will say they are useless, but that's a judgment call. I have tried them but usually end up getting rid of them.
I don't know OpenSignal so I can't really speak on it. What's it used for?
Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013)
no silly Malware are for Windows. You said Kaspersky? lol.... anyway seems like an app issue. I always enable > set mobile data limit to certain MB / GB. Try checking other apps aswell like (Google Plus, Facebook) disable auto photo sync.
To Factory Reset:
1. Backup your files from your sd card.
2. Download Nexus 4 4.4.2 (KOT49H) image from here.
3. Extract it using Winrar or 7zip.
4. Connect the Nexus 4 to your computer and run *Flash-all.bat*
5. Let it do its magic.
Berrydroidcafe said:
I know you probably isn't going to like this, but for the most part, apps like Kaspersky and lookout does a lot of phoning home, thus use a lot of data. Some will say they are useless, but that's a judgment call. I have tried them but usually end up getting rid of them.
I don't know OpenSignal so I can't really speak on it. What's it used for?
Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
Opensignal is a crowd-sourced mobile/wifi signal mapping app.
Can't post a link yet (only 1 post!) but if you Google it... Had it installed for ages and didn't use more than a few kB a day, as one would expect.
Really think it's something deeper than this, because programs are continuing to use data after uninstall and, although AV programs use a fair bit of data, half a gig for just definition updates seems silly.
Cheers.
muso_ed said:
Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
Opensignal is a crowd-sourced mobile/wifi signal mapping app.
Can't post a link yet (only 1 post!) but if you Google it... Had it installed for ages and didn't use more than a few kB a day, as one would expect.
Really think it's something deeper than this, because programs are continuing to use data after uninstall and, although AV programs use a fair bit of data, half a gig for just definition updates seems silly.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My suggestion would be to wipe your dalvik, cache and at the extreme your data, but you're not rooted.
The AV app(s) does a lot more than check for definition updates. They also check out the websites that you visit as well. That could account for the data used.
I'm not aware of an app that could wipe the mentioned partitions without root. Maybe someone else might know?
Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013)