Hello,
As Google has decided to turn encryption on as a standard in the upcoming Android 5.0, I thought I would give it a test on my CosmicCM 5.4.
I started the encryption and it prompts you that you for a passcode that will be used from now on, so far no problem.
It started encrypting my device and it was running for some time(I left it alone for an hour) and reboots a couple of times.
After he's finished the annoyance came.
first you will have to type twice your password with a reboot, one time do decrypt your device the second time to enter your device.
Be aware that performance can be slowed through encryption, and it can negatively impact battery life too.
So I decide to go back.
The Problem: Once encrypted, you can't decrypt it easily.
When encrypting the phone android will tell you you can only decrypt it using a factory reset. Naturally you assume it's talking about the "Factory Data Reset" option found in Settings --> Backup and Reset and this works.
Now I wanted to try a rom (TW 4.2.2 based) and see how this worked and after installing and booting.
I got prompted to enter the decryption and of course this didn’t work anymore as there is no data for the password.
So I assumed you can wipe everything from your custom recovery mod (CWM, TWRP, or one of those).
Wrong! You'll get beautiful "can't mount /data" messages and more.
After some hard time I got everything working again, by flashing CosmicCM again.
The phone booted al clean again without asking for encryption and when you check the menu it also mentioned encryption is deactivated.
Trying the previous rom again just triggerd the encryption again.
So It seems that there is still somewhere a hidden encrypted protection that will be activated when I flash a different rom.
So be warned and don’t play with encrypting your device as you could brick it.
Didn't have time to investigate further on how I can remove it completely, but my guess is I have to redo all the partitions.
I was on the same boat a month ago
akiratoriyama said:
I was on the same boat a month ago
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I wish you told me sooner
Did you redo all the partitions to get the encryption completely removed?
RichyE said:
I wish you told me sooner
Did you redo all the partitions to get the encryption completely removed?
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Click to collapse
I think I had to wipe my data via Philz, CWM and stock to remove encryption.
akiratoriyama said:
I think I had to wipe my data via Philz, CWM and stock to remove encryption.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, will try to flash stock this week and see if this helps
Hey Guys,
When I got my OP3 I unlocked the bootloader right away and installed FreedomOS to get rid of the bloatware. As this is my first device, which comes with a locked bootloader and decryption, I have some questions about this topic. I was wondering that the encryption does not make any sense when you unlock your bootloader, because if somebody steals your phone, he can just enter twrp and access all your data. Then I flashed CM and after that TWRP was asking me to set a pin or pattern to lock my phone. Now I've to unlock my phone every time I want to enter the recovery or boot the system with a pattern, which is great, because now the encryption is not worthless anymore. Now I'm asking myself if this feature is somehow integrated into CM or was it just random that I found this feature? Is there any way to get this also with OOS installed? What things do I have to note to not accidentally make my phone unencryptable with the pattern? Is this even possible, maybe by flashing a new recovery or so?
Thanks in advance
Gerrit507 said:
Hey Guys,
When I got my OP3 I unlocked the bootloader right away and installed FreedomOS to get rid of the bloatware. As this is my first device, which comes with a locked bootloader and decryption, I have some questions about this topic. I was wondering that the encryption does not make any sense when you unlock your bootloader, because if somebody steals your phone, he can just enter twrp and access all your data. Then I flashed CM and after that TWRP was asking me to set a pin or pattern to lock my phone. Now I've to unlock my phone every time I want to enter the recovery or boot the system with a pattern, which is great, because now the encryption is not worthless anymore. Now I'm asking myself if this feature is somehow integrated into CM or was it just random that I found this feature? Is there any way to get this also with OOS installed? What things do I have to note to not accidentally make my phone unencryptable with the pattern? Is this even possible, maybe by flashing a new recovery or so?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your phone is encrypted, TWRP has to prompt you to decrypt the /data partition before it can be mounted. This isn't a CM feature, it should act like this with any ROM if phone encryption is enabled. I've flashed most every rom and version of twrp in this forum and they all seem to work fine with the encryption enabled. I have not flashed multiboot yet as that requires your phone to be completely unencrypted. Not sure if that answers your question.
If security is your concern though, I would recommend switching to a passphrase instead of pattern for encryption unless your pattern is very long and complex. I recommend a passphrase of at least 16 characters.
kennonk said:
If your phone is encrypted, TWRP has to prompt you to decrypt the /data partition before it can be mounted. This isn't a CM feature, it should act like this with any ROM if phone encryption is enabled. I've flashed most every rom and version of twrp in this forum and they all seem to work fine with the encryption enabled. I have not flashed multiboot yet as that requires your phone to be completely unencrypted. Not sure if that answers your question.
If security is your concern though, I would recommend switching to a passphrase instead of pattern for encryption unless your pattern is very long and complex. I recommend a passphrase of at least 16 characters.
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Ok I see, than I was getting something wrong there, thank you. The thing is FreedomOS stated that the phone is encrypted but I was never asked for the pattern by TWRP...
Gerrit507 said:
Ok I see, than I was getting something wrong there, thank you. The thing is FreedomOS stated that the phone is encrypted but I was never asked for the pattern by TWRP...
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When you first booted up your stock phone and went through setup it asks if you want to secure the phone using pin/pattern/passphrase. I think that is where it is created then that key is written somewhere, not on the data or system partitions because is persists between wipes, and that is where TWRP and all future roms are authenticating you.
kennonk said:
When you first booted up your stock phone and went through setup it asks if you want to secure the phone using pin/pattern/passphrase. I think that is where it is created then that key is written somewhere, not on the data or system partitions because is persists between wipes, and that is where TWRP and all future roms are authenticating you.
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Click to collapse
Ok, I can not remember this... Then I guess the phone just stated it was encrypted and wasn't... And how can I change this pattern or unencrypt the phone?
Gerrit507 said:
Ok, I can not remember this... Then I guess the phone just stated it was encrypted and wasn't... And how can I change this pattern or unencrypt the phone?
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Click to collapse
Here is how to decrypt without losing data. http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/unencrypt-oxygenos-loosing-data-t3412228
There is another article I think I saw it on the OnePlus forums about how to decrypt and wipe which will let you change the passphrase I think.
Basically if you decrypt, then flash Oxygen or Hydrogen without SuperSU it will force you to re-encrypt. At least that is my understanding as I haven't decrypted yet.
Good luck
kennonk said:
Here is how to decrypt without losing data. http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/unencrypt-oxygenos-loosing-data-t3412228
There is another article I think I saw it on the OnePlus forums about how to decrypt and wipe which will let you change the passphrase I think.
Basically if you decrypt, then flash Oxygen or Hydrogen without SuperSU it will force you to re-encrypt. At least that is my understanding as I haven't decrypted yet.
Good luck
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As far as I understood it, it's all about wiping userdata, which I did before flashing Freedom OS. This might explain why I had no encryption... Still strange that it did not prompt me again to set a new one...
edit: FreedomOS has supersu, but systemless... I also flashed supersu right after CM which is even more strange...
Gerrit507 said:
As far as I understood it, it's all about wiping userdata, which I did before flashing Freedom OS. This might explain why I had no encryption... Still strange that it did not prompt me again to set a new one...
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Yeah I have wiped userdata and system and clean reflashed like 20-30 times in the last few weeks and I've never been prompted to recreate the initial passphrase I set for encryption.
kennonk said:
Yeah I have wiped userdata and system and clean reflashed like 20-30 times in the last few weeks and I've never been prompted to recreate the initial passphrase I set for encryption.
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But I never had to decrypt in TWRP... It's mysterious As far as I understand the guide he just wipes userdata and the encryption is gone... Is there somebody who knows for sure where the key is located actually?
edit: Seems like the encryption key is coupled to your password
When a user elects to change or remove their password in settings, the UI sends the command cryptfs changepw to vold, and vold re-encrypts the disk master key with the new password.
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https://source.android.com/security/encryption/
I can confirm that. I changed my pattern and unlocked the phone with it at booting.
If I remove my password it still says "encrypted" in security but I don't have to enter any pattern at boot.
Mine says "Encrypted" under Settings > Security & Fingerprint > Encryption but I can boot into TWRP and browse the entire file system without ever entering my pin code.
dcdruck1117 said:
Mine says "Encrypted" under Settings > Security & Fingerprint > Encryption but I can boot into TWRP and browse the entire file system without ever entering my pin code.
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Sounds like you have the same issue like I had. It seems to me like an issue in OOS.
This is awesome. I thought rooting and unlocking the bootloader to install custom ROMs would need the phone to be decrypted -- great, great news!
So without knowing the passphrase a possible attacker can't get to the data even when the bootloader is unlocked and OS rooted?
kanttii said:
This is awesome. I thought rooting and unlocking the bootloader to install custom ROMs would need the phone to be decrypted -- great, great news!
So without knowing the passphrase a possible attacker can't get to the data even when the bootloader is unlocked and OS rooted?
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Click to collapse
Yes, all your data is being decrypted after your enter the passphrase.
Does anyone have any idea how I can encrypt my phone if it already says Settings > Security & fingerprint > Encryption > Encrypt phone = "Encrypted"? It's clearly not actually encrypted because I do not have to enter any pin to boot or read data in TWRP.
dcdruck1117 said:
Does anyone have any idea how I can encrypt my phone if it already says Settings > Security & fingerprint > Encryption > Encrypt phone = "Encrypted"? It's clearly not actually encrypted because I do not have to enter any pin to boot or read data in TWRP.
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Go to lock screen settings and set it up again. You will be prompted if you want to enter pin every reboot.
proag said:
Go to lock screen settings and set it up again. You will be prompted if you want to enter pin every reboot.
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Hey, thanks! The "require PIN to start device" screen doesn't make any mention of encryption, so I was under the impression that it was far more basic and wasn't at all related to encryption. I tried it though and now TWRP does ask me to decrypt my data partition, so it does work. Thanks for the assist!
been following this thread and i had a quick questions - so it looks like if you unlock BL and run a custom ROM, you can still have the security of encryption, but does this ONLY apply to the USERDATA partition?
for example, could someone launch TWRP recovery on your phone and flash something into the SYSTEM partition without ever touching your userdata partition (ie, a keylogger or malware)?
It seems to me that only the data partition is encrypted, but someone correct me if I'm wrong. I looked at the Android full disk encryption page and I only see mentions of the data partition.
dcdruck1117 said:
It seems to me that only the data partition is encrypted, but someone correct me if I'm wrong. I looked at the Android full disk encryption page and I only see mentions of the data partition.
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so system is never encrypted? i guess at that point the stock recovery stops you from flashing malware but \TWRP wont
dcdruck1117 said:
It seems to me that only the data partition is encrypted, but someone correct me if I'm wrong. I looked at the Android full disk encryption page and I only see mentions of the data partition.
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Your internal storage is mounted into your data partition actually. I think this means it's also encrypted.
2x4 said:
so system is never encrypted? i guess at that point the stock recovery stops you from flashing malware but \TWRP wont
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I see no reason behind encrypting system, it's used read-only anyway as long as you don't flash something to it.
edit: Ah I see now what you mean. But if you have stock recovery you can also simply flash twrp over it or flash something to system via adb... I don't know if it would even be possible technically to encrypt system. Anyway I think the only solution would be to lock the bootloader I think. I don't know what actually happens if you lock your bootloader again while on twrp and custom rom, might brick your device
Hello, after i got my op3 i instant decrypted it with fastboot and installed freedomos because i heard there could be problems with rooting etc.
But now i heard, that you can use Customroms and twrp even with encrypted storage, what i find really nice so thiefes can't access my data easily.
Now the question is, can i simply encrypt my device in settings -> security with a password and can i simply enter the password in twrp then, and is the behavior the same as the forced encryption on stock oxy?
Also i have another problem, i cant use cm13, cm14 and resurrectionremix, because it stucks on the op logo on boot. I read that this because the data is decrypted. Will encryption fix this problem or do i have to do the method2 of the unbrick guide to fix it? Well, i can just use my nandroid restored freedomOS rom at the moment, any other roms results in a bootfreeze, even if i update freedomos.
Best regards and thanks for your help guys :fingers-crossed:
So I kind of like the fact encryption is turned on automatically by Nextbit (and I did figure out how to get out of my encryption loop)
And I have tried to encrypt the disk with
-Pacman ROM
-Reserrection ROM
-Paranoid Android
and all of them bootloop and never actuall boot up once you press "encrypt".... so is it impossible to encrypt once you have an unlocked bootloader and recovery installed? I get its detrimental to the whole process of flashing incessantly but still
Grrrrrrr
Can sum1 confirm
tlxxxsracer said:
If you unlock the bootloader,that alone won't cause encryption issues. You have to flash a specific boot.img or zip that will disable encryption.
Don't unencrypt and should be fine.
Not sure why you'd want to encrypt if your BL is unlocked. Encryption only hurts performance
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thanks for the reply
I wanted to encrypt my current ROM to just get the extra protection from theft or lost device.
I really like the current ROM im using and dont need to flash anymore currentlty, so i would be fine locking it down with encryption
But i cant get ANY of the ROMS to encrypt like they normally do say compared to the G3
So there is a solution to this. Basically, when you encrypt the file system on one rom, even when you wipe the data certain things are still tied to the old file system. That's why when you go to encrypt the encryption fails, because the remnant stuff from the other rom is in the way. The solution is to completely reformat the data partition (using TWRP, select format data, or change the data file system to F2FS and then back to ext4.). This will clear the conflicts causing encryption to bootloop. However, this process will need to be repeated every single time you switch roms (updating a rom is fine).
I believe Cyanogenmod supports encryption, though I have never tried it.
yanowman said:
So I kind of like the fact encryption is turned on automatically by Nextbit (and I did figure out how to get out of my encryption loop)
And I have tried to encrypt the disk with
-Pacman ROM
-Reserrection ROM
-Paranoid Android
and all of them bootloop and never actuall boot up once you press "encrypt".... so is it impossible to encrypt once you have an unlocked bootloader and recovery installed? I get its detrimental to the whole process of flashing incessantly but still
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flashed the custom boot image, you CANNOT re encrypt your phone. Won't work.
Hi,
I want to unlock the bootloader on my HTC 10. Yeah, I am going to root, but this is a bootloader question. I need to know what gets erased when one unlocks the bootloader. In particular:
1. Does the ROM get erased?
2. Do the apps get erased?
3. Does the backup of the stock ROM (needed for factor reset) get erased.
I understand that app data gets erased. If the ROM gets erased, the phone is going to be inoperable until I install another ROM. Eventually, I want to root, but I would like to have the option of continuing to run the stock Nougat.
Thanks,
Ndmand
The DATA partition gets erased... Basically it performs a factory reset on the phone as a security measure to make sure someone else isn't unlocking the device to install malware so it does a quick factory reset so any potential customer information is erased.
I believe an app is removed so OTA fails when they do a system check and that app comes up missing. That last part might be an old method since now they might just do a hash check.
1. No
2. If you got them from the Playstore, Yes
3.Phones don't have a stock backup. Unless you make it, but that required you to be unlocked in the first place.
Thanks Tachi,
This helps a lot and gives me a comfort level with unlocking. I was afraid I would lose the ROM and be forced to install a custom ROM, which I might do later anyway.
Thank You,
Ndmand
Technically, nothing gets erased when you unlock the bootloader; however, unlocking the bootloader changes the decryption key used to decrypt the /data partition. As a result, you have to factory reset the phone as /data becomes unreadable. The ROM itself is in the /system partition, which is not encrypted and remains readable.
MehStrongBadMeh said:
Technically, nothing gets erased when you unlock the bootloader; however, unlocking the bootloader changes the decryption key used to decrypt the /data partition. As a result, you have to factory reset the phone as /data becomes unreadable. The ROM itself is in the /system partition, which is not encrypted and remains readable.
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Thanks, that explains it even more. I guess that I should stop worrying now. :good: