I was recently contacted by an old friend to help with an issue. He was a victim of privacy invasion on his S4, hidden instances of webcam and phone cameras, exporting of personal information, etc. Now he has come to me for help. I have looked at his logs and whatnots, but nothing really stands out. So, I am wondering if any of you have experienced the same problem? If yes, please provide me a complete list of all the apps you have installed on your device. Since I do not own an S4, it is hard for me to create the issue. The only answer is to get this community to pool together and get me the device (which would allow me to dev for the S4 and bring the greatness of the Lightning Zap! kernel), or for you guys that have experienced it, to help me find a common link.
thomas.raines said:
I was recently contacted by an old friend to help with an issue. He was a victim of privacy invasion on his S4, hidden instances of webcam and phone cameras, exporting of personal information, etc. Now he has come to me for help. I have looked at his logs and whatnots, but nothing really stands out. So, I am wondering if any of you have experienced the same problem? If yes, please provide me a complete list of all the apps you have installed on your device. Since I do not own an S4, it is hard for me to create the issue. The only answer is to get this community to pool together and get me the device (which would allow me to dev for the S4 and bring the greatness of the Lightning Zap! kernel), or for you guys that have experienced it, to help me find a common link.
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Is there any more info you can give about it? I haven't noticed anything personally, but I also haven't been looking.
Would be nice to see you here on the S4 there, pal.
lordcheeto03 said:
Is there any more info you can give about it? I haven't noticed anything personally, but I also haven't been looking.
Would be nice to see you here on the S4 there, pal.
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Hey man! How goes it? I would love to have an S4 but it's just not in my budget right now...but at about 600 bucks (with no contract) who can afford it...lol
Although, I am up for my new every 2 upgrade... but it is for AT&T, and I'm not sure of the compatibility between the i9500, and the AT&T model (not sure of the exact model number).
As for the invasion of privacy issue, I'm trying to get more details on it. But I'm really thinking the malicious code started on his PC and drifted to his phone. And if it's the trojan I am thinking, then it attacks usb devices by making all the contents of that device hidden and appearing as if everything was deleted. Easy to get rid of, and easy to fix provided you have admin level access. Oh, and it was specifically made to attack Windows 7, but can leak out to other versions of Windows. Reason #1 to switch to Linux: Hackers HATE Windows and Bill Gates! lol
thomas.raines said:
Hey man! How goes it? I would love to have an S4 but it's just not in my budget right now...but at about 600 bucks (with no contract) who can afford it...lol
Although, I am up for my new every 2 upgrade... but it is for AT&T, and I'm not sure of the compatibility between the i9500, and the AT&T model (not sure of the exact model number).
As for the invasion of privacy issue, I'm trying to get more details on it. But I'm really thinking the malicious code started on his PC and drifted to his phone. And if it's the trojan I am thinking, then it attacks usb devices by making all the contents of that device hidden and appearing as if everything was deleted. Easy to get rid of, and easy to fix provided you have admin level access. Oh, and it was specifically made to attack Windows 7, but can leak out to other versions of Windows. Reason #1 to switch to Linux: Hackers HATE Windows and Bill Gates! lol
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I mean, what were the indications? Like, what made your friend say "Man, I do believe my privacy is being invaded." You say nothing suspicious showed up in logs, the instances of camera and data exports, etc were all hidden... what gave the indication that it was happening?
A friend of mine recently had a very similar problem with his iPhone.
We quicly determined that the answer was that his phone was cloned using a scanner, which gave the bad guy power to hack into the device at the ESN level. Very hard to trace in any kind of logs, especially since the bad guy would have the ability to purge logs.
Your buddy might have someone similar. My friend was in Russian when this happened though, much less common in the US.
Skipjacks said:
A friend of mine recently had a very similar problem with his iPhone.
We quicly determined that the answer was that his phone was cloned using a scanner, which gave the bad guy power to hack into the device at the ESN level. Very hard to trace in any kind of logs, especially since the bad guy would have the ability to purge logs.
Your buddy might have someone similar. My friend was in Russian when this happened though, much less common in the US.
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I asked him for more info and specifically what led him to believe this has happened. I am waiting for his reply. Here is th main snippet from his initial email:
I have been the victim of a very discreet but maddening invasion of privacy through my phone and also my PC and laptop computers via key logging, hidden instances of webcam and phone cameras, exporting of personal information, etc. I believe it to be a reoccurring problem via persistent data, local and cloud based storage, and corruption of my MBRs on most of my storage media. I know enough to be dangerous, but have yet to find any significant marker that points to faulty reflash process at least on my telephone.
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He gave me some good logs, but I really don't have much to go on. With the statement about his MBR's, I think his computer was actually attacked and subsequently, his phone and possibly other usb devices have been compromised...
He has MBRs on most of his storage devices?
But I think he probably got Ratted on his computer, the guy controlling the computer saw he had an android phone and installed an android rat onto it when he plugged it in next.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app
Related
Issue: \data partititon become corrupt for no obvious reason.
Manifests itself through: Freezes followed eventually by (endless) reboots
When: Randomly when you install new apps (may be every day as it can happen only every other week/month), or setting up apps (like Twitter, mail, etc)
Temporary solution: Re-flash Samsung FW but lose ALL YOUR DATA. Attention: CWM restore will not fix the problem!
---- Here goes a link to the fabulous mskip's tutorial, you will find here everything you need to get it back up temporarily
I experienced this in 401, 402, 403 and 404, some were expecting better data integrity in 404... I confirm this is not the case
I would not go as far as saying that this is 100% the reason, but it looks like the NAND quality is craaaaaap! There is no external SD card, Android should be able to do a perfect job now at handling info and preserving quality of data.
I will contact Samsung and ask for a refund (if at all possible)... Disgusting thing to put such a piece of s''t on the market without proper testing and call it "flagship/pure Google experience". This is not an isolated issue, it happens to at least half of the people around and the others may have not seen it yet (it all depends on how often you manipulate data on the phone)...
Any advice, I am inetersted, have tried pretty much everything so far and did not solve the problem...
DO YOU HAVE THE SAME ISSUE? Let your voice heard...
DO YOU HAVE THE SAME ISSUE?
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No. Could it be possible you're overreacting?
David Horn said:
No. Could it be possible you're overreacting?
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Agree as well ..seems more like rubbish
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
David Horn said:
No. Could it be possible you're overreacting?
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Thanks David, you're of great help :/
Overreacting? Glad you had a better sample, I bet you would "overreact" as well if you spent 500£ on a piece of junk losing all you data on a daily basis.
But hey, this is not happening to you, right ?
Community means lots of people, some are here to help, others just looking for a social life while trolling on this forum.
Sorry mate, I am trying to get through to the first category...
Umm, sounds like you need a replacement phone.
Deep breath....deep breath.
KWKSLVR said:
Umm, sounds like you need a replacement phone.
Deep breath....deep breath.
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Right While i'm catching my breath, found another thread pointing to the same issue IMHO (didn't not see it initially):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1490815
Attempting to contact Samsung already...
vulpy said:
Thanks David, you're of great help :/
Overreacting? Glad you had a better sample, I bet you would "overreact" as well if you spent 500£ on a piece of junk losing all you data on a daily basis.
But hey, this is not happening to you, right ?
Community means lots of people, some are here to help, others just looking for a social life while trolling on this forum.
Sorry mate, I am trying to get through to the first category...
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Your first post came across as a hysterical rant - this is the first I've heard of the problem so it's not affecting many phones, and ultimately Samsung are going to have the occasional dodgy NAND chip. Sounds like you got one.
If you'd had several phones and they'd all exhibited this problem you'd be right to be peeved, but it simply sounds like you've been unlucky and are pissed off about it. Have you even discussed it with Samsung's tech support or taken it back to the shop you bought it from?
And accusing an XDA recognised developer of trolling is not a great start to your time here.
I've not heard of other people having this problem with the Gnex? Who are these other people having this same problem? Maybe speak with them and see if a replacement phone might solve the problem. I really hope you can get this fixed and not give up on such a great platform.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
vulpy said:
This is not an isolated issue, it happens to at least half of the people around and the others may have not seen it yet (it all depends on how often you manipulate data on the phone)...
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The burden of evidence is on you bro. That is a pretty bold claim.
David Horn said:
...And accusing an XDA recognized developer of trolling is not a great start to your time here.
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Respect for your dev background (haven't used any of your ROMs yet), in all fairness I'm far less impressed with your communication skills... I must agree though, my message may have come across as too abrupt and you're right again, I am going to sort it out with Samsung...
Did not mean to get people horrified, rather to blow the whistle on a worrying and annoying bug and smth people may consider if they come across or consider a purchase.
For having worked in the mobile comm semiconductors space for years, I know just what sets apart a serious company from a me-too profile. Surprised to see Samsung having this king of issues. Normally they are ironed out easily though SW regression tests and HW stress processes (at least at serious OEMs).
I will let one of the moderators judge if my crime is so serious, your ego will survive, I'm sure I will come back when/if issue solved (or in good progress).
yeah, mine is fine. If it was a widespread problem I would back your corner, but I seems rather isolated. Rather then cause mass hysteria I would say you need to return your handset
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
This happened to mine. But only once.
Quite frustrating, as my phone is my alarm clock and it was bootlooping when I needed to go to sleep!
However, a reflash of the 4.0.2 stock images sorted it out, and no problems since. I'm pretty sure I caused it by pulling out the battery at some sensitive point in a reboot or something.
If this happens to you frequently, then you need to exchange your phone.
Also, I think this could be a pretty good resource as opposed to a rant if you put your mind to it. I'm not a developer, but I'm also not a total n00b, and it took me a little while to figure out how to fix the problem, when I had it. I'm sure there are people out there who would appreciate a guide.
In this thread, op is going through that time of the month, when was his own modification back fires in his face, his explosive emotions reek havoc on an online forum.
If you want to see a device with bad nand memory, see the HTC Desire S forum .
Also the reboots and freezes I used to experience on my device were application related. Device hasn't frozen, nor rebooted in about *looks at up time* .. 27 days .
adrynalyne said:
The burden of evidence is on you bro. That is a pretty bold claim.
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... I was actually referring to a poll in another thread (link in this thread) concluding that half of the people who answered have experienced freezes and reboots... it may be biased somewhat by the fact that people who experienced the issue are more likely to vote than those who didn't... maybe an overstatement from me.
Get the odd reboot (Chrome seems to provoke, strangely) but zero data corruption in 3+ months of heavy use. (4.0.3 AOKP)
Sorry, no endemic fault that I can see here (from reading these forums) and if I were you I'd be looking for a warranty replacement. Refund will depend on your location and supplier and duration of ownership.
Daern
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
First I heard about this too. I've flashed tons of roms and mods and constantly installing uninstalling apps.
The GNex has been anything but non-stable. I think I've had to pull the battery once or twice since ownership. Never heard anyone complain about randomly losing all their data... especially not daily. Perhaps on a bad flash in CWM.
Maybe you should look into a super wipe that completely erases everything, deletes the partition tables and recreates everything from scratch. Maybe it'll help but it honestly sounds defective.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Thanks Player911... Interesting idea, was thinking as well to do a total wipe and sort of a sector-by-sector reformat, but could not find a way of doing it. Is there any tool that would allow me to do it? Maybe this will isolate bad sectors...
Will check shortly with Samsung folks, thanks mate! (what slows me down is the fact that I'm currently travelling to the US and the guarantee is only European and it's Sunday= hotline is closed in Europe).
daern said:
Get the odd reboot (Chrome seems to provoke, strangely) but zero data corruption in 3+ months of heavy use. (4.0.3 AOKP)
Sorry, no endemic fault that I can see here (from reading these forums) and if I were you I'd be looking for a warranty replacement. Refund will depend on your location and supplier and duration of ownership.
Daern
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
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Uhh, I don't believe my reboots are due to this. Just saying. That whole thread does not point to your theory as the issue. I'm gonna go ahead and call this myth busted and suggest you go get a replacement because this is just another extremist "my phone is busted but I refuse to get a new one" thread.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
You've been Samsunged
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
hi everyone! I am seeking your expertise as I came upon this forum trying to help my son fix his phone. He's only 11 years old- but as we call him at home our "tech guy". He got a brand new HTC One M8 (carrier is ATT) yesterday and 3 hours later - the phone was "bricked" as I have been told. Apparently, (these are his words) he "unlocked the bootloader using HTCdev, then flashed twrp, then flashed supersu.zip.
I have no idea what any of that means but apparently he did something wrong because his phone is not working and we don't know how to fix it. If you have any compassion for a frustrated Mom who's trying not to be angry with her son -- I would appreciate any advice you can give on how to fix this.
I have attached a picture of what the phone looks like when we turn it on. I also posted this under the ATT forum too.
Thanks in advance for your help!
You bought your 11 year old son an M8?
Do you adopt?
Bchgirl19 said:
hi everyone! I am seeking your expertise as I came upon this forum trying to help my son fix his phone. He's only 11 years old- but as we call him at home our "tech guy". He got a brand new HTC One M8 (carrier is ATT) yesterday and 3 hours later - the phone was "bricked" as I have been told. Apparently, (these are his words) he "unlocked the bootloader using HTCdev, then flashed twrp, then flashed supersu.zip.
I have no idea what any of that means but apparently he did something wrong because his phone is not working and we don't know how to fix it. If you have any compassion for a frustrated Mom who's trying not to be angry with her son -- I would appreciate any advice you can give on how to fix this.
I have attached a picture of what the phone looks like when we turn it on. I also posted this under the ATT forum too.
Thanks in advance for your help!
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Going by the pic, the bootloader has been relocked. So that's a problem. The bootloader will need to be unlocked again. I would suggest heading over to Youtube, as I have found video tutorials the most helpful when I was learning this stuff. There are plenty of videos that are even specific to the M8.
Edit: I should also point out that a phone can almost always be saved/restored if it still powers on. So don't panic. It would probably be in your best interest though to find someone experienced to fix it. Trying to explain the process to fix it here is not going to be helpful to someone who doesn't know what they're doing. If you can't find someone experienced, then my best suggestion, as stated above, would be to watch some Youtube tutorials on unlocking/rooting the M8.
Okay. In all seriousness.
When was this screen grab taken? In other words, is this your current position with the phone?
Relocked... etc etc
Are you in the US on AT&T?
Your tech son needs to restore ATT backup.. Hopefully someone in that forum has it
sent from my mobile device
UPDATE on my son
Thank you all so much for your responses! It is much appreciated. Believe it or not - this kid fixed it all by himself. Basically (remember I am not technical) he unlocked the boot loader then flashed a ROM onto an SD card and was able to load. Don't think I worded correctly - but I think you know what I am talking about -- it's fixed and working fine. WHEW!!
I guess he "retraced" the steps he did last night and was able to get it. Actually it's strange the first ROM he put on wasn't allowing him to find or pick up wifi. He found another and got it. This kid is good!
I will certainly keep the info to this forum handy because something tells me that I will be visiting again with this child..................
Have a great evening!!
p.s. I typed the wrong key -- he's 12 not 11 And - sure I'd adopt! But he did save up his own money to get this phone and only wanted it to do these "cool" things as he says to it.....rest of my family - we are simple and use Iphones -- sorry.
All I can say to this is Wow!!
Bchgirl19 said:
Thank you all so much for your responses! It is much appreciated. Believe it or not - this kid fixed it all by himself. Basically (remember I am not technical) he unlocked the boot loader then flashed a ROM onto an SD card and was able to load. Don't think I worded correctly - but I think you know what I am talking about -- it's fixed and working fine. WHEW!!
I guess he "retraced" the steps he did last night and was able to get it. Actually it's strange the first ROM he put on wasn't allowing him to find or pick up wifi. He found another and got it. This kid is good!
I will certainly keep the info to this forum handy because something tells me that I will be visiting again with this child..................
Have a great evening!!
p.s. I typed the wrong key -- he's 12 not 11 And - sure I'd adopt! But he did save up his own money to get this phone and only wanted it to do these "cool" things as he says to it.....rest of my family - we are simple and use Iphones -- sorry.
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I'm glad to hear everything worked out for you and your son.
It's great to know that you're letting your kid tinker around as he is. I know these are quite expensive devices, but we often do learn from our mistakes, and that is even more true when it comes to technology. I'm sure that I have a bit of a bias being a software developer, but tech is such a huge part of life now, and that is only going to become more so with time. So getting an early start as he is, your son is going to have a leg-up in the world, even if he doesn't choose this type of field as a career path.
MindfulSheep said:
I'm glad to hear everything worked out for you and your son.
It's great to know that you're letting your kid tinker around as he is. I know these are quite expensive devices, but we often do learn from our mistakes, and that is even more true when it comes to technology. I'm sure that I have a bit of a bias being a software developer, but tech is such a huge part of life now, and that is only going to become more so with time. So getting an early start as he is, your son is going to have a leg-up in the world, even if he doesn't choose this type of field as a career path.
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Agree! But keep an eye on him, so that he sleeps from time to time. And hide your car keys!
Please don't create multiple threads asking the same question.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2750594
MindfulSheep said:
I'm glad to hear everything worked out for you and your son.
It's great to know that you're letting your kid tinker around as he is. I know these are quite expensive devices, but we often do learn from our mistakes, and that is even more true when it comes to technology. I'm sure that I have a bit of a bias being a software developer, but tech is such a huge part of life now, and that is only going to become more so with time. So getting an early start as he is, your son is going to have a leg-up in the world, even if he doesn't choose this type of field as a career path.
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Thanks!! He's very into all of this stuff and always has been from a very young age -- started with Legos at 2. He doesn't play sports and this is his "thing". He really LOVES all this stuff. He's actually really good and understands most things. As you can see - we certainly have issues now and then but overall we certainly let him "tinker". I really should write stuff down so we can laugh about it in about 10 years. We tried to limit his Internet time a couple of years ago and added a password on his computer that we had to input on his computer to gain access. Little **** put a keystroke logger on the computer to get the password. Then he somehow modified the main password screen to say PENIS when we logged on. The stories go on and on....... We will let him continue his technology building and hopefully he really have a bright future in technology!
Thanks for all of the input and support from this forum!
Bchgirl19 said:
Thanks!! He's very into all of this stuff and always has been from a very young age -- started with Legos at 2. He doesn't play sports and this is his "thing". He really LOVES all this stuff. He's actually really good and understands most things. As you can see - we certainly have issues now and then but overall we certainly let him "tinker". I really should write stuff down so we can laugh about it in about 10 years. We tried to limit his Internet time a couple of years ago and added a password on his computer that we had to input on his computer to gain access. Little **** put a keystroke logger on the computer to get the password. Then he somehow modified the main password screen to say PENIS when we logged on. The stories go on and on....... We will let him continue his technology building and hopefully he really have a bright future in technology!
Thanks for all of the input and support from this forum!
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I was the same from an early age and always have been. I have taken apart or modified more household items than I can think of. I broke a lot of stuff messing as a kid, but now I have a lot of knowledge and can fix almost any thing properly.
It seems you are not so bad yourself with the technical stuff as most moms wouldn't have a clue or even be able to repeat what you have explained here.
Assuming it even hits our device in an official capacity at some point, I will not be taking the Lollipop update. Why not? Because Google has decided to add a kill switch...
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/15/...includes-kill-switch-factory-reset-protection
Sure, it sounds like a smart idea and a nice feature on the surface, but having spent more than my fair share of time mucking about with various means of remotely (and stealthily) accessing Android devices, the potential for abuse is too great....Not to mention the fact that the NSA and other alphabets must be absolutely thrilled about such a 'feature'. No thanks....
I see your point. There are ups and downs to.. Pretty much everything. I, myself, would be more than thrilled for a 5.0 update. Not like any of my bank info or other personal info has been stolen or used without my consent, nor have I done any really big illegal activities through my device which would give the NSA a reason to look my way.
Interesting. I think it's worth noting, the article claims that Google implemented the ability to remotely lock phones "last year." So that should automatically dispel any notion of anonymity. Besides that, i think the NSA and other "outfits" have had access to personal devices long before the announcement of lollipop. If you really desire to stay off the grid, he prepared to make substantial efforts.
Not that the NSA needs such a feature. They're already capable of going through your phone it's nothing new.
A big issue would be someone maliciously taking over the kill switch and locking you out with no way in.
Yeah that would definitely suck.
The thing that concerns me most isn't privacy or nefarious doings by the NSA. Everyone knows by now (or should) that privacy and anonymity don't exist in the digital world, and the NSA already has their grubby mitts into everything. I'm more concerned about the possibility of other random people being able to lock me out of my phone.
I'm not going to go into detail, as XDA is not the place for such things and the information can easily be gleaned elsewhere, but as I mentioned, there are already fairly simple ways to get full, remote access of somebody's phone. All it takes is 20 seconds or so of physical access to a device, or a little bit of social engineering to get somebody to install a seemingly benign apk (infected Play Store updates were my favorite), and you can do whatever you want, undetected.
Now imagine you install something, and unbeknownst to you it gives someone complete remote access to your device, starts sniffing passwords, and running keyloggers. Before long, they've got your complete Google account (for example). Next, they change your password, associated phone number, and recovery email addresses to their own, and activate your device's 'kill switch'. You would be left holding a paper weight, without ever knowing what happened, and there would be nothing you could do about it...
I tend to be very careful about what I install, but even I have installed the odd apk I've gotten here at XDA, or compiled and installed something from Github without checking through the source. It's almost impossible to be 100% certain everything you install is clean.
Fortunately, such malicious 'attacks' (for lack of a better word) aren't all that common, relatively speaking. The odds of you randomly becoming a victim of such a thing are marginal. Also, I'm sure once Lollipop is out in the wild, people will start finding flaws with the 'kill switch' implementation, and ultimately, ways of circumventing it. Maybe then I'll consider updating. Until then, however, knowing what nefarious things are possible with it, however unlikely, far outweighs any potential reasons to want to update.
Maybe I'm a little over-paranoid, but that's my take on it, for what it's worth....
Morningstar said:
The thing that concerns me most isn't privacy or nefarious doings by the NSA. Everyone knows by now (or should) that privacy and anonymity don't exist in the digital world, and the NSA already has their grubby mitts into everything. I'm more concerned about the possibility of other random people being able to lock me out of my phone.
I'm not going to go into detail, as XDA is not the place for such things and the information can easily be gleaned elsewhere, but as I mentioned, there are already fairly simple ways to get full, remote access of somebody's phone. All it takes is 20 seconds or so of physical access to a device, or a little bit of social engineering to get somebody to install a seemingly benign apk (infected Play Store updates were my favorite), and you can do whatever you want, undetected.
Now imagine you install something, and unbeknownst to you it gives someone complete remote access to your device, starts sniffing passwords, and running keyloggers. Before long, they've got your complete Google account (for example). Next, they change your password, associated phone number, and recovery email addresses to their own, and activate your device's 'kill switch'. You would be left holding a paper weight, without ever knowing what happened, and there would be nothing you could do about it...
I tend to be very careful about what I install, but even I have installed the odd apk I've gotten here at XDA, or compiled and installed something from Github without checking through the source. It's almost impossible to be 100% certain everything you install is clean.
Fortunately, such malicious 'attacks' (for lack of a better word) aren't all that common, relatively speaking. The odds of you randomly becoming a victim of such a thing are marginal. Also, I'm sure once Lollipop is out in the wild, people will start finding flaws with the 'kill switch' implementation, and ultimately, ways of circumventing it. Maybe then I'll consider updating. Until then, however, knowing what nefarious things are possible with it, however unlikely, far outweighs any potential reasons to want to update.
Maybe I'm a little over-paranoid, but that's my take on it, for what it's worth....
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I wouldn't doubt it if people are already considering to do that to a greater extent.
First of all the name itself "kill switch" is totally misleading. "Killing" something or somebody in full meaning of the word means ending it's life permanently. The way I read the article, this thing simply disables the phone remotely until proper password is entered? How is this different from SIM card lock password protection, or log on password most phones have for ages, that now it will be mandated by another useless law? Or maybe that this new method can not be bypassed? It's still not a kill switch, if it can be reversed and it should be called disable switch or something, but it doesn't have the same ring to it.
There has to be way to unlock the phone without password, otherwise there will be a lot of angry people who forgot/lost password especially if set once and forgotten until let's say 6 months later the switch is activated.
For example couple years ago I think I set password for program purchases on my cable box, so kids can't purchase something by accident, I have no idea what that password is. At least I have no intentions of buying anything.
Also what stops the thief from breaking phone apart and selling parts? My wife broke the screen on her GS3, replacement screen is more expensive than brand new GS3.
And who activates the switch? if user, a lot of people won't have a clue, if company, imagine some prankster breaks into Apple servers, steals the codes and kills 3,000,000 iphones, actually come to think of it, that wouldn't be such a bad thing.
I may not update to L either, but for more practical reasons, like are there any benefits for me, is there root method without tripping knox, or will it kill my battery, like update to KK did.
pete4k said:
First of all the name itself "kill switch" is totally misleading. "Killing" something or somebody in full meaning of the word means ending it's life permanently. The way I read the article, this thing simply disables the phone remotely until proper password is entered? How is this different from SIM card lock password protection, or log on password most phones have for ages, that now it will be mandated by another useless law? Or maybe that this new method can not be bypassed?
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I agree that 'kill switch' probably isn't the best term for it. My understanding, from the few articles I've read about it, is that it will lock the phone down until the Google account is verified. I'm not sure if that verification will be done via password entry, email verification, two-factor authentication, or some other means.
For an attacker using the methods I've previously mentioned, a SIM lock would pose a problem, but lockscreen passwords, patterns and pins are trivial to get around.
Like I said, it's not clear yet (from what I've found) how verification will be done to deactivate the 'kill switch', but if it does in fact require verifying the associated Google account in some way, a phone's legitimate owner would be out of luck, as somebody with the means and desire to activate the 'kill switch' in the first place would have no problem in also gaining complete and total control of the associated Google account.
I want to be clear that this is speculation based on my current understanding of a 'feature' that has not yet been released to the public. There may well be safeguards in place to prevent such things, and Google may still make changes before Lollipop is available to the public. I am not suggesting that people refrain from updating to Lollipop when and if an update becomes available. I also want to emphasize that even if the 'feature' is released with such inherent vulnerabilities, that it is not something the average user should every worry about. The odds of anyone randomly being a victim of such an attack are practically non-existant.
That being said, this is XDA. Most members here are fairly technical-minded (at least compared to the general public), and are interested in knowing and realizing the full potential of their devices. As such, I think it should at least be known that such vulnerabilities as I've mentioned do exist, and attacks may be made that much worse, depending on how Google implements the 'kill switch' feature. However remote it may be, it's a possibility, and something that people may or may not want to take into consideration.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe....
Not really a sound reason to avoid lollipop in my opinion. If you're concerned about the remote tracking (that already exists) and the upcoming kill switch; after root, find the associated files and freeze or delete them. The mobile tracker came off my phone right after Knox, not for any reason other than the fact it eats battery like crazy. There's always work arounds to their technology, but as far as the nsa, or any other group or morons listening to you; the chances of you as an individual being targeted are 1 in 136,149,000 (in the US). I don't care if you have 50,000 stolen mp3's on your device and like to try and steal old ladies bank account numbers with your tablet, it's chump change to them and having the mindset that they're listening is as bad as these people who prepare for dooms day, zombie apocalypse, and everything else... it's just crazy. If your concerns are a kill switch, then you might as well stay in your house because there's cameras everywhere out there, your ps3 and Xbox cameras can be accessed if you're on the Web, there's hundreds of satellites circling the globe gathering information, and every thought, search or anything you've done on the Web is accessible whether you delete your history or not. If your computer has been there, there's a footprint, if you used a vpn or tried playing shadow games to hide your identity, it can be traced if they want to. Life is too short top worry about such silly things. Live it up and have fun!
Just my 2 cents for the night.
Do you wear a tin foil hat too?? Whether you like it or not, you're on the grid already. There is no getting off. The NSA wants you, they're gonna get you. Good luck running
That is very true. But as more people protest, the companies are actually fighting back against the government. Like Yahoo against the NSA and Facebook against the DEA, people just need to keep letting know that we won't tolerate getting stripped buttass naked of our personal privacy.
Sent from my hlte using XDA Free mobile app
nighthawk626 said:
That is very true. But as more people protest, the companies are actually fighting back against the government. Like Yahoo against the NSA and Facebook against the DEA, people just need to keep letting know that we won't tolerate getting stripped buttass naked of our personal privacy.
Sent from my hlte using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just look at Apple. They're getting a lot of heat for the filevault encryption software.
Apple has had their legs spread open and panties dropped for the government since day one.
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
nighthawk626 said:
Apple has had their legs spread open and panties dropped for the government since day one.
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same and to a greater extent can be said about facebook.
here, http://www.xda-developers.com/android/android-l-lockdown/, right on topic of this thread.
nighthawk626 said:
That is very true. But as more people protest, the companies are actually fighting back against the government. Like Yahoo against the NSA and Facebook against the DEA, people just need to keep letting know that we won't tolerate getting stripped buttass naked of our personal privacy.
Sent from my hlte using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dog and pony show to give a false sense of privacy from these companies to their customers... See the yahoo gag order and the by-the-day increasing fines that the government was imposing to them unless they allowed them to access their data. If the government wants it, they will get it, no matter how 'safe' these clowns make you believe otherwise
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
I think a lot of you are missing my point. I'm not worried about the NSA, big brother, or anonymity (or rather the lack thereof). Those are concerns, of course, but I think everyone here knows that if you have any sort of cell phone, they can track and monitor you, and probably are.
What I'm worried about is the potential for random people gaining access to your phone and its' associated accounts and activating this 'kill switch', essentially leaving you with a paper weight. As I've already stated, I am not entirely sure that such a thing will be possible, as I have not seen the source code or all the minute details about how Google is implementing this. However, if it is implemented as described in the articles I've found about it, without any further security measures, there could be a problem.
If it is as described, I would have no problem remotely accessing a device, seizing control of the associated Google account, and activating the 'kill switch', without the device's owner ever having a clue it was happening. Of course I wouldn't do such a thing, especially to random people just for the 'lulz', but we all know there are people that would.
Hopefully that made some sense....I've been awake for too long lol
Not like hackers can't do that already...
Come on man.
Welcome to the 21st century.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app
I don't know about you guys but I did have an LG L9 that I completely bricked. Now the thing would not turn on, no lights, nothing. But with some research, .exe file on my computer, and directions from some very savvy people I was able to plug in my phone to the computer while pressing three buttons that got me onto fast boot mode. This is where I was able to delete the system and install each partition bit by bit. Took helluva long time with multiple tries to finally get it working but it did. My two cents.
Sent from my SM-N900T using xda premium
Hello everyone,
Long time mystified lurker, first time poster.. before you jump my arse please know that I have searched the forums to the best of my abilities. I am only able to find answers regarding custom kernels/unrelated posts. I have an unrooted completely stock out of the box ATT carrier locked S20 Ultra 5g (SM-G988U) with the Snapdragon 865. Please forgive me because I am learning and doing my best to provide relevant information. But within my recovery logs for last_kmsg I get a big NOTICE stating tace_printk() is allocating extra memory and that IOMMU DebugFS has been enabled. I cannot seem to figure out why this notice is appearing and I cannot get any explanation from ATT or Samsung. I recent called ATT via 611, after being connected to a manager and laying out my question, I was hung up on and my sim card was no longer recognized. I tried putting my sim into a carrier unlocked moto g7 play and it also does not think I have inserted the sim. I had to go into the ATT store to purchase a new simcard and the new one works perfectly. My data was never turned off in my account and my sim card was supposedly still active according to the store employee.
Again guys, so sorry for the dummy talk... thanks for sticking with me so far!
This may or may not sound stupid but it appears I may have a virtual machine running on top of my android system?? I ran a GPU Benchmark and my GPU Load never increased from 0% and my CPU seemed to have been doing all the work.
I cannot get answers from XDA forum searches,, Googling, ATT, Samsung, employer and I am genuinely concerned because I work for a financial institution and at one point had my work email configured on this device. I handle lots of PII so I have been taking unpaid vacation to try to figure this out without much luck.
I have not and could not possibly cover everything I have tested/searched/noticed. I am basically either a lot dumber than the average bear or my internet searches are being filtered to make this troubleshooting extremely difficult. At this point I am going out of my comfort zone to post online for the first time ever on any forum so please be gentle with me. Also, I could literally talk for days about what I've done and what I have figured out these past couple weeks so PLEASE ask me questions if you have any. You can mock me and call me stupid, please just do so in a manner that details where I am going wrong.
Sorry for the crappy sentence structure and grammar... I was a sailor and not a college student for a reason! Thanks for any support you can provide!
Much love
so you went looking into device kmsg logs and found something u dont understamd and assume thats what killed ur sim card?
lol
thats normal output on many samsung devices.. its not anything nefarious.. not sure what u mean about a virtual machine running lol.. i suppose if u installed and set one up maybe ones running?
either way it sounds like ur device is fine/normal and ur just looking into stuff u dont quite understand.. and i can guarantee att or sammy reps etc know less than most ppl lol
that being said, sim cards can fail sometimes and need to b replaced.. ive had a few die randomly over the years.. it happens. It also indicates bad sim seeing as how it didnt work in ur other device eithet.
Bootsie needs help said:
Hello everyone,
Long time mystified lurker, first time poster.. before you jump my arse please know that I have searched the forums to the best of my abilities. I am only able to find answers regarding custom kernels/unrelated posts. I have an unrooted completely stock out of the box ATT carrier locked S20 Ultra 5g (SM-G988U) with the Snapdragon 865. Please forgive me because I am learning and doing my best to provide relevant information. But within my recovery logs for last_kmsg I get a big NOTICE stating tace_printk() is allocating extra memory and that IOMMU DebugFS has been enabled. I cannot seem to figure out why this notice is appearing and I cannot get any explanation from ATT or Samsung. I recent called ATT via 611, after being connected to a manager and laying out my question, I was hung up on and my sim card was no longer recognized. I tried putting my sim into a carrier unlocked moto g7 play and it also does not think I have inserted the sim. I had to go into the ATT store to purchase a new simcard and the new one works perfectly. My data was never turned off in my account and my sim card was supposedly still active according to the store employee.
Again guys, so sorry for the dummy talk... thanks for sticking with me so far!
This may or may not sound stupid but it appears I may have a virtual machine running on top of my android system?? I ran a GPU Benchmark and my GPU Load never increased from 0% and my CPU seemed to have been doing all the work.
I cannot get answers from XDA forum searches,, Googling, ATT, Samsung, employer and I am genuinely concerned because I work for a financial institution and at one point had my work email configured on this device. I handle lots of PII so I have been taking unpaid vacation to try to figure this out without much luck.
I have not and could not possibly cover everything I have tested/searched/noticed. I am basically either a lot dumber than the average bear or my internet searches are being filtered to make this troubleshooting extremely difficult. At this point I am going out of my comfort zone to post online for the first time ever on any forum so please be gentle with me. Also, I could literally talk for days about what I've done and what I have figured out these past couple weeks so PLEASE ask me questions if you have any. You can mock me and call me stupid, please just do so in a manner that details where I am going wrong.
Sorry for the crappy sentence structure and grammar... I was a sailor and not a college student for a reason! Thanks for any support you can provide!
Much love
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have noticed this same thing. The warning message obviously states that it is unsafe for production use therefore how is this supposed to be normal? I am just as concerned with this warning message as you are. I hope someone that knows something more about it will come forward and provide an answer that actually offers some kind of real explanation as to what is going on here.
Hey guys,
I issued a complaint about my 6 Pro (purchased from the Google Store in November) some weeks ago due to it having connection loss, GPS never pointing me in the direct direction (and some other things), got an replacement device, that randomly rebooted like 5 times in the first 2 days, so I sent back the replacement and hoped for the updates to resolve my issues with the original one. Well they didnt and I just got out of a chat with a service agent, who said, they can only offer repair options now.
As a Google buyer since the nexus days, having the ability to get a good service has always been a strong case for my choice for Google. This is very disappointing. Since when did things change, and why? Or are there people who got more than one replacement?
The dude i had in the chat today said he checked with the specific deparment and they will only offer repair for my device.
Thanks guys!
In the future return the device in the available return window if defective.
Make it their problem not yours (I have 2 open box specials to my name so far with Samsung).
You can try contacting your bank if you used a MC to see if you can return the device and get the bank to do a charge back.
You need to be effectively assertive or people will walk all over you.
I be all over Google like a cheap suit...
xflowy said:
Hey guys,
I issued a complaint about my 6 Pro (purchased from the Google Store in November) some weeks ago due to it having connection loss, GPS never pointing me in the direct direction (and some other things), got an replacement device, that randomly rebooted like 5 times in the first 2 days, so I sent back the replacement and hoped for the updates to resolve my issues with the original one. Well they didnt and I just got out of a chat with a service agent, who said, they can only offer repair options.
As a Google buyer since the nexus days, having the ability to get a good service has always been a strong case for my choice for Google. This is very disappointing. Since when did things change, and why? Or are there people who got more than one replacement?
The dude said he checked with the specific deparment and they will only offer repair for my device.
Thanks guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Connectivity problems seem to be mainly software related, many people were able to fix their problems by flashing the november radio file. What other problems do you have?
Have you set up your device "fresh" or with a backup? Google cloud or cable?
Some people had problems with backups, if Google doesn't offer you another replacement, I'd suggest to set up your device without any previous backup stuff, to see if that solves your issue.
That's a weird turn of events with that agent
What you are describing is a complete change from how Google handled warranty claims in the past. I would call back and see if the answer changes, this feels like a support agent that was confused.
That said, Google is currently in a very bad spot with support, it is a disaster.
TonikJDK said:
What you are describing is a complete change from how Google handled warranty claims in the past. I would call back and see if the answer changes, this feels like a support agent that was confused.
That said, Google is currently in a very bad spot with support, it is a disaster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a good idea to call back. Can't tell you how many times I've received different answers depending on who I talk to from various company's support services.
Lughnasadh said:
This is a good idea to call back. Can't tell you how many times I've received different answers depending on who I talk to from various company's support services.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TonikJDK said:
What you are describing is a complete change from how Google handled warranty claims in the past. I would call back and see if the answer changes, this feels like a support agent that was confused.
That said, Google is currently in a very bad spot with support, it is a disaster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know right. I buying from Google since the nexus days. And getting a replacement has never been an issue. But there seems to be a change in poilicies.
Thats why I'm asking, if someone got a second replacement device, cause I think that is were the cutoff is now.
xflowy said:
Thats why I'm asking, if someone got a second replacement device, cause I think that is were the cutoff is now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it is, this is the last Pixel I will buy.
Are you on Twitter? Send a message to MadeByGoogle. They might provide clarity.
TonikJDK said:
Are you on Twitter? Send a message to MadeByGoogle. They might provide clarity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly i am not on twitter :/ perhaps someone can take over here?
blackhawk said:
In the future return the device in the available return window if defective.
Make it their problem not yours (I have 2 open box specials to my name so far with Samsung).
You can try contacting your bank if you used a MC to see if you can return the device and get the bank to do a charge back.
You need to be effectively assertive or people will walk all over you.
I be all over Google like a cheap suit...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you do a chargeback they'll freeze your Google account. Lots of reports of this happening on Reddit and they never reverse course and let you keep the account.
EtherealRemnant said:
If you do a chargeback they'll freeze your Google account. Lots of reports of this happening on Reddit and they never reverse course and let you keep the account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All the more reason to never do business with this company it true. I'd return it anyway. Then start filing complaints if they froze the account.
The FTC will take action if they get enough complaints of inappropriate behavior like this.
As it is I would never give Google a dime outright anyway.
blackhawk said:
All the more reason to never do business with this company it true. I'd return it anyway. Then start filing complaints if they froze the account.
The FTC will take action if they get enough complaints of inappropriate behavior like this.
As it is I would never give Google a dime outright anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah after hearing about the chargeback situation I decided I'll order from Amazon when it's time. Too many reports of FedEx stealing the phones and Google support not being helpful with requesting refunds.
I agree with OP that it's a shame if Google has now decided they'll only replace a device once. A defective device is a defective device, not anyone but Google's fault that their QA sucks.
EtherealRemnant said:
Yeah after hearing about the chargeback situation I decided I'll order from Amazon when it's time. Too many reports of FedEx stealing the phones and Google support not being helpful with requesting refunds.
I agree with OP that it's a shame if Google has now decided they'll only replace a device once. A defective device is a defective device, not anyone but Google's fault that their QA sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As Lughnasadh pointed out calling Google back is a good idea. I've literally called some companies over 2 dozen times over the course of a week or two, escalating the case, ask to talk to supervisors, managers, even a VP at Sony.
Trying to get them to do the right thing.
Hammer them until they blink first... it's like playing the slots.
I'm successful almost always but it can take some doing. Once I get started I go to town...*
It's all good though because it's another free course in assertive training. Unfortunately for them I'm already well trained and worse I enjoy it
*attitude adjustment theme music courtesy the Kinks
I think maybe too many scams going on....
Morgrain said:
Connectivity problems seem to be mainly software related, many people were able to fix their problems by flashing the november radio file. What other problems do you have?
Have you set up your device "fresh" or with a backup? Google cloud or cable?
Some people had problems with backups, if Google doesn't offer you another replacement, I'd suggest to set up your device without any previous backup stuff, to see if that solves your issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually, from what I heard it was mainly adaptive connect that caused the problem. (Least it was for me and I was on December update, but November did it to). Now I am on January update.
edmondt said:
I think maybe too many scams going on....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. People bl unlock flash the wrong image, can't recover, and say my phone won't respond. Not that it happened here but you can search the threads and see what I mean.
bobby janow said:
I agree. People bl unlock flash the wrong image, can't recover, and say my phone won't respond. Not that it happened here but you can search the threads and see what I mean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No doubt that may be true, but not all devices are equal (even the same model).
It's a dirty little secret but a common practice for phone manufacturers to substitute smaller chipsets and components during a production run due to parts availability. If it's a chipset it may not be compatible with the original firmware instruction set.
Eventually the manufacturer will modify the firmware to incorporate these off spec components, hopefully. Once they realize there's a problem. Almost always they need to physically examine the device to know if/what was substituted. So yeah they like you to send it in for repair. Fking beta hardware
Samsung is known to do this.
So when others are having issues you never experienced or easily fixed and they can't, don't be so sure it's the user's fault. Especially if there are wide spread reports.
so no one here who got a second replacement device?
xflowy said:
so no one here who got a second replacement device?
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Click to collapse
I'm very sure I remember reading some other members in this section reporting having received second replacement devices. No idea who they were or in which threads you might find their posts, though.