Questions tagged [security]
For more generic questions relating security issues. For specific issues having their own tags, please use those -- e.g. 'malware', 'antivirus', 'privacy', 'lost-phone'. Please see the full tag wiki for more. For more in-depth Android security issues, you might rather want to visit our sister-site at http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/android
1,287
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Can Outlook Device Policy monitor anything outside of the app?
In order to get emails for work on my phone I need to enable this feature. My worry is that this will allow my employer to monitor personal things on my phone such as my internet search history or ...
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Android stalkerware abilities
I have a Xiaomi Redmi 4 (4X). I just unlocked the bootloader and cleaned all flashed my phone because the stalkerware my friend installed wasn't going away by a factory reset.
After some days from ...
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How can I unlock the lock screen of my RealMe 9 Pro Plus without formatting device, or retrieve just the storage?
I haven't been able to unlock my Realme 9 Pro Plus phone with the passwords that I remember. And I'm not sure what to do next.
I have always found it a bugging issue when my Realme phone asks me to ...
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Lock WiFi settings for the ordinary user with a password
I'm looking for a way to make WiFi settings inaccessible to regular users. For example, locks the WiFi settings with a password, so that an ordinary user cannot turn off the WiFi or log in to a ...
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Why the screen lock password no longer matches after using a different disk as /data
I'm using a rooted Android 13 device, and an external SD-card that I mount as /data by editing the fstab. The SD-card is partitioned into few EXT4 partitions, and I can boot with any of them mounted ...
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Why is Google's Play Store suddenly trying to update apps installed via F-Droid?
Historically, Google did not mess with Android apps installed via the open source F-Droid project.
Suddenly, however, Google's Play Store is now trying to update apps installed via F-Droid.
There are ...
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What's the best practice for Google recovery phone?
I have a question about Google account recovery phone. The succinct question is, is it best to have the Google recovery phone set to my single Android device or to use another mobile (non-Google) ...
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I left my Android device unattended for 30 seconds, what can be stolen/compromised?
My device: Samsung Galaxy A14 with Android 13.
Not rooted.
This is a real-life scenario that occurred yesterday, I was participating in a group task where I had to leave the room for just 30 seconds. ...
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Can a cancelled alarm still switch on the phone even when it's off?
After searching I know that some phones if you set up an alarm then you switch the phone off, it will open up exactly at the time you set it up to ring this is in case if the alarm is active before ...
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Force enable encryption for portable SD card
There should be an option to encrypt SD card (formatted as portable) in the settings, but some manufacturers disable it while some (e.g. Samsung) have it enabled. If that is a built-in Android feature ...
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How to add extension Allow CORS in Android Tab Chrome browser [duplicate]
I need to open a website in mobile chrome browser. Its not opening there is CORS issue. I fixed that issue in Laptop added a extension Allow CORS in Chrome browser. When I tried in mobile there is no ...
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Banking apps disabled in Android SDK emulator
Does the Android SDK emulator run apps with FLAG_SECURE used from Android 12? I have been trying to run different banking apps, which work but crash when I get to the login screen which is flagged ...
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How to identify which app is creating user credentials in the security settings?
I was going through my Android device settings and found "rsa key" stored in user credentials. There, it says the "rsa key" is for VPN and apps. But I don't use any VPN.
How to ...
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About Data safety section in Play store?
In the "Data safety" section of apps in Play Store, when it shows
Data collected: photos and videos
or
Data shared: photos and videos.
What does it mean? Or if some apps do not show it, ...
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How does WhatsApp's View Once work? Does it take internal storage for showing the photos, or are they directly showing it from the server?
For WhatsApp's View Once photos, are the photos saved somewhere in the phone's internal storage? Or are they directly shown from WhatsApp's server? As WhatsApp claimed they are not stored in photos or ...
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How to disable Unknown Tracker Alerts for specific trackers?
Android warns you of unknown trackers following you without their owners. EG Apple Airtags and Life360 Tiles. This can warn you if someone has planted a tracker on you or your property without your ...
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I can not import IDs or restore my accounts from Microsoft Authenticator - How I can fix this?
Because of a problem I need to import IDs and I entered the 12 words recovery phrase as one long string but I always get error from jwt file say file is encrypted.
I tried also to use my main email ...
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Prevent play store from installing apps
The Google play store has a line in their TOS that gives them the right to install arbitrary apps/updates without consent of the user.
Sadly, some apps appear to require play store to be enabled to ...
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Android spyware detection
I installed an APK which my friend sent through a link through instagram and as soon as I donwloaded and installed it, it disappeared into the background
And she told me to unlock my oem before ...
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How can Phones such as Oppo be vulnerable to Privilege escalation exploits
Oppo (to my knowledge) makes it basically impossible to root, due to locking the boot loader and removing fast boot. So I'm wondering if this changes anything in regards to Privilege escalation ...
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How can I tell what has happened on my phone? Like a log
I'm looking to find out if there is a way to log activities on my phone, like something that tells you something was uploaded, downloaded, installed, SMS sent, number called, etc., anytime the phone ...
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How to get avc logging ( selinux ) in Android working?
I am on Android 10. Whether I setenforce 0 or 1- I cannot get avc ( aka SeLinux ) errors logged. I checked ramoops files also and its ditto.
root@m20lte:/ # setenforce 1 ...
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Android 12 froze, does this leak IP address with VPN killswitches enabled?
I have a VPN running with Android's 'always-on' VPN feature enabled, and the 'block connections without VPN' feature enabled. My device running Android 12 recently froze and wouldn't respond. I had to ...
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Unsual Firewall Traffic from Phone and Messaging Storage Group
I'm using Rethink DNS to monitor traffic.
I'm curious as to why the 'Phone and Messaging Storage' group would be reaching out to google domains in addition to app.hubspot.com.
Attached are the ...
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Remove devices from 2FA of Google sign in
I have 7 devices (mostly tablets and smartphones) where I am logged in with my Google account. However, 4 of those devices I usually take to shows/concerts and I am afraid of someone stealing them or ...
batata004
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Blocking specific app notifications access is cleared after app update
This behavior is consistent both on real Pixel devices running the latest version of Android 13 and on emulated devices running Android 13 in Android Studio.
A specific app, let’s call the app “X”, ...
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Does Google still have the ability to uninstall apps without user permission (in 2023)?
In the past, Google has admitted that they have the ability to uninstall apps without user permission Exercising Our Remote Application Removal Feature
This post is almost 13 years old, Android was at ...
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How to determine if an Android device is compromised with a rootkit?
How would you go about checking your smartphone for root level malware, including rootkits, if you cannot get direct access to smartphone partitions?
There's news almost monthly how cheap Android ...
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50
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Is Samsung's Facial Recognition secure on Galaxy A50?
Cheap Samsung phones have facial recognition functionality. The settings application states that if the "Faster recognition" option is enabled, "A video or image could be recognized as ...
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116
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PlayStore does not update APKMirror apps
I have an Android device where I have not assigned any Google account to it, just because I don't like/trust Google.
Since I cannot use the PlayStore to get apps without assigning an account (thanks ...
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How do I restrict access to a Git folder on Android to only certain apps without a password check?
I want to secure a git folder on an Android device so that only specific apps do have access to its content of it. In the best case, there shouldn't even be a password check. I have sensitive data ...
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55
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Android boot password security
I recently purchased a security solution software for Android (Antivirus + additional security features). Before the installation, my phone started like this:
Android logo
Password
Phone manufacturer ...
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A Strange Contacts [duplicate]
I found a strange contact with a short strange number on my android device.
The contact name is "Siiii" and the number is a combination of just 10 numbers. Is this a spam? Or a hacking issue?...
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Hardening android to use it as a Linux Server
I want to convert a set of relatively old Android devices into Linux servers, while avoiding too many device specific actions, to make this an easily repeatable and shareable action.
This means ...
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My Android 7 tablet keep display restart / shutdown message and then restart itself
I have a tablet with Android 7 that suddenly display restart or shutdown prompt message and when I click anywhere in the screen the message disappear then appear again then it restart itself. Is this ...
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How to lock or remove recovery options on an Android phone, specifically UleFone Armour X7 Pro?
At work, we have the Ulefone Armor X7 Pro to log activities and time. It is locked down by Hexnode for Work, but I was initially easily able to circumvent a lot of this by force-restating the phone (...
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How do you decrypt EncryptedSharedPreferences on a rooted emulator
I'm trying to put together a PoC to show that a root user can decrypt any app data that relies on the keystore.
On a rooted emulator, I installed an app that uses EncryptedSharedPreferences.
I can see ...
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Disable Encryption without wiping data in Custom Rom
Does it possible to disable encryption in Android10+ without wiping data partition to access personal data?
(unlocked bootloader)
In other words, Can I trust custom roms to protect my data?
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86
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Security logging for Android
How can an Android phone log all activities related to access?
My requirement is that every phone lock, unlock event, any settings modification, and audit trail needs to generate a log entry to a file....
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Locked out of phone with airplane mode left on
My son has locked himself out of his phone while on vacation with airplane mode on. Now we can not get back into his phone as its not connecting to internet to change the password from a computer. How ...
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Secure phone against a custom firmware being flashed remotely
My phone restarted extra long for no reason and now the firmware is different. It shows up as generic android device not moto g pure. Can I encrypt the hardware to prevent this in the future?
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Can websites access photos on device if Chrome has access?
If the Google Chrome app on Android has access to media/files/photos, can any website access photos on the device since the permission is granted to chrome, or would the photo picker (before the ...
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Prevent Bypassing Android Verified Boot in custom ROM
Installing custom rom needs unlocked bootloader. so I unlocked bootloader.
I built a custom android 12 rom with AVB enabled for system and boot partitions and flashed it.
if I Installing apk through ...
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Android (Samsung S22) keeps reporting mobile data usage long after eSIM is deleted
In January 2023 I've used Airalo's eSIM in UAE for about a week. I've deleted the eSIM upon return. Three months later I've noticed that my phone keeps reporting mobile data usage incurred by that ...
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Can my employer read my notes if I use their Wifi?
I have "Colornote" app in my android device and I'm using that app for many years. I write my passwords and many other personal things. My workplace has wifi and I use it regularly. Often my ...
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Why can't banking apps be backed up and restored?
Last night, I messed with the system and lost everything.
Had to wipe the phone and do the whole ceremony that comes after.
But the worst part was not restoring every single app, or restoring the ...
user113550
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Is the Pixel 5 really EOL in october?
Iam using the Pixel 5 with original OS and currently on Android 13.
Reading here: https://endoflife.date/pixel the phone will not receive any further security updates from october on.
But Android 13 ...
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31
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updating 2FA for a defunct phone number
I moved an account from phone x to phone y and secured the account so that phone x had no access anymore. Next I enabled 2FA through the phone number on the new phone, phone y and discarded phone x. ...
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How can I disable permission monitoring on Android 13? [duplicate]
I recently upgraded from a Samsung Galaxy S9+ to the S23 Ultra and noticed that it almost daily pushes notifications like this:
Settings:
Android System Intelligence got your location in the
...
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Protecting google account password reset from device pin/password compromise?
Today I realized that by just knowing the phone PIN it is possible to reset the Google account password... doesn't matter what 2FA/Backup codes you configured.
For example, you can go under the ...
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