I can't seem to find anything that touches on this, so I thought I'd go ahead and ask.
My girlfriend (who is in another state at the moment for a couple months) is concerned someone has 'hacked' her phone.
As much as I know right now, she had her phone sitting on her desk and it came on, out of sleep, bypassing her pattern lock and started automatically downloading and updating her Maps app. She does not have her phone rooted or modded in anyway, just some additional apps (none that deal with app management) and as far as I know (I have a Samsung Vibrant) there are no 'automatically update' option in any of the menus.
Anyone have any idea? I know this is very little information, but it's all I can grab right now and I had a few minutes.
Thanks in advance for any responses!
jwrichards1982 said:
I can't seem to find anything that touches on this, so I thought I'd go ahead and ask.
My girlfriend (who is in another state at the moment for a couple months) is concerned someone has 'hacked' her phone.
As much as I know right now, she had her phone sitting on her desk and it came on, out of sleep, bypassing her pattern lock and started automatically downloading and updating her Maps app. She does not have her phone rooted or modded in anyway, just some additional apps (none that deal with app management) and as far as I know (I have a Samsung Vibrant) there are no 'automatically update' option in any of the menus.
Anyone have any idea? I know this is very little information, but it's all I can grab right now and I had a few minutes.
Thanks in advance for any responses!
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Click to collapse
Just to be sure, she has an Eris, correct? I only ask because if her Android Phone (since it's not rooted) is not an Eris then it could have Android OS 2.2 (Froyo), and the Android Market for Froyo does have an option (she would've had to toggle it on somehow) to autoupdate individual apps.
If she definitely has a unrooted Eris and therefore running 2.1, it may still be possible that she installed the Market from 2.2 (there are various sources to do so), although it doesn't sound likely from your description. She would be aware if she did that, too.
I would double check to make sure she has the phone set to only install apps through the Market:
Long-press Menu
Settings
Applications
Make sure that "Unknown sources" is unchecked.
I don't know if it would still be possible for a malicious app to be installed with it unchecked, but it should definitely reduce the probability.
I've seen weird things happen on all sorts of electronics/computers/phones so unless something else suspicious happened, or she has good reason to believe someone did something to her phone in person that would allow them to do things to it remotely, then I wouldn't sweat it yet.
I originally used security software on my phone, but I haven't for a long time.
If she wants to be certain nothing has invaded her phone, then she could do a factory reset:
Long-press Menu
Settings
Privacy
Factory data reset
This will erase everything that didn't come with her phone. Without root access, noone could've done anything permanent to it.
When she boots the phone after the reset, and puts her Google email and password in, Google will automatically restore her Contacts and Calendar (takes several minutes if a lot of data), but she would have to either manually reinstall and reconfigure her apps, or use a backup program like Titanium Backup, or My Backup Pro. MBP is much slower but recent versions have gotten faster and overall I've had better success with it than TB, but many people swear by TB so it just depends.
Good luck.
I have an HTC Desire Z, and it's been acting strangely lately. I hear it play the startup sound when it's in my pocket, meaning the phone has crashed when I wasn't even doing anything. I suppose it's time for a hard reset. I'm very reluctant to do this, but when I missed an important call the other day because my "com.htc.phone" (or whatever) application crashed and I didn't notice, that was the last straw.
What is a checklist of things I should do before hard resetting? So far, I've:
1) Backed up SMS
2) Taken screenshots of all my home screens so as to put the icons back in the same place
3) Taken screenshots of the application settings screens so as to install all the same applications again
4) Taken screenshots of some of the other settings screens, so as to use the same ringtone, background, SMS beep, etc.
What are some other steps I should take? I'm scared that I won't get my phone set up the same way again. My phone is great right now, it's just how I like it - except for the crashes.
Is your phone rooted? If so, TitaniumBackup (TB) would be all you need. You can get TitaniumBackup, free and paid, from the market. TB can backup your screen settings according to the launcher apps. For example, I use Go Launcher and when I do a full backup of Go Launcher, it will backup icons positions and everything else that I have changed in Go Launcher.
It may not be necessary to reset your whole device if your just getting one or two processes force closing themselves. The first thing to check is see if you have installed an app that might be conflicting with system apps (try and remember the last time it was working correctly and uninstall apps that you've installed since then).
If this isn't the issue you can also try to wipe app data/cache for the app in question. I hope this makes sense
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Well, I'm not really sure what's causing the problem. My phone came installed with crapware, and lately I've found software installing itself on my phone without my knowledge. I know for a fact the "QQ Security" crapware the phone came with did indeed prevent my phone from functioning correctly.
Yesterday my phone ran out of battery and it took me a while to get back to my charger. I came back late and I put my phone to recharge over night. I wake up and start my phone and it's like it's never been used before. It has done some sort of reset by itself. All these help popups comes up about how to use slides and motion etc etc. My gmail account is not registered to my phone anymore. I go through my applications and now I start to realize that something is seriously wrong.
Some of my apps are missing on my home screen and when I look for them they seem to be uninstalled, so I try to install these apps again and get the "unknown error code during application install -24" error. This is the case for 3 of my paid applications. Portfolio stocks, swift key and maps with me.
I have more problems though, 50 % of all my apps that are still installed will not even start, like all of my games for example, Every time I try to start one of these I get "Unfortunately, application has stopped" This is also the case for some other apps like skype and spotify. Most of my apps have completely dropped the app settings and information. All my whats app conversations are gone for example and my number isn't even registered anymore.
Some apps still have the icon on my home screen but when I try to start these (like googles for example) it says "application not installed" even though the icon is there.
So as you can tell there some major problem has occurred when my phone turned itself of yesterday.
Now I'm afraid my phone ****ed itself up to much to actually be recovered with is a ***** but I'm wondering how the hell could this happen? What kind of information has deleted itself and why is this possible?
And is there anything you guys think I can do except resetting the whole device. My phone is not rooted and I regret not making backups.....
I have a galaxy s3 I9300 with android 4.1.2
Regards
Victor
factory reset. don't know why it happened
This one is a weird one. I have not experienced this before.
My wife's HTC One X unrooted, factory unlocked from oversees, still under warranty. Latest JB available (stock).
Just the other day I went to clean up some of her redundant apps that I installed on her phone. All apps were from legitimate sources, Google Play.
Problem 1. I could not uninstall any app. The device would get quite warm, actually very warm. I would do a hard boot and sometimes I would then be able to uninstall the app, most other times no. I even have uninstaller apps and I tried using them and the app would go through the motions. it would seemingly uninstall the apps but it really didn't . On the times it would uninstall apps (it doesn't matter which app or how large or small) it often would take a long time.
Problem 2: Downloading apps from GP. I might be able to get away with downloading one app and installing it. However, most of the time GP would be stuck in "downloading', Again, if I do a hard reboot or even soft reboot, sometimes the download would start and you would see the small tray and down arrow. Most of the times, not. What is odd about this is that if I go to Google Play via desktop and remotely tell GP to install a particular app, it usually does without issue on the device.
Problem 3. I did a factory restore and after a few apps everything was ok. but problem would then develop again. I repeated the process to narrow down which app may be causing issue but I haven't been able to do so. Then, I did a hard reboot again and then the download would be very slow to start, several minutes then it would start up normally. I tried uninstalling an app and it too took a long time initially and then it was ok. However, in between this all, it was not. Even when going to SETTINGS, APPS, seeing info on the app (cache size, etc) would take a very very long time to populate.
The wife has her phone with her today at work, but for now it is operating as it should. However, I am very confident it will return to the way it was.
Does any one know what could be going on? Is this a s/w issue or hardware issue? Is there any way to test to see if the flash drive has bad sectors or is somehow damaged? Perhaps the HTC needs a brand new re-flash to the original ROM ?
I am getting an annoying spam/popup whatever in my Chrome browser. It's very deceiving and I've tried restarting Chrome, the phone, clearing cache but it still pops up all the time. It's from "update.appfansworld.com" and gives me an initial message about memory being low or something. Attached is a screenshot. Anyone know how I can get rid of this?
If this is an app.
Go to settings > application manager
Find the system ui upgrade app and uninstall it.
Is it a popup? If so try an ad blocker. Or figure out what site's giving you this junk.
If your user agent string is reporting as android (in Chrome it is) they can tailor ads to look like "updates".
If you get the "memory slowed" message hit cancel or the back button.
Sent from my Verizon NC5 Galaxy S4 w/ GEL and Xposed
Fixed this problem on my phone by going into the App Info for the Chrome App and Deleting All Data. Just had to resign into Google, and it has not come back so far.
Update.... Went one week with no pop up. Got one again from app fans world. Com again last night. Not the UI one though. This one said my browser crashed, which it hadn't. Spent several hours trying to get it to repeat, but it never did, nor did it today. Just as a final check, I ran Malwarebytes, and found only one instance of malware on my phone, but not thinking it was actually malware. It was the root uninstaller file for Smart Ram Booster Pro. I uninstalled the app anyway as I don't really use it. Will give an update on this in a week or so. Looking online, this is becoming a widespread issue.
jakel1.jf said:
Update.... Went one week with no pop up. Got one again from app fans world. Com again last night. Not the UI one though. This one said my browser crashed, which it hadn't. Spent several hours trying to get it to repeat, but it never did, nor did it today. Just as a final check, I ran Malwarebytes, and found only one instance of malware on my phone, but not thinking it was actually malware. It was the root uninstaller file for Smart Ram Booster Pro. I uninstalled the app anyway as I don't really use it. Will give an update on this in a week or so. Looking online, this is becoming a widespread issue.
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Yeah I tried deleting data in the chrome browser but that didn't prevent it from coming back. I'll look forward to a solution if you find one.
After clearing the data under app info it stopped for a week for me. It was popping up every other page almost before that. Now, it popped up again just once, and I did a couple weeks worth of browsing in a couple hours after it did, just to see if I could get the pop up again to inspect it better, but it just won't come up again. I don't know if it is gone, or will pop up again sometime later. Weird.
I have been following a guy on the Verizon forum dealing with this. He was going to run his phone in safe mode, and try activating one 3rd party app at a time, using Terminal to see if he could find an app that was causing this. That didn't work though as while in safe mode with no 3rd party apps activated, it still happened. He is now going to reset his phone, reinstalling apps one at a time to see if he can find an app causing it. This will take more than a week though, as he will take time to test chrome for awhile after each app is installed. One thing to note is that the app.fansworld.com site was only created 12.18.14. It could be any app you installed slightly before to any time after that date, or even any update installed then. I am almost thinking it is something to do with Chrome, as I don't install anything except from the Playstore, and only a thing or two that I can remember during that time frame. I am going to both uninstalled all chrome updates, and try a different browser, to see if it still happens. If it does, I am going to factory reset my phone, and see if I can fix it.
jakel1.jf said:
I have been following a guy on the Verizon forum dealing with this. He was going to run his phone in safe mode, and try activating one 3rd party app at a time, using Terminal to see if he could find an app that was causing this. That didn't work though as while in safe mode with no 3rd party apps activated, it still happened. He is now going to reset his phone, reinstalling apps one at a time to see if he can find an app causing it. This will take more than a week though, as he will take time to test chrome for awhile after each app is installed. One thing to note is that the app.fansworld.com site was only created 12.18.14. It could be any app you installed slightly before to any time after that date, or even any update installed then. I am almost thinking it is something to do with Chrome, as I don't install anything except from the Playstore, and only a thing or two that I can remember during that time frame. I am going to both uninstalled all chrome updates, and try a different browser, to see if it still happens. If it does, I am going to factory reset my phone, and see if I can fix it.
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I assumed it was a chrome thing since that's where it always pops up for me. I guess I could try another browser...
I did click on the page (clicking cancel or update does the same thing) as I figured I will be reseting my phone anyway. No matter how many times I click on it, all it does is redirect me to the Dolphin Browser page on the playstore. This makes me really suspicious because the developers of Dolphin Browser wouldn't ruin their extremely good reputation by doing this. I think the redirect is a cover for something else. Maybe a keystroke logger, or something just as malicious. Rolling back Chrome didn't get rid of the page that pops up. No popping up with new browser so far, went with Maxthon, but it is early. Really starting to think a complete wipe and reset is necessary. After all, the pop up is only what we are seeing, what else might be going on we can't.
Quick question... Have you downloaded any (.flv or.m2v specifically) video files during the time frame? Read a recent article about hackers using them to exploit vulnerabilities. Right now it is suggested not to download those 2 file types at all.
Factory reset my phone, which was a small hassle, but it has fixed it, and the other small bugs and slow downs that appeared at the same time. Back up your files... Pics and such you want to keep, and reset. Your phone should automatically re-install all your apps, although you will have to redo some of your settings. After you save your files to wherever you want, I saved them to my pc, just go to settings.. Then back up and restore.... And select factory reset or reset phone, however it is listed. Your phone will then be like brand new, and you will only have to re-set up a few things as most things will reinstall by themselves with their previous settings. Like I said, a small hassle, but it fixes the problem, and you again know your phone and data is secure.
It started doing it again today. Reset didn't work. Talked to the guy on verizon forum, and he is going through all files to locate it's origin. Will just have to wait until he is done. FYI--It started happening in other browsers too.