Questions tagged [android]
Questions tagged [Android] should focus on security of the operating system itself, or of Android-specific apps. Questions about Android that are not directly security-related should be asked at android.stackexchange.com.
1,389 questions
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Google Find My Device unknown tracker alert algorithm?
I was reading Google's blueprint about their new technology called Find My Device and what took my interest was unknown tracker identification and how Google does that.
Unknown tracker alerts. The ...
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Keyboard isolation in Android
I'm currently running GrapheneOS on a Pixel 6a, and I have installed several alternative keyboards from F-Droid and the Play Store.
How isolated are keyboards in Android? When I enable a keyboard in ...
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Should mobile app developers actively prevent apps from running on outdated devices/rooted devices/emulators for security purposes?
From personal experience many mobile apps that I've tested don't actively detect and discourage (with a warning) or even block the app from running on/in:
a rooted/jailbroken Android/iOS device
...
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Possible attacks againts head unit of contemporary cars
I purchased a new car this week. It has multimedia unit (sometimes called head unit of car). It has FM/AM/DAB radio functions (with its radio antenna) ,bluetooth 5.0,Wireless CarPlay – Android Auto, ...
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Google security and 'find my device' - confusing info [closed]
My Samsung Android phone was stolen 4 days ago while on vacation in Rome. I also have a Samsung Android tablet with me and I am trying to use it to help remote wipe the Samsung phone. Both are fully ...
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Detecting drive-by-download attack on android
Context: I received a text message about unpaid ticket on the same day I parked at a hospital dropoff zone. The number was from an entirely different province and the url looked very odd. Not a number ...
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What is the decryption procedure of Android 13 on start up
I have an Android 13 phone to test its security and i'm a bit confused.
The situation is, without the PIN, the phone takes 1min 5s to start up.
After setting the PIN, the phone takes 1min 10s to start ...
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Beginner in VPN, how to pick a safe one?
I am interested in understanding VPNs and being able to evaluate which commercial one to use.
I understand that using the wrong one is a big compromise and I am very skeptical that checking for books ...
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Strange non-routable IP address for my mobile phone
I have a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, and I can't for the life of me imagine how I ended up with a non-routable IANA Reserved IP address on my mobile phone (the address is showing as 192.0.0.2). The phone ...
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Is a key stored with setUserAuthenticationRequired more secure on rooted device
I am trying to figure out how much more protection keystore offers if a key is stored with setUserAuthenticationRequired(true) and setInvalidatedByBiometricEnrollment on a rooted device. As far i know ...
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Can a buyer recover data from a smartphone which was factory reset? [duplicate]
I sold my old smartphone to another person. I factory reset it wiped data and then sold it. I was wondering if it is still possible to recover some data from the phone by using recovery softwares?
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How to Sniff Bluetooth Traffic and Determine Encryption on Fitness Tracker Data?
I am attempting to analyze the Bluetooth communication between a fitness tracker (GOJI ACTIVE GFITBK20 Activity Tracker) and its corresponding application (Goji Active) installed on my Android phone. ...
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How does Signal protect data on the device from unauthorized access?
Signal has moved to always store all data AES-encrypted on the device a few years ago. So, it is reasonable to assume that reading conversation data from a device at rest should be impossible.
However,...
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Does the Samsung keyboard for Android phones send user input anywhere?
I've heard of this rumor (here, for example) but no clear investigation/confirmation.
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Is it possibile to capture unlock pin of smartphone(android/ios) using usb cable?
For example, bad USB cable( charging devices) loaded with script to record the unlock code of an android phone which is current being charged.
so basically, the bad usb cable and the usb charger is ...
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If my old device is infected, can my new device get viruses from my social media accounts?
Is it okay to log in my social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) from my old phone that I believe is infected with viruses to my new phone? Can virus transfer because of that?
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Android Find My Device Network Privacy
My Android device today popped up a screen indicating that it had joined the new Find My Device Network that allows two-way scanning of device locations over Bluetooth.
Despite Google's claims of ...
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Can my phone got infected if visit my mail inbox without opening any mail attachments?
I've found some articles saying some viruses/malware can attack your device by just opening an email without downloading or opening any attachments.
Is this true?
If yes, how risky for ordinary mail ...
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How does a pattern or a PIN secure an Android device with encryption?
Modern Android devices have encryption for the storage. It is secured with a key which is derived from the lock screen and a hardware bound key.
We know that the rate limiting mechanism prevents brute ...
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How to Capture Mobile API Requests in burp when Server side pinning is implemented
I recently encountered a scenario where Mobile Application is generating CSR request, call a POST API request and in response, Ask Server for certificate. Server will respond with the temporary ...
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Is it possible to identify a phone model by screenshot stripped of metadata?
I.e., by comparing the dimensions of the screenshot and size / position of UI elements, without the aid of metadata?
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Is malware less prevalent in the Apple App Store compared to the Google Play Store?
I was searching for reports about malware on the Apple App Store and only found minor ones (at least from a user's perspective) on the first few Google search results.
Doing the same search for the ...
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MDM & "Work Profile" Implications on Android 14
What are the privacy implications of using an MDM "work profile" on your own Android 14 device? First, an MDM app such as MaaS360 must create the work profile while running in the personal ...
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Android Certificate Revocation Checking
I am hoping I can leverage everyone's knowledge on this one as I am at a lose.
I have an Android 10 Device connecting to a containerized web application that is secured by a custom Certificate ...
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Intercepting Android App: Google detects burp proxy and block the request to app
I was recently doing bug bounty on a website and found it also has an app so i tried to pentest on it using burpsuite via MITM and intercepting it through burp proxy
Though my request got blocked by ...
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How can iplocation.net know my country if I use a VPN thru Opera Mini on Android? [duplicate]
How can iplocation.net know my country if I use a VPN thru Opera Mini on Android?
Accessing myip.com it says "no country".
But accessing iplocation.net shows my real city and provider! And a ...
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133
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How to securely use service account credentials in an Android App
I have an Android application distributed to my users through an .apk file. That app collects some data, and my goal is to upload that data to a cloud service, like BigQuery. To achieve this, I am ...
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Why does SafetyNet target non-rooted custom ROMs?
I understand that a rooted phone exposes its user to security issues, because a malware could do more damage in a rooted environment than in a non-rooted one.
But why target up-to-date, non-rooted ...
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729
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Up to date custom ROM vs outdated official ROM: which is more secure?
Question 1:
Which is more secure between an up to date custom ROM and an outdated official ROM ?
Question 2:
If an up to date custom ROM is more secure, why is Google making it harder to pass ...
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Note Taking App Hacked?
I am using the note taking app Color Note (www.colornote.com) on my mobile phone that is using Android 7.1.1 to take some notes (old device). I am not using their cloud sync capability, and my email/...
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What can forensic analysts extract from a fully encrypted phone? [closed]
I was very disappointed to hear that my friend, who had his Android phone seized not too long ago, has had his phone broken by police forensics.
As far as I know, it was a few years old, Samsung, and ...
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Are banking and finance apps safe on an Android phone with cracked apps?
I want to install a few banking apps for my bank accounts. I also have modded or cracked games/applications installed on my phone, but my phone is not rooted. Will adding a banking app increase the ...
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Did Android remove Fingerprint/Passcode for WebAuthN and lower security to push Passkeys?
So, before this year, when you were using WebAuthN to create security keys on an up to date Android phone (Pixel 6 in my case), you had these options (iirc):
When creating a platform authenticator, ...
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Using Android Wireless Hotspot while connected to Hotel internet via VPN
I want to make sure I understand the security implications of this scenario:
I am staying in a hotel.
I have a VPN on my android phone.
I connect to the hotel's unencrypted WiFi network with the ...
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Hundreds of bots creating accounts using sign-in with Google
We are getting hundreds of bots creating accounts using sign-in with google, like this in this format:
Colin Bush: [email protected]
Tambra Lockett: [email protected]
Marjorie ...
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Detecting hard to detect stalkerware - a theoretical question
Suppose you have a stalker and this person has access to professional advice.
Suppose your Android phone was hacked by means of physical access, i.e. known unlock pattern or stolen password note, with ...
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Is Android private DNS using domain name a security risk?
Android has the option for using private DNS, but it requires a hostname, not an IP of the DNS server. Isn't entering the domain name of a DNS server a chance for MITM attacks and DNS poisoning?
How ...
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Capturing packets in an android application or ios application?
I've an android and ios app. They run on the same application server on Linux. I want to capture the packets when users are trying to log in to the app. How do I proceed? I'm thinking of doing it with ...
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I want to track my android phone using IMEI [closed]
My phone was stolen last week. I went to the police to track it but still now no result.
What software can I use to track my device just using the IMEI of the phone?
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Gmail app on Android can't send messages since months
I've got the issue that the Gmail app on Android (OnePlus One device) is unable to send messages (it stays in Outbox instead of Sent). Once in the past, I've solved this by clearing the Gmail app ...
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Move a user CA cert to a trusted root cert in Android 13
I am using Fiddler, and I have to insert a CA Cert to decrypt the SSL certificate coming out of my device. My device running Android 13 is rooted, and when I installed my cert, it went into the user's ...
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How to pentest apps running on HarmonyOS
I could not find any checklist for pentesting apps on HarmonyOS. I know HarmonyOS is based on Android, and all Android applications work on HarmonyOS if I use hms instead of gms. So would an Android ...
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How is Xiaomi changing my browser home page?
I have recently observed that the home page of Google Chrome on my Xiaomi Android phone has been altered to a website called "Mintnav". I did not update any software. How is Xiaomi able to ...
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Different types of USB charger attacks that work on Android phones
I'm wondering about different types of malicious USB charger attacks that work on Android devices when USB debugging option is disabled and if the USB option is set to "charge only".
I'm not ...
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189
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Detect invalid cert Android client if URL being redirected to a fake server [duplicate]
Here is the scenario:
Server A is an authentic server (A.com).
Server F is a fake server (F.com) that also has a valid cert for
F.com has a copy of A.com certificate to it (to fake as A.com).
Client ...
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Unexpected certificate authority installation on an android
Last week I received a notification pop-up on my galaxy s10 phone stating a certificate authority has been installed on this device. There was no information as to what authority was installed and ...
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330
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Which is safer - using the sql_conn Flutter package or using a web server as a middle layer for requests against a SQL Server database?
We are currently working on setting up new Android handheld devices (RF guns) to read/write to our SQL Server 2019 database and are at a fork in the road in deciding what to do. Both options below ...
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347
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Can mobile hardware have backdoor access to camera, microphone that bypasses operating system?
I found out about AOSP variants such as Calyx, Graphene, etc. They promise increased security. I want to know if hardware backdoors can allow access to the camera, microphone, etc. and subsequently ...
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Malware infection to wifi router from android phone
Suppose a wifi router has strong admin password, updated firmware and no vulnurability then -
Is the router safe from malware infection from android phones connected to it?
Can malware from an ...
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Is filling the internal storage of an Android device using `dd` sufficient for data removal?
I have a rooted phone I'm willing to sell, but I had Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on it and I am questioning whether filling the internal storage with null bytes using dd would be ...
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