Database Users

[Q] Major security flaw with screen lock

I have a SIM unlocked and unbranded Desire Z (not rooted). I've set the screen lock to 5 minutes and to require a pattern to unlock.
I've noticed that if I let the phone go to sleep, and then after 5 minutes flip out the keyboard, it unlocks it without requiring the unlock pattern. Does this happen to anyone else?

Yeah, I think this is by design. On Windows Mobile there was a reg key to enable / disable "unlock on slide" Maybe there is similar for Android.
Craig

I can't believe this would be by design, it completely undermines the security on the device. How could these be handed out to corporate customers when they can be unlocked by just flipping out the keyboard?
Also the behaviour is inconsistent. If I unlock using the power button, and then turn off the screen, if I flip out the keyboard to wake up again, I do require a pattern to unlock. But if I leave the device for 5 minutes and try again, it lets me straight in.

Ooops, I completely mis-understood your initial post.. The pattern is a sort of PIN screen isn't it..
Ignore me!
Craig

when i slide mine open, it shows me the unlock pattern screen in landscape

earni said:
when i slide mine open, it shows me the unlock pattern screen in landscape
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Me too, I'm using the pattern also...

salemfox said:
Me too, I'm using the pattern also...
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I get mixed results. Sometimes mine asks for the password, sometimes it doesn't. I've tried with a PIN, password and pattern. I seem to get the problem more often when the phone has been asleep for a long time, e.g. if I flip it open in the morning when I wake up.
In a way I am glad no one else has this but it's pretty annoying for me!

I get the same problem.
I've also found it to be sporadic. So far i'm thinking there is a pattern depending on what app you have on the screen when the phone locks or sleeps. For instance if its the home screen then it seems to be ok and on waking it prompts for a password. But on other apps it doesnt....

Do you have the same problem if you set the lock time to immediately? Maybe its some kind of problem with the timer.
With immediate lock time I cannot get into the phone without drawing the pattern, keyboard or no keyboard.

mashed_ash said:
So far i'm thinking there is a pattern depending on what app you have on the screen when the phone locks or sleeps. For instance if its the home screen then it seems to be ok and on waking it prompts for a password. But on other apps it doesnt....
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I think you might have nailed it there. If I leave the mail app open and lock the screen or let it go to sleep, after a while I can unlock it by just opening the keyboard.
cartman09 said:
Do you have the same problem if you set the lock time to immediately? Maybe its some kind of problem with the timer.
With immediate lock time I cannot get into the phone without drawing the pattern, keyboard or no keyboard.
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I am testing this and it seems to work properly so far. I'll keep it on lock immediately and see if it happens again. This is really crap though. Most users are going to keep the default of 5 minutes and be totally insecure ...

Moto Notify incompatible with smart/face unlock?

OK, so I reach to pick up my phone... Moto notify does it's thing and shows the padlock... I swipe down to unlock, and despite being in a well lit area etc I'm greeted by my unlock pattern.
If I wake the phone with the power button, it sees my face just fine and unlocks, no pattern required.
Same for everyone else?

chrisund123 said:
OK, so I reach to pick up my phone... Moto notify does it's thing and shows the padlock... I swipe down to unlock, and despite being in a well lit area etc I'm greeted by my unlock pattern.
If I wake the phone with the power button, it sees my face just fine and unlocks, no pattern required.
Same for everyone else?
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Yeah, what you do is when you get asked to put in your pin you press the back button, do the face unlock, and swipe up to unlock your phone like usual, sadly there's no other way to get around it.

Works fine with smart unlock with a bluetooth device.

Yeah it's fine for when I have the smart unlock for trusted location and trusted bluetooth device (ie at home and car, in my case), but it's bit of a pain that the trusted face doesn't work with it.
Ah well, maybe it'll be fixed in M... but I won't hold my breath :lol:

Pin/pattern often needed to unlock?

EDIT: dkotoric has realised this is due to using the double tap to sleep function on some launchers. Locking your device with that prevents the fingerprint scanner from allowing access for some reason.
So today was my first full day with the 6P. It's a truly great device.
A whole bunch of times though when I've come to unlock the device I've had to put in my pattern because it won't accept the fingerprint scanner.
The icon at the bottom of the lock screen that should be a fingerprint is just a lock symbol. If I then lock the phone again and reunlock it works as expected.
Not sure if this is a software bug or some setting I've got wrong. Can't see a pattern for when it does it though. I've switched 'require pattern on restart' off which has made no difference.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Josh98 said:
So today was my first full day with the 6P. It's a truly great device.
A whole bunch of times though when I've come to unlock the device I've had to put in my pattern because it won't accept the fingerprint scanner.
The icon at the bottom of the lock screen that should be a fingerprint is just a lock symbol. If I then lock the phone again and reunlock it works as expected.
Not sure if this is a software bug or some setting I've got wrong. Can't see a pattern for when it does it though. I've switched 'require pattern on restart' off which has made no difference.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
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I've experienced that on one occasion today. That was after no occurrence in a full day's use yesterday. I put it down to slightly incorrect/incomplete/inaccurate finger print scans when it's set up.

Had no issues yet, used it for 2 days.
I have a pin set for after a reboot and it will ask for pin if I accidentally use pthe power button to switch on.
So far my finger print has not failed once o. My two index fingers.
I set up my finger print with a central / top end / bottom end / left edge / right edge and its worked fine

Been super accurate for me
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I recommend using your main finger on different angles rather than using 5 different fingers when setting it up. ?
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

I've setup each index finger once and it hasn't skippes a beat. I'd setup your finger again and this time move your finger around after every press to get different angles.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I haven't had any issues whatsoever. You could setup each index finger as 2-3 different fingers if you want to improve accuracy too.

Still waiting on my 6P, but I do have the 5X. Installed all of my usual apps when I received the phone. Set up fingerprint scanner. For the life of me couldn't figure out what the heck was going on. Every time I would unlock the phone it would go to PIN screen. I had read all of the reviews on how fantastic the FPS was. Started to get really annoyed. In fact I did a factory reset to see if this would help. This time I didnt install apps just set up FPS. Worked flawlessly. Installed apps again and what do you know stopped working again. Then it hit me, I have an app called ScreenOFF. Basically I could touch the screen and it would turn the screen off without hitting the power button. Uninstalled app and FPS worked perfectly. SO, be careful if you have any of these types of app as it seems it screws up the ability to bypass lock screen

It seems to have sorted itself over night. Hasn't done it so far today. Thanks guys.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

what I notice is I use lock app and apex launcher so I have it set up to double tap on screen to lock the device. If I lock the device using this method I can no longer unlock the device with my fingerprint. I have to use the lock pattern. Then I have to lock the phone again via power button in order to use fingerprint scanner?

dkotoric said:
what I notice is I use lock app and apex launcher so I have it set up to double tap on screen to lock the device. If I lock the device using this method I can no longer unlock the device with my fingerprint. I have to use the lock pattern. Then I have to lock the phone again via power button in order to use fingerprint scanner?
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Holy **** you're right yeah that's been my issue the whole time doing the same with Action Launcher. Been so used to using it it didn't occur to me that's the cause. That's annoying.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Josh98 said:
Holy **** you're right yeah that's been my issue the whole time doing the same with Action Launcher. Been so used to using it it didn't occur to me that's the cause. That's annoying.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
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I have your issue but I am not using any sort of double tap to lock apps. also I am using google now launcher.

Yea this happens when you use a third party app or launcher to lock the device via a double tap on the home screen. I set up a gesture in Nova Launcher to lock the device via a double tap on the homescreen and when I do I cannot unlock the phone via Imprint. There is just a lock symbol instead of the Imprint symbol and the only way to unlock it is using the pin. It seems that right now the only way to use Imprint to unlock the device is when you lock the device using the power/sleep button. Using any 3rd party software without root access to lock the device will only let you unlock the device via the pin instead of Imprint.
EDIT: Everything works fine with root access. If you grant the app performing the screen lock root access then you will be able to lock the screen with say a gesture like double tapping the home screen and then you will still be able to unlock the device via Imprint.

I had this issue as well where my 6P would ask for my pin after using the fingerprint scanner. It would do this many times per day.
What I have found to stop this from happening is removing the administrator rights from all the apps that uses it to lock the screen. It seems that the phone will ask for a pin when a 3rd party app locks the screen.
So I'll just rely on Android locking the screen on its own vs entering the pin so many times a day along with the fingerprint scanner.

guitar1238751 said:
Yea this happens when you use a third party app or launcher to lock the device via a double tap on the home screen. I set up a gesture in Nova Launcher to lock the device via a double tap on the homescreen and when I do I cannot unlock the phone via Imprint. There is just a lock symbol instead of the Imprint symbol and the only way to unlock it is using the pin. It seems that right now the only way to use Imprint to unlock the device is when you lock the device using the power/sleep button. Using any 3rd party software without root access to lock the device will only let you unlock the device via the pin instead of Imprint.
EDIT: Everything works fine with root access. If you grant the app performing the screen lock root access then you will be able to lock the screen with say a gesture like double tapping the home screen and then you will still be able to unlock the device via Imprint.
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Are you just using nova as far as root access? I'm so used to just having greenify lock the screen, but I'm having this issue

Akomack said:
Are you just using nova as far as root access? I'm so used to just having greenify lock the screen, but I'm having this issue
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I'm actually using loads of root apps including Greenify. (Though I'm not using greenify anymore) Everything is working fine. Are you having the issue when locking via a greenify gesture? I didn't even know Greenify had a screen locking gesture lol. Or do you mean the Imprint issue occurs after Greenify puts the device to sleep automatically?

guitar1238751 said:
I'm actually using loads of root apps including Greenify. (Though I'm not using greenify anymore) Everything is working fine. Are you having the issue when locking via a greenify gesture? I didn't even know Greenify had a screen locking gesture lol. Or do you mean the Imprint issue occurs after Greenify puts the device to sleep automatically?
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Greenify has a widget that will hibernate and shut the screen off. I ended up finding this app that will shut the screen off and allow me to use the fingerprint to wake/unlock the device. :good:

So far, the only 3rd party app that I've found that can shut the screen off without root and without needing the pin again is Gravity Screen https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plexnor.gravityscreenofffree&hl=en
It has a few widgets that you can link your double tap homescreen gesture to. Specifically, I'm using Lightning Launcher and link the double tap to the "Off" shortcut. The other shortcuts will lock the phone and then you'll need the pin again instead of just the fingerprint.
However, I think the way this app accomplishes this is to first blank the screen off with just a black overlay and then set the screen timeout to around 10seconds (it sets it right back to whatever you had before by the time you wake the screen again). So far, I haven't had a problem with this since the app also has "in pocket protection" in which it will keep the screen from turning back on if the proximity sensor is covered. So if you double tap to sleep but then put it in your pocket before the 10 seconds is up, it won't turn it back on. If you have it sitting on your desk, you can double tap to sleep, but then tap again on the black screen within the first 10 seconds to see the navigation keys again. This also has the weird side effect of not being able to use the fingerprint reader during those 10 seconds, because technically the screen is still on. This was a little unsettling at first since I couldn't figure out why the fingerprint reader wasn't vibrating when I thought the screen was "off". To me, it's not that big of a deal so it's fine with me.

Carbonrom Build 15 Aug 2018 , knockon does not deactivate. Device unlocks in pocket.

I installed this rom recently and noticed it was heating up in my pocket. When I looked, the screen was unlocked. I checked why this was happening and by accident, the knockon was activated. I disabled this function and the problem persists. Does anyone know how to solve it?
Obs.: The problem is not warming, but the unlocking of the screen because it has times that it makes calls to some contacts, opens randomly and opens some applications ... causing the device to warm up ...

If you're using Auto Face Unlock along with Smart Lock's On-body detection the phone will sometimes unlock right after you hit the power button without locking, that might be it.

ali6944 said:
If you're using Auto Face Unlock along with Smart Lock's On-body detection the phone will sometimes unlock right after you hit the power button without locking, that might be it.
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Hello, I do not use Auto Face Unlock. That's why I find it strange. I have to use a password or the unlock pattern so that no bull**** happens.

Fingerprint sensor glitch?

A couple of times since I've had the 6T, when I tapped the screen to bring up the ambient display or lock screen the fingerprint sensor wouldn't be active. The fingerprint icon would be white and putting a finger on it did nothing. The first time it happened, I was using the single tap to ambient display. When the fingerprint sensor didn't work, I hit the power button to bring up the lock screen and the sensor activated and I was able to unlock using a fingerprint.
I've switched to using double tap to lock screen with both face & fingerprint unlock. Tonight when I tapped the screen the lock screen came up but again the fingerprint icon was white, not active, and face unlock didn't even work. I had to swipe up to unlock with my PIN. After doing so, both fingerprint & face unlock have worked as normal.
Any ideas on why this could be happening? Just a random software glitch? Or does device security require unlocking with a PIN/Password/Pattern after so many fingerprint/face unlocks or after a given amount of time?

yes, it happened to me as well.
but i dont think this is a bug/glitch. This happened to me on other android phones as well.
i think this is a security thing where your fingerprint sensor/ face id is disabled once in a while and you can only sign in with your pin/password.