Someone mentioned this in another thread, but this is a topic that should have it's own separate thread.
Some of you may have already read the news: Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops
Don't assume it won't come to your town.
I can't say I plan to do anything that would warrant police suspicion, yet I don't like the idea of anyone being able to easily pull data from my device. And we know cops won't be the only ones with these devices. So I've been wondering, how can we protect our Android devices from the CelleBrite UFED?
Check out this video that shows some of the features it has, keep in mind it does much more and can even extract DELETED data.
See the company's product page here: http://www.cellebrite.com/forensic-products/ufed-physical-pro.html
This research paper talks about the CelleBrite UFED and other extraction methods. (CelleBrite UFED is talked about starting on page 9.) I doubt there's a means to prevent all of those methods given some involve long term handling of the device, but CelleBrite UFED can extract data when a device is retained by the CelleBrite UFED user for a short period of time. It looks like HTC Android type devices can only be extracted from via the (micro)USB Port and it requires USB Storage and USB Debugging turned on. The CelleBrite UFED has to gain Root Access. It can get by screen passwords and root even a device that was not yet rooted.
There's another thread where someone was requesting a ROM that would not work with the CelleBrite UFED. I'm not sure how to make a ROM or anything else that would not work with the CelleBrite UFED without limiting certain features we all may use from time to time.
Over on Slashdot, someone said they hacked their device (Nexus One) to not do USB client mode. This is another option that would limit some features many of us may use.
So, how can we protect our privacy and our data? Does it mean sacrificing some features like USB storage mode?
The biggest problem is what's missing from Android itself. Meego might be protected but not Android.
You would need an encrypted boot loader that retains root for some users.
A kernel and os files that support different users so the default user is not root like Linux and a prompt with a password for superusers not just an Allow like now for Android.
Encryption libraries that would support truecrypt encryption of both internal and external (SD card) encryption in toto not just individual files.
A true trash system that overwrites files like srm in linux and sswap for wiping the swap file after every system reboot.
Ultimately I don't see it happening. In theory if you were running Ubuntu on your phone then yes cellbrite would just crap out not knowing what to do with your phone. Same possibly with meego. But then no real app support, no navigation and driver support is crap even for ROMs using the same os let alone a different OS like true linux.
It's amazing how many don't even bother deleting thumbnails hanging around on their computers or securely wiping files on their computer. Same with swap files retaining passwords or even website cookies that have the same password as their computer.
Best thing to do, don't keep anything that could be bad on your phone. Use a cloud system or home server sync that requires a seperate login every time and keeps no local files. Or as I do, encrypt the hell out of anything you find valuable, which currently is only my complete backups...
Sent from my Xoom the way it should be, rooted and with SD card.
This is where that cheap Boost Mobile phone comes in, or any other prepay phone. Just hand the officer that one. Store your personal data on your smartphone.
chbennett said:
Best thing to do, don't keep anything that could be bad on your phone. Use a cloud system or home server sync that requires a seperate login every time and keeps no local files. Or as I do, encrypt the hell out of anything you find valuable, which currently is only my complete backups...
Sent from my Xoom the way it should be, rooted and with SD card.
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Hello, All. This is my first post at xda-developers!
Since I'm new to Android, data security has concerned me. Climbing the learning curve of rooting and tweaking my SGH-T989, I've focused on control, security, and privacy. So far pretty good, thanks largely to members' posts at this site. Thank you very much!
Then this thread crushed me. Visions of "1984", "THX 1138", "Terminator", etc.
I considered the suggestions here. Thoughts about the OS seem right to me, but that's beyond my abilities. I did try following chbennett's advice: I enabled encryption in my backups and moved them to the internal SD.
But I don't yet know how to do the 'home server / log in on demand' scheme for contacts and calendar. I will appreciate any help with that.
Meanwhile, I looked for a way to make a 'panic button' that would let me wipe my phone immediately. What I chose was making a contact whose phone number is the USSD code for Factory data reset.
Maybe Tasker, etc. could streamline this approach; but my trials showed that, unlike MMI codes (e.g., to toggle caller ID blocking), USSD codes cannot be submitted to the OS indirectly. So swiping a contact, direct dial shortcut, etc. did not work. On my phone, all that worked was either 1. manually dialing the code, or 2. dialing the contact name, then tapping the contact.
So the routine to use this 'panic button' is:
1. launch Dialer
2. dial the contact name
3. tap the contact name in the search results
4. tap "Format USB storage" in the "Factory data reset" dialog
5. tap "Reset phone" button in the "Factory data reset" dialog.
It sounds clunky, but it's actually pretty quick. I named the panic button contact "XXX" to avoid confusability when dialing (it needs only "XX" for a unique match.)
If you can suggest improvements to this scheme, or think it is misguided, please let me know. Thanks.
Any updates on this? I'm curious as to how to guard against ufed.
I think an instant hard brick option would be better so theres nothing to recover as i dont believe the factory reset is a secure wipe
Possibly a voice activated secret phrase or keypress u could say/do super fast in a tricky situation that autoflashes a corrupt/incompatible bootloader and recovery to device after secure superwipe that should stump them for awhile
im still interested in this i disabled usb debugging on my phone but unsure if the UFED can still access anything on my ICS full encrypted passworded evo3d im assuming they could dump the data at most but i highly doubt they could access the decrypted data unless you used an insecure pass
If you have encryption enabled for your data partition, then all you need to do is to turn off your phone when you see a cop. If they take it from you, they can turn it on and hook up their device, but they will only be able to snarf the system partition, which does them no good. They'd need your password to mount the data partition.
If you look around on this forum, you can find the steps necessary to switch the lock screen back to a simple pattern lock while leaving the disk encryption enabled.
Are you sure Cellebrite and UFED or w/e can't access encrypted data partion? I know it can take an image of the phone "hard drive". They then can run password tools against image to unlock it no?
dardack said:
Are you sure Cellebrite and UFED or w/e can't access encrypted data partion? I know it can take an image of the phone "hard drive". They then can run password tools against image to unlock it no?
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I'd like to know about this too. I am about to set up encryption on my device and I'd like to know more about what type of attacks it can beat.
Edit to add: I assume brute force attack protection is like any other type of encryption.....dependent on the strength of your password. But, assuming we all know that already, I'm still curious about this.
If the question is how to protect your device when you think someone would scan your phone, you'd have to have some sort of inclination that a scan is about to happen. I'm assuming this is many people's concern as they're considering wiping their device through a quick process. In that scenario, just turn off your device. Unless you warrant suspicion of something fairly bad, they wouldn't be confiscating your cell phone.
smokeydriver said:
...Unless you warrant suspicion of something fairly bad, they wouldn't be confiscating your cell phone.
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We all wish all law enforcement was just and honest, but so far in world history that has not been the case. Even a pretty woman may have her phone scanned by a curious cop snooping for pics.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
I would still like to know if there is an answer here...
So I recently had some dealing with assisting in a Cellbrite search. We initiated and enlisted the help of law enforcement for an employee who was doing some illegal activity which is not relevant to this discussion other than the person used an iphone. Anyway, the investigator came in and wanted to know if I can enable the bypass for the automatic screen lock in 5 minutes because when it locked, it disabled the Cellbrite copy.
Now, couple things here, he was only doing what he was "allowed' to do in the local municipality, and he did say they sell a more expensive Cellbrite device which would be able to crack it. I did find it interesting that the simple corporate Activesync policy I have set up was actually having this effect. Anyway I removed the policy and it worked. Funny thing is he could have done it himself had he known anything about that kind of thing. He was presented to us as an expert but I guess that mainly covered a basic Cellbrite expertise.
So, I do think encryption would be a great answer as the partition would be hard to bust in to. Nothing is impossible but I would rather not smash my phone on the highway next time I get pulled over so I would like to know definitively that this is the right approach. This is definitely not paranoia as there are at least 3 states where it looks like it happens regularly.
Time to look at a 2600 group for stuff like this I guess. I am early in my investigation
Later
I'm not interested in limiting the ability of an app to access the internet, there's enough ways to achieve that.
What I'm interested in is finding out if there is anyway to use an "online only" app while offline. Essentially is there a way to set up a fake access point using cached data to simulate being online? I'm looking to use a personal assistant such as google now without needing to blow through my extremely limited data plan that I'm grandfathered in on. Anyone know if such a thing is possible? I've not figured out the best way to phrase this question quite yet so let me know if it doesn't make sense.
Google Now simply won't work that way. I'd suggest you use something like utter! that doesn't actually send every command to Google (which requires internet access) to determine what to do with it.
Yeah I've been trying utter out of and on and I find it really drains my battery. That said its amazing for being in beta. I am actually keeping my fingers crossed for a more developed version of Indigo, I just like setting the cards on Google Now.
Hello,
I have a couple of Galaxy S3's that I want to mess with. I'm going to write my own messaging app to use on the phones.
Here's the thing though: I want to make it impossible to make phone calls or use regular text messaging. I want to make it so that it can't be re-enabled in any way via Settings or anything like that.
In other words, ideally, I want to have the android phone with no apps except for mine. (and no option to use anything else) Think of it as a specialized tool designed only for one thing.
What is the best way to go about this? Do I need to root the device and install Ubuntu Mobile or something? How difficult would it be to modify the Android system itself?
I'm an experienced developer but I'm completely new to the mobile space so I'm looking to learn about how to do this the best / easiest way.
Thanks!
I'm going to be giving a phone to my grandma who will be using the phone half a world away. I wish to be able to customize this phone remotely after I've given this phone to her. For example, she may feel that the default dialer is too confusing -- I want to be able to change it, or at least allow another app to directly make calls to all (including emergency) numbers.
The thing is I have no idea what changes I may need to do (it all depends on her user experience), so I was thinking perhaps if I created a custom ROM that removed all permissions requirements (so for example, ACTION_CALL would only require normal, instead of system, permissions) I'd have the most flexibility in adjusting the UX.
No one else but my grandma will be using this phone, and no apps will be installed by anyone but me, so security doesn't seem to be an issue.
Is this a good idea? Would this be hard to do, or would it just be a search and replace job in the code?
thanks for any help!
customize it before you give it to her. It's better for her not to be using an insecure phone. the granma spy police might try to hack it
Hey all.
Within a couple of days I'm getting my new Galaxy S9+ (Exynos) phone.
I made a year break from Android and switched to Apple, and now I'm back.
Unfortunately, I know nothing about newest Galaxy phones.
Maybe anyone has suggestions what should I do (download) when I'll set-up my phone (I've watched all the reviews of "must have" etc., don't suggest me to do that)?
I used to root and unlock bootloader for each my android phone, but I won't do that to my Galaxy S9+ at least for 6 months.
Hence, many root apps not working: "AdAway", "Viper4Android" etc.,
Maybe anyone knows Ad Blocking app without rooting a phone?
Or just mention anything that newbie to Galaxy S9+ should know.
(If you're wondering why am I "spamming" with these "stupid" questions: And no, I didn't find any similar thread to this)
Thanks in advance!
I use to root and rom all my phones, but I don't think it is as necessary as before.
I also use to download all the tweaks, but I don't do that either.
Non-root to block adds try Blokada it is in the F-Droid store.
It is Free and it Works.
I also swear by ES File Explorer to view and move files on your app. Also to sync any cloud storage you have.
If you have a regular phone number and google voice number going to the same phone
Voice Choice 2.0 is a nice app that allows you to make calls with a specific number
i.e. family and close friends have you carrier number
work partners, resume, business line has your google number
when you make a call you don't have to select anything, based on your rules set up it will dial out using the appropriate number.
re
qnc said:
I use to root and rom all my phones, but I don't think it is as necessary as before.
I also use to download all the tweaks, but I don't do that either.
Non-root to block adds try Blokada it is in the F-Droid store.
It is Free and it Works.
I also swear by ES File Explorer to view and move files on your app. Also to sync any cloud storage you have.
If you have a regular phone number and google voice number going to the same phone
Voice Choice 2.0 is a nice app that allows you to make calls with a specific number
i.e. family and close friends have you carrier number
work partners, resume, business line has your google number
when you make a call you don't have to select anything, based on your rules set up it will dial out using the appropriate number.
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Click to collapse
Thanks! Maybe you know anything about removing / disabling Bloatware as well?
LaurynasVP said:
Thanks! Maybe you know anything about removing / disabling Bloatware as well?
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check out this thread at your own risk. It works I disabled Facebook (don't see why that would be on and unlocked phone fro Samsung, but i digress)
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9-plus/how-to/s9-s9-bloatware-removal-thread-g960u-t3817810
Be careful with the commands and understand what is being done before you hit the enter/return key
Good thing about disabling is if you fubar the phone you can do a factory restore and start all over
I only disabled Facebook. will investigate the other software as i play with the phone. Only had it 2 weeks so far.
re
qnc said:
check out this thread at your own risk. It works I disabled Facebook (don't see why that would be on and unlocked phone fro Samsung, but i digress)
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9-plus/how-to/s9-s9-bloatware-removal-thread-g960u-t3817810
Be careful with the commands and understand what is being done before you hit the enter/return key
Good thing about disabling is if you fubar the phone you can do a factory restore and start all over
I only disabled Facebook. will investigate the other software as i play with the phone. Only had it 2 weeks so far.
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Thanks, I'll keep everything in mind