RootKit/Overlay Removal Help Please! - LG V60 ThinQ Questions & Answers

For nearly 3 months I have been fighting for control of my LG V60 phones. I will try and keep this brief:
Qmemo+, Pen Settings, and several other 'Legitimate' applications have essentially acted as a RootKit. The apps, services, and packages that are installed are not able to be removed by a factory reset and give full remote access/control to the attacker. Once the OS is booted an Overlay (basically a VM) is launched which completely sandboxes me. Over the last 3 months that I have been dealing with it the Overlay has gotten harder and harder to distinguish from the real OS. The combination of a built-in kill switch, geo-fencing, and the rerouting of calls/texts I have been unable to get help. Law enforcement have been no help.
I have purchased the Package disabler app mentioned here in a different thread, however it is only able to disable a fraction of the issue and is only a matter of time before it too is circumvented.
If there is anyone willing to help I would greatly appreciate it.

Related

WANTED: Developer for OS assistance on MTK6589 rugged device

Hi folks, just want to say before I start, i'm not a developer, i'm a marketing person for a few phone companies.
I work with a company who are currently purchasing an MTK6589 based device called the Defender from China.
It's running Android 4.2.2.
Tasks Required:
Re-mapping of SOS and PTT buttons
Some of the app partners looking to use the handset want to map buttons so that they can use the handset with their apps but on smaller order quantities this is difficult for the factory to manage.
The intents given by the factory don't appear to work which I believe might be because they are already being used by the CallForHelp app and the built in Walkie Talkie app.
We require a build of the OS on there but with intents from each button that are open to apps picking them up.
Idle Running Processes Setup
Additionally we found out that when the handset goes into idle mode it actually stops a lot of the running processes. We've had one software version done that keeps the accelerometer running and another app partner managed to force open the bluetooth connection when connected to a bluetooth speaker accessory but ideally we'd like to get this looked at and see what processes would be best to keep running.
For this we are looking to work with a UK based developer and in the future we will require more assistance with the handset, if you're interested then please reply to this thread or drop me a message and we can chat further.
Thanks, Ben.

[Q] Set custom DNS (e.g. openNic, OpenDNS, etc.), (post 2015 CE)

I have scoured the interwebs for a solution, yet found only obsolete and empirically ineffectual methods, aka "setprop net.dsn1" etc., none of which persist, neither immediately after the issued command nor, especially, after a reboot.
Please allow me to make it clear, that I find it perverse and loathsome that an "app" would be necessary to accomplish this feat. The indolent '"app" mentality', which is the sadly presumed remedy for nearly every action other than involuntary motion, is a contract with the assassin of freedom – and I abhor it venomously.
I have owned an Android (presently with CM11 ROM installed, with TWRP recovery) device for two weeks. It is the first Android device (or smart, tablet, etc.) I've ever owned or dared t fuss with. I particularly purchased the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 because it was supported by CM. I am normally a Linux user and value my liberties of hack-ability. Oddly, I was able to successfully configure my DNS via a terminal emulator within my Android device, but recent updates seem to have thwarted my efforts. Apparently, resolv.conf no longer exists and some fundamental changes have been implemented, though this is all new to me and I ain't sure.
I believe that a user should be able to configure their own DNS (amongst other things) and therefore request assistance from the wizards of xda. Google is simply unacceptable, and Verizon hijacking plain makes me mad.
Show me the way, to 208.67.222.222!

google-ectomy, possible?

Hi all.
I have a rooted phone that is used strictly in wifi mode and only needs to be able to run 4 or 5 standard aps, a couple of optional aps, plus the aps that support rooted phones and enhanced power management. I don't want google-anything on it, and I am not kidding. My prime concern is battery life, I hope to be able to run my phone for 3 to 4 days (or more) between charges, so deleting all fluff aps and crapware is important, as is underclocking it and getting rid of google. I also want to stop updating of the operating system and installed software by google.
I hope to do a hardware mod to remove power from the cell band rf transceiver. Despite it being turned off in the phone using software, I am detecting occasional transmissions from the cell band transmitter. Hardware mods are not a problem for me, I'm a retired EE, who specialized in RF design.
I need to know if it's possible for the phone to function if gmail, google+, google search, chrome, google calendar and google-whatever are exhorsized (uninstalled)? Yes, I also want to give the playstore the boot, to prevent excessive battery drain (and, yes, I do realize downloading aps will be slightly more difficult without the playstore).
For those who might be interested, the phone is used as a wifi phone for the home based Ooma telephone service. I also might like to run a mini bittorrent server. It seems to me that the android community could use bittorrent in place of the playstore, thus making it easier for others to give google and google playstore the boot
I love this forum, and want to thank all those that support and administer it.
Aloha,
A
alohagirl said:
Hi all.
I have a rooted phone that is used strictly in wifi mode and only needs to be able to run 4 or 5 standard aps, a couple of optional aps, plus the aps that support rooted phones and enhanced power management. I don't want google-anything on it, and I am not kidding. My prime concern is battery life, I hope to be able to run my phone for 3 to 4 days (or more) between charges, so deleting all fluff aps and crapware is important, as is underclocking it and getting rid of google. I also want to stop updating of the operating system and installed software by google.
I hope to do a hardware mod to remove power from the cell band rf transceiver. Despite it being turned off in the phone using software, I am detecting occasional transmissions from the cell band transmitter. Hardware mods are not a problem for me, I'm a retired EE, who specialized in RF design.
I need to know if it's possible for the phone to function if gmail, google+, google search, chrome, google calendar and google-whatever are exhorsized (uninstalled)? Yes, I also want to give the playstore the boot, to prevent excessive battery drain (and, yes, I do realize downloading aps will be slightly more difficult without the playstore).
For those who might be interested, the phone is used as a wifi phone for the home based Ooma telephone service. I also might like to run a mini bittorrent server. It seems to me that the android community could use bittorrent in place of the playstore, thus making it easier for others to give google and google playstore the boot
I love this forum, and want to thank all those that support and administer it.
Aloha,
A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are threads all over the place trying to do this. Google is deeply ingrained into all the apks used by the os. You will be very hard pressed to find away to remove them completely and still have things work right.
I agree that security is an illusion. I dumped Microshaft in 2013 in order to improve my security and privacy.
However, the android operating system is supposed to be open source, so it should be possible to de-google-ize it IF someone knows how to edit and recompile the android OS.
I was merely asking if anyone knew of a way to give google the boot, even if it came down to paying someone to compile a custom rom.
The loss of google playstore is not a consideration, neither is a monetary forfeiture (any programmers out there?).
I'm curious, is it possible to gag google so it can't connect to the outside world (with a firewall)? We used to do this in XP to prevent Bill's Internet Explorer from downloading updates.
Are any of the custom roms currently available able to run without google-anything??
Is there any hope, or is it truly hopeless? If a custom rom that gave google the boot was available, how many would pay a small fee to have it? Just curious??!!
TY
A.
alohagirl said:
I agree that security is an illusion. I dumped Microshaft in 2013 in order to improve my security and privacy.
However, the android operating system is supposed to be open source, so it should be possible to de-google-ize it IF someone knows how to edit and recompile the android OS.
I was merely asking if anyone knew of a way to give google the boot, even if it came down to paying someone to compile a custom rom.
The loss of google playstore is not a consideration, neither is a monetary forfeiture (any programmers out there?).
I'm curious, is it possible to gag google so it can't connect to the outside world (with a firewall)? We used to do this in XP to prevent Bill's Internet Explorer from downloading updates.
Are any of the custom roms currently available able to run without google-anything??
Is there any hope, or is it truly hopeless? If a custom rom that gave google the boot was available, how many would pay a small fee to have it? Just curious??!!
TY
A.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is one project that is working on removing Google completely in the forums. A search will find it for you. There are some issues that I don't recall if they could find a way around or fix. You could give that a shot.

How to find Info/Errs from an Android App Crash to steer toward App's bad Settings?

I'm a long time developer but brand new to Android, with my having past experience developing in Unix systems as well as a lot using Cygwin in Windows. I have a newly-installed App that seems popular called 'C Locker'. So far, I've just got the Free version because I'm trying it out to see if it does what I need. Unfortunately, it's now crashing with the Settings that I've enabled, and as a general developer, I'm interested in seeing if I can glean information from the Bugreport (or whatever else I can use...perhaps even gdb on the device itself?) to help me know what specific Settings might be the problem being that there are so many of them and I would prefer to gain some type of help from my phone in figuring out what the bad settings might be that I've enabled that are causing the problem rather than to spend all day flipping them around. I've already scanned through the Bugreport after uploading it to my computer, examining all of the references it makes in there to "com.ccs.lockscreen" with this apparently being the process name for the C-Locker program. I've seen indications in there where it indeed shows that it has crashed, but I couldn't yet discern if it is able to give me pointers as to what the cause of the crashes might have been. Is that possible to gain such information out of these Bugreport files? Or is there a way to run it directly in gdb on my device to perhaps see the stack at the time that it crashes, for which the names provided might help to discern what specifically it was trying but failing to do at the time? If it helps, as an intended future Android developer, I've already gotten Android SDK set up on my computer, although I haven't yet really used it much to speak of for anything. I also have adb working from my computer to the smartphone and even have rooted it using a rare method being that I have an older phone purchased years ago via Amazon that I didn't activate until about a month ago. (It's an LG G4 VS986 version 13B so I couldn't use the popular rooting method for version 11A but instead had to use the "Injection" method which took me FOREVER although I finally got it to work!) And just in case it helps perhaps even to bypass a direct answer to this question (although it will still of course be appreciated), my Settings within C Locker involve having set it to be a Device Admin and to bring it up as the first App upon Reboot as well as I've selected within the Root category to make it a System App as well as my then having Disabled ALL things that typically show on the screen (such as 9-1-1, camera, Etc). I had left it set to the default "Gesture" Unlock method, but whenever I bring up the App again and go into "Unlock Methods", it now immediately crashes each time (as well as upon Restarting the phone!). So this covers the majority of the most significant of the Settings that I've made on it so far to the best of my recollection. And I feel that if I could get some indications from the system as to what the specific errors may be when its crashing (or from a stack trace or whatever else), then it might help me to discern what specific Settings are creating the problem being that perhaps I just have an odd (rare) combination of Settings on it that I can tweak to get it working. My goal is to ultimately get a lockscreen App that I can use a Pattern type Unlock with that allows an UNLIMITED number of Failed Attempts (so that it won't ever Factory Reset my phone after the 10th or ANY number of failures!!!). I also--as mentioned above--don't want ANY shortcuts whatsoever being accessible BEFORE the phone is unlocked...not even 9-1-1. Anyway, so if there's a way to glean information from the Bugreport (or from whatever other methods available) to find the specific cause (involved errors) of this or any other App that's crashing that I do NOT have the source code for (being that I of course am not its developer) then it will be greatly appreciated to know how to best find this information. (And I promise that I've already searched extensively on Google but couldn't filter out its replies all being based on the idea that I'm the developer of the App that's crashing, with my even trying adding phrases such as "not my app" and "not the developer of" Etc to no avail...lol). Thanks.
By the way, if I shouldn't have combined the 'C Locker' Settings details into this post, then please just let me know because I'm new to posting here. Also, unfortunately, if I don't receive any help with this right away, then I'll be forced to start testing different Setting combinations anyway, which would then of course solve this problem but without knowing truly what exactly was causing the issue. Even if so, it will still be helpful in the long run with other potential App crashes to get the answer to this general question.
Unless not disabled by user, all runtime activities in Android are logged, so app crashes and their reason also. You can view this log by means of Android's logcat command-line tool or by means of a LogCat Viewer app. My POV: logcat is essential for determining what an app and the Android OS are doing while the app is running on a device.
BTW: Android's log can be filtered per package, too.
Thanks!
jwoegerbauer said:
Unless not disabled by user, all runtime activities in Android are logged, so app crashes and their reason also. You can view this log by means of Android's logcat command-line tool or by means of a LogCat Viewer app. My POV: logcat is essential for determining what an app and the Android OS are doing while the app is running on a device.
BTW: Android's log can be filtered per package, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, and since posting this, I've been learning more about Android Studio and have used it to actually see the stack trace within the "Android Monitor" pane there in order to find the instant reason why the/ANY (meaning 3rd party as well) App is crashing at the time! Thanks again for the help!

Unable to delete the forced ESSENTIAL APP Tiktok

Hi all . Anyone else had the Tiktok app forced onto the A10 after a compulsory update and now on the O/S as an ESSENTIAL APP and cannot be deleted. Even the icon cannot be deleted off the screen.
So for me this is a step too far and wont be buying any Samsung products again. The phone was about to go in the electrical bin but I came across a program called ADB. Anyone used this to delete Tiktok. The app is not even listed in the apps section. So as its built into the O/S can ADB actually delete it permanently. As many are saying its not an essential app and some say its due to a lucrative deal . Odd Samsung wanting democracy yet force this on those who don't wont it globally. Its about blatant lack of democratic choice. I do know some newer Samsung Android owners that have not had it forced upon them. So am wondering if Samsung thought the older phone users may not complain so much is one of just several thoughts that come into mind.
I've not used ADB and see it appears to be used by developers only. In short can it delete this app built into the O/S - otherwise phone goes in the bin. Any non developer done this. I've searched many threads and am surprised no other comments concerning Tiktok as an essential app ? and one must accept it or have no phone. So I have no phone currently. Am looking at alternatives. Hard resets make no difference. Thanks for any info or thoughts on this.

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