yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] elvis56:
Well draining battery isn't anything malicious but mostly annoying. Anyway it is probably LBE in combination with another program that is causing the problem(IE some program trying to access your contacts all the time and LBE blocking it all the time). Maybe check LBE-privacy-event logs and see if there is a lot of activity there.

My LBE settings:

Report anonymous usage off

Send error reports off

Notification icon on

Start automatically on

Active protection service on

Notify security events all

Record call and sms event all

Traffic monitoring on

Essential to check battery drain is to check for partial wakelocks usage. A great app for this is betterbatterystats. Anything causing over a few minutes of partial wakelocks is a problem. To prevent apps from automatically starting(and therefor reducing running processes) use autostarts.
[Android Apps and Games] :
Hello!

First of all, yes i am a noob and this is my first post on this forum. :-)

And i was searching for the answer to my questions but i couldn't find anything that would answer directly to my questions.

I have a rooted Motorola Milestone 2 with Android version 2.2.2 on it. Security and privacy is important to me so first i was using Droidwall for a time to control which apps can reach internet but then i have found LBE Privacy Guard, I have uninstalled Droidwall and installed LBE.

But some posts in this thread suggest that LBE and Droidwall can be used together. But im still not sure of this. I don't understand how that could be possible. So i have a few questions:

Is it really safe to use these two apps together?

If i use two programs which have firewall functionality won't it cause system instability?

If LBE and Droidwall can be used together, then what is the right way to use them?

For example, should i allow everything in LBE to access internet, and control these things in Droidwall?

Thank you. :)
[Android Apps and Games] nap286:
Lbe jus caused an sod. After i turned phkne back on lbe tried to open up but kept fc. I checked droidwall and it was trying to access the internet..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
[Android Apps and Games] Zokormazo:
Any issue with ICS? Or it works properly on 4.0.3?
[Android Apps and Games] jaibar:
Both apps can coexist.

Droidwall can be disabled/enabled via widget, and, it keeps the new apps installed on top of the list, so it is easy to access them and make changes. You can easily also enable all apps or just root apps etc. Sure, you can enable/disable all apps in LBE too, but if you changed your mind and have lots of apps... well, good luck with that.

LBE will ask you to set permissions immediately after installation. However, if you ignore it and clear the notification bar, then it will leave those apps with permissions ON, and it is a little more pain to find them at a later stage: LBE either sorts the apps with internet/data access according to usage (ones that use most wifi/3g on top), or you have to find them in the general app list, alphabetical sorting only. Not the best method, but you'll find them anyway- more pain if you have lots of apps...

I tend to find LBE permissions unstable. Once in a while, when I happen to check I always find apps like angry birds with full web access- I disable it, but after some time (perhaps after reboot? not sure) I find that my denials were revoked and it has full access again. Same for quite a few apps, for some reason most of them are games- but not only.

So, as Droidwall won't change permissions on its own, I still keep it. And yep, sometimes I find an app not working and then enabling first in DW, and again in LBE so it takes a couple of minutes more time...

Avast! have a bundle of bloatware which includes a firewall that enables control of applications accessing Wifi and/or 3g, but also an additional setting for ROAMING. It is free, but you can't get rid of the antivirus or "potentially unwanted apps" crap. Anti theft could also be useful.
[Android Apps and Games] :
Ok Thank you for you answer!

I have further questions. :)

If i completely disable an app in LBE from accessing the internet even on wifi and 3g but i enable it in Droidwall to access the internet or vice versa what will happen? Will this app be able to access the internet? Or i should enable it in both of these apps this particular app to access the internet if i want it to access the internet? So do the settings of DW override the settings of LBE or vice versa?

I hope you get my point.
[Android Apps and Games] hollal:
I use DroidWall and LBE 2. I leave all apps access to 3G in LBE and decide which apps actually get access with DW. So far everything's worked out fine (that I'm aware of).

I installed DW first, just in case that's relevant.
[Android Apps and Games] Kurupt1:
I just use avast as the post a couple above me states. Its good minus the bloatware which can be removed. Not as much functionality as LBE but more peace of mind. (:
[Android Apps and Games] rogier666:
Nope. If you deny internet access with DroidWall or LBE it stays offline.

Yep. If you run LBE and DroidWall together apps can only go online if LBE and DroidWall allow it.
[Android Apps and Games] jaibar:
Applications with root can do anything. So, if a certain root app includes a malicious party, it could bypass both firewall- and most of us wouldn't even notice. In theory lbe can do anything- just like dw or titanium backup have the same potential, for that matter.

Therefore, if you really don't trust it- don't install it to begin with...

Having multiple firewalls is just like AND operator: 1*1*1=1, but 1*1*0=0... So if you have two firewalls to enable something and third ones says no, then it's a no go.

Not sure this redundancy is really needed, though.

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk
[Android Apps and Games] Manu-:
I love LBE. ;)

Did the tool only been on it today. But so far I think the real good. I want to decide which app gets permission from me. I just need something, bring in the settings. :cool:
[Android Apps and Games] user17600:
Yeah, I find that LBE is good enough with access that it functions in the absence of IPtables and netfilter in the Nook Color CM9 builds. I put a couple of feelers out on the state of IPT and NF but got little or no traction on either of the 2 forums.

Until DW and the NC CM9 builds become compatible, it looks like LBE will be my "firewall".

Many thanks to the posters for flagging this product.
[Android Apps and Games] ebonygate:
Enable ONLY one at the same time.

The network accessibility part of the LBE uses the ipTables as well as the droidwall.

So there might be some kind of bug if both ENABLED --- the iptable is under control of two same apps, which is dangerous unless both of the apps know exactly how to deal with each other.

However, the other permission controls have nothing to do with the network part of LBE, or the droid. It's completely safe to use the droidwall and the LBE at the same time if LBE's network part is disabled.

Differently, the combination of LBE and PDroid does not conflict, since different technique is used(a particular Android kernel patch must be installed before PDroid works, while LBE depends on it's background service with root privilege)
[Android Apps and Games] Androidology:
I have a quick question regarding LBE. I have read through all of the pages of this thread and there is a lot of great information here. So...

If you were to install, enable the active guard, set the permissions you wanted for the apps you wanted, disabled the active guard and then closed the app/running bg process would the permissions still hold true?

Does LBE write the permissions to a static file or does it have to be on to constantly monitor those permissions?

Thank you.

I have been doing some research and all application permissions are stored within:

java.lang.Object

↳	android.Manifest.permission

Would it not be a simple matter of writing an application (which would require root access) to manage the entries in that file through a slick GUI? It could make the changes to the file and then close. No extra battery drain. (Assuming you didn't want any of LBE's real-time monitoring). Please correct me if I am wrong.
[Android Apps and Games] defuzer:
Thanks for app!
[Android Apps and Games] Izzysoft:
@Androidology: No. LBE does not change teh permission of an app, it just blocks the access. Which means it must be permanently monitoring.
[Android Apps and Games] M3TALLICA:
Tested this on SGN. LBE warned me when I was translating sms with google translaror. I selected allow but did not tick remember my choice. Next time when I opened translator and tried to translate sms, I got access to sms inbox. LBE should have warned me but it did not. Anyone had the same problem or did I miss a trick ?

Regards.
[Android Apps and Games] rmittal:
New Version 3.0.1008 out in the market.

Recent changes:

1. Integrated more than 100 bug fixes from latest LBE Security Master (version 3.2.1479)

2. Fixes the bug which causes permission configuration lost or corruption.

3. Supports permission configuration backup with Titanium Backup and other backup utilities.

4. Active Protection Service adds support for call monitoring and wiretapping protection.

5. Auto-start and Internet firewall now supports Android 4.0
[Android Apps and Games] Fuzzy-79:
Autostart still dont work on SG S2 wit Cyanogen 9.
[Android Apps and Games] mistermentality:
Even though lbe is not on any kill list it still dissappears and stops running on my stock gb rom. Any way to force it to stay running?

Dave
[Android Apps and Games] rmittal:
If you have disabled notification, enable it so that Android will not remove it from memory when running low on memory. Also on my phone I have to restart my phone to get it working again if it stops working for whatever reason.
[Android Apps and Games] mistermentality:
That's what puzzles me as its set to always have icon in notification bar yet even before I installed a task killer it would still disappear.

Dave
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
Is there a list somewhere of recommended privacy settings for the more popular apps? I'd hate to turn off permissions which break functionality of the program. Perhaps LBE eventually could have a "Suggested Permissions" collated from user response for instance.

For an app that just checks if your phone is in use to keep the screen from blanking Screebl Pro has some VERY questionable permissions.
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
On both my phones that have ICS on them LBE is disappearing after startup...on my old tablet with froyo it's working fine. Notification is enabled on all 3 devices.
[Android Apps and Games] ro4sho:
If you are paranoid, just use droidwall to the block inet access of LBE.

Case closed,
[Android Apps and Games] mermaidkiller:
You can even turn it off within LBE itself by Permissions => Apps => LBE => Uncheck Wifi and 3G internet access.
[Android Apps and Games] p107r0:
OTOH paranoia and hysteria are much more fun...
[Android Apps and Games] jaibar:
If one is paranoid, it doesn't mean nobody is after him ;)

Anyway, an app with root access such as lbe can do anything they want- just like droidwall for that matter. If someone distrusts an app better avoid installing it to begin with.

On the other hand, I read a lot of mistrust about lbe, but I think it is actually incorporated (or parts of) in miui roms and I don't recall people complaining about security issues with miui- on the contrary- they keep gaining popularity.

For that matter, a paranoid should actually never root his phone and install anything other than what came as stock with phone, because how can one trust a Dev cooking roms in his kitchen...

On the other hand, the least and last ones one should trust are the cellphone companies. Who knows what they have preinstalled in your device... ciq carrier? other agoodies"..

Damn, it aint easy not to be paranoid these days. I'm gonna install myself some Chinese security app to protect me from all evil eyes...

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk
[Android Apps and Games] rogier666:
Apps with root access may fool your phone, but they won't fool your wireless router.

I blocked LBE with DroidWall, and I never found a trace of LBE in my router logs. So there are two possibilities: 1) LBE does not circumvent DroidWall, or 2) LBE does not go online if you switch off "report anonymous usage" and "send error reports" in the settings screen.

You can read your router log files or route your phone's WiFi through your computer (with a packet sniffer installed) to check it yourself.
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
Any solution to the fact on phone startup at least on ICS the apps starts and dies 1 second later? Several people reported it and I don't see any response.

*update* An update is now available in android market that fixes the crash on startup in ICS.
[Android Apps and Games] nap286:
I have a screen shot of lbe trying to connect. Ever since xda update i havent been able to upload pics tho. This is with usage and reports.off. i closed lbe and checked my droid wall logs. Because i to am paranoid.
[Android Apps and Games] nap286:
Blocked bt droidwall
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
After I updated my last post I realized I should probably make sure everyone see's a new version is on market to fix the startup crash.
[Android Apps and Games] BlackPit666:
but its still not autostarting
[Android Apps and Games] rogier666:
The only way I could make LBE appear in my DroidWall log was by deliberately trying to make it go online.

My settings:

Version 3.0.1008

Report Anonymous Usage: off

Send error reports: off

Traffic Monitoring Service: off

Internet Usage Alarm: off

Active Protection Service: on

Always report SMS sent succesfully: off

+ a lot of blocked app permissions, including the phone ID permission of LBE itself.

With this setup the only way I could make LBE try to go online was by hitting the "check for updates" button. And then it only appeared in my DroidWall log. I had to unblock LBE in DroidWall to see it appear in my router log.

I repeated this experiment a few times, and everytime I got the same result: my copy of LBE only tries to go online if I tell it to go online, and if I tell DroidWall to block its traffic then it really gets blocked (confirmed by my routers log). So far I never managed to make LBE connect unless I explicitly allowed it to go online.
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
It did for me on my two ics phones.
[Android Apps and Games] BlackPit666:
did you do anything special or just updated it?

what phones/roms/kernels?
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
I had it running when I rebooted...it came up after the reboot...the phones/roms etc are in my signature.

If you have the fixed version, in about the version should say 3.0.1009 not 3.0.1008
[Android Apps and Games] BlackPit666:
hmm sucks :/ it doesnt wanna work on my nexus prime...
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
Check your version...it should be 3.0.1009
[Android Apps and Games] BlackPit666:
it is, it is ;)
[Android Apps and Games] nap286:
Why do you have traffic monitoring and internet usage alarm off?

I think i had report anonymous usage on. I dont understand why these particular settings would try to acess the internet.
[Android Apps and Games] Fuzzy-79:
Perfect Autostart now working on my SGS 2 with CM 9 latest Nightly.
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
You had "Report anonymous usage" on and you don't understand why this would need to access the internet?

Really?
[Android Apps and Games] nap286:
I assumed it would report it to me. Smd.
[Android Apps and Games] BlackPit666:
Ok finally after playing around and some reboots ,I got it working
[Android Apps and Games] RalphLauren:
autostart

BlackPit666,

what is your precise "playing around" ??? :-)

I mean, I can not get LBE start on boot on my Nexus, multiple restarts do not help, what settings do you use?

Oh, and I have indeed 3.0.1009 version.
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
Why would it report your own usage to you anonymously? It reports your usage anonymously to LBE for statistics.

---------- Post added at 01:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:32 PM ----------

Well if all else fails there is always the dreaded full uninstall, reboot, install of 3.0.1009...redo all your settings fresh.
[Android Apps and Games] BlackPit666:
my playing around was enablung and disabling the reboot and show icon options ( i dunno, perhaps also activating and deactivating the protection status), and several restarts between it, but also using the phone and lbe a while
[Android Apps and Games] freeza:
lbe privacy guard's protection service is no longer auto starting with my phone

HTC EVO 3D Gingerbread 2.3.4

It says the protection service is running, but when I open the internet firewall and go to permissions, at the top it says it is starting up and stays like that indefinitely. This makes me unable to set permissions for any of the apps listed, as they all now say "uninstall" next to it.

Previous version worked fine.
[Android Apps and Games] famewolf:
Try reading the previous few pages.
[Android Apps and Games] freeza:
I don't feel like doing that. Can you summarize? Thanks!
[Android Apps and Games] RalphLauren:
I doubt I will keep it

1) Right guys, I had my first ever battery pull today on Nexus.

The last thing what I have seen was a message in notification area something like this: "Shazam denied to read phone ID", which did not went away. Afterwards I dimmed the screen and phone stopped to react on any pushes on any buttons. Calling to my own number did not bring phone to the life as well, however it was still registered on network because I was not redirected to the voice mail as if the phone would be turned off.

2) On a positive note, after the battery pull, LBE autostarted with the system.

3) Another negative note, it's definitively battery consuming app: eating 2% of the battery at 9 hours..... no excuse. Version 2 which I kept till today never came to the Battery management screen, meaning that v2 did consume negligible battery recourse. Can not say anything about CPU usage, did not test it.

All-in-all, the upgrade (3.0.1009) was a mistake (at least in my case), I was attracted by "fixed" autostart, but it definitively does not overweight crushing system and resource hogging.

Well, I will monitor its behavior for next couple of days, but at this moment I do not have a feeling to keep it on my phone.
[Android Apps and Games] BlackPit666:
perhaps you are traffic monitoring? then that costs the battery usage, cause i dont even have it meantioned at my management screen.

try to play araound with activiting and deactivating the protection (NOT the autostart) and forcekilling it, mostly at has something to do with the root-permissions, had that bugs a few versions ago, when pretty fresh updated...
[Android Apps and Games] rogier666:
Shazam is indeed a bad-behaving app that refuses to work if you don't let it read your IMEI and phone number. Maybe it's hammering your phone with requests until it gets what it wants?

TrackID keeps working if you deny access to your phone id.
[Android Apps and Games] RalphLauren:
Well, traffic limitation set up just for couple of games, which were not used, their processes were not running, and their attempts of internet connection are not in the LBE logs.

Besides, I did not change any single permission after the upgrade from v2 to v3.

So, why v2, monitoring the same settings, never came to the battery monitor screen; and v3 suddenly did?

Well, if I have to install-reinstall, power off - power-on , wipe the settings, redo all the permissions, etc in order to make the program works..... excuse me.... that's not a quality product. Especially taking in account that we have diametral opposite results of using the same app on the same type of gadgets.
[Android Apps and Games] RalphLauren:
Could be that it's Shazam's fault. The point is that it was hammering v2 the same way and LBE2 never fails in my case. But it happened with LBE3

SoundHound is also working with no problem with denied permissions, will give a try to TrackID.

BTW, do you run (member of the team of) this "android underground" site, or is it just a link in your signature? :-)
[Android Apps and Games] juliooooo:
Hi,

I've read the last 10 pages but couldn't find a more detailed discussion about the trustability of the author of LBE Privacy Guard. As the app gets root permission and isn't open source, it could in theory do all the stuff that actually was intended to be prevented by installing such a privacy protecting app. Do you know convincing facts that actually proove the author to be trustworthy or do you just hope that LBE is one of the good apps?

Unfortunately, some users recommend to block internet access of LBE by Droidwall, which doesn't work, since LBE has root permissions, thus can basically do anything.

Looking forward to your opinion!
[Android Apps and Games] p107r0:
1. I remember reading posts - in one of the threads devoted to LBE - where someone actually analysed it's communication with external world, it was few bytes afair to LBE server

2. is it ever possblie to prove sth is trustworthy? don't think so, much easier to prove the vice versa
[Android Apps and Games] juliooooo:
couldn't find the thread via search function. Do you have a link to that? Or do you mean this post?

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=21085179&postcount=121

Proof might be the wrong term, but I'm close to deciding against LBE PG, because I'm far from convinced that this app doesn't report home. Ok now 1 guy may have analyzed and seen just a minor transmission, but 99% of the posts are about "great, awesome app" or "battery drain" etc. The main question remains untouched and won't be answered, even if someone posts very reasonable thoughts about it, e.g.:

-> no one answered, which shows me that people only focus on the pretented benefits and don't care about the central issue to start with: can this app be trusted?

Normally, I'll take the risk and install a slightly suspect app, but this one is just too powerful because of its root rights. So if someone is able to throw some light on this issue, I'd be very happy. Thanks!

EDIT: Well, there was actually some huge warning a few pages ago:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=20886092#post20886092
[Android Apps and Games] p107r0:
yeah I meant the post #121 you quoted, few after that and also http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=15240615&postcount=172

thing is - I'm far from defending LBE's innocence - it's just that in most cases trust is the matter of choice, faith and probabilities - due to lack of sufficient proof to the contrary I choose to trust that LBE is relatively safe, meaning that even if it steals my data, the damage will be lesser than done by hundreds of other apps I use and don't know anything about
[Android Apps and Games] juliooooo:
Ok, got your point and it sounds reasonable so I don't want to argue that ;)

That being said, I'm going to wait for some open source alternative...
[Android Apps and Games] rogier666:
LBE only has root access on your phone. It has no control over your wifi router or the computer through which you route your phone's internet traffic. That gives you two ways to check lbe's internet access without lbe being able to fool you

If LBE would try to sneak online your router or computer would catch it red handed.
[Android Apps and Games] p107r0:
which would be much better thing indeed
[Android Apps and Games] The_Genius:
By the way - is there any person who is still using this application able to set up IPTABLES log chain to log any LBE activity outside the smartfone? Would be nice countermeasure against stealing data by this application. I'm able, but I won't install it again, I respect/need my stable system too much.[/QUOTE]

Czesc

I use the latest version of LBE Security Master and I have blocked it by DroidWall, I have had no issues at all. If you think it's a scam, which I partly agree, because nothing is "excellent" for free, what would you use to protect your privacy?

Many thanks,

THE_Genius