[Android General] ickk:
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Hello, my name is Keith and I'm interested in sharing tips with the community to protect you from losing your device to thieves or other attackers. I'm sure many on xda-developers have heard of stolen device recovery apps like Android Lost and Cerberus, this guide will involve these, but also walk you through avoiding mistakes that can result in you never getting your phone back from an attacker. While the two apps I mentioned are very powerful, it's not as easy as installing an app to insure you get your phone back the way you left it. I'll also include other methods of recovery for a plan B approach.

So lets begin!

REQUIREMENTS

A phone or tablet duh! (data plans are a plus, but not necessary to use this guide)

Root access helps quite a bit!

Knowledge involving recoveries like CWM or TWRP.

A secure launcher. By secure I mean one that can't uninstall apps outside of the settings menu (ADW Ex just fixed this!)

NO PIN ON LOCKSCREEN (explained)

Step 1

:

Download Android Lost (no sms add-on for wifi-only tablets) OR Cerberus!

These two apps are for theft recovery. They allow you to do things like:

-Locate & Track GPS

-Lock Device (and unlock device if you're deadset on having a lock, not ideal for recovery)

-Sound Alarms

-Wipe Internal/External Storage

-Recover Call Logs

-Recover SMS Logs

-Popup messages on device(great for trolling thieves)

-Call Forwarding

-Device information (battery left, network status, etc)

-Capture Photos (get a mugshot for the police)

-Record Sound (Cerberus only)

Which should you choose and how are they different? Well a lot of people like Android Lost, it's free (as in beer) and can even be installed and utilized from your google account after your device is stolen. It's a little more wifi-only tablet friendly. Android Lost has a unique feature that lets it hide SMS commands sent to the phone from Android Lost so you don't alert the attacker.

That said I personally use Cerberus. It's a lot less suspicious looking, a little less known, and is easily flashed to your ROM's /system/app folder (even with the option of disguising itself as framework). Cerberus however, is not free, it has a small fee of $3-5 which protects up to 5 devices. I like that Cerberus is a little more featured with sound recording, and it can run as a device administrator (I don't think Android Lost does this).

Step 2:

After you've chosen a security application, the time comes to protect that application. You may have seen me mention above that it's recommended you don't put a lock screen on your device. Let me take a second to explain why. Google. The first page of results on google for "how to bypass lockscreen" has the potential to foil everything. It can lead to your attacker learning how to easily preform a hard reset, and for the sake of recovering your phone this is not optimal. My brother has stolen a few iphones, and not once has a lock ever stopped him (he's a mechanic not a computer guy).

I like to take an open door approach to security. Leave your door unlocked, but nail everything valuable inside to the floor. Now leaving your device open to everyone requires you to stop and think about what YOU need to protect. To start you must download an app locker. There are tons of these out there, some OEMs even ship devices with them these days. The one I am using in this guide is UAG, or Ultimate App Guard - check out UAG Helper as well to potentially protect UAG from deletion.

There are many apps and services you can lock in a variety of ways ranging from pins to patterns to passwords. Here are the basic things you should lock.

- Settings

- Root File Explorers (or even your stock explorer if you've got photos you're not keen of others seeing)

- Gmail (especially if it's the account you're registered for android lost/cerberus with)

- App Markets (so they can't install more apps like root file explorers or rack up charges to your account)

- Package Installer (so the attacker can't install third party apps like root browsers, uncheck 3rd party installs in settings when you don't need it anyway)

- ADB Toggle (uncheck adb in settings, download adb toggle to quickly toggle on and off as needed, even locked it's still quicker)

- Titanium Backup

- Rom Toolbox

- SD Maid and similar apps that can delete files

Now this isn't all you should lock, just the essentials. Try not to lock too much else or else the attacker will have motive to use google to figure out how to hard reset. Let them play angry birds, let them check facebook (don't remember passwords for important stuff), let them play with your toys basically.

If you are on a wifi only tablet, then locking settings will present an issue - they can't connect to networks for Android Lost or Cerberus. There are two things you can do about it.

- Download Wifi Manager and place it in a location the attacker will see it (I put it under the system app drawer in ADW)

- Preload as many wifi hotspots as you can think of (starbucks, mcdonalds, libraries, etc).

It is highly unlikely the attacker will not want to connect to the internet on your device, even it's only over wifi. So even if you have a data plan consider doing the above in case they decide it's not safe to use your phone service.

Step 3:

Other Security Threats to consider

Launchers

Many launchers seek to be powerful and give you quick control over every little detail. Unfortunately that means some of them allow uninstalls. Recently I reported an uninstall vulnerability in ADW Ex to it's developer, and he's patched it with a lock pin which specifically addresses this issue. So for example, in ADW Ex to uninstall anything or access important launcher settings the attacker would need to know your launcher's lock pin. I am unsure of the situation on other launchers, but always check and report it to the developer if it's vulnerable! Do not overlook this and underestimate the attackers ability to notice this stuff, it could cost you your phone.

Recovery

If you have your Anti-theft application flashed to your ROM this isn't SUPER important. But you're still vulnerable to those who flash over your ROM. Don't forget your backups either! Having an insecure backup sitting on your sd card can cost you your device. If this vulnerability bothers you, try resetting your recovery to stock, and use

Mobile ODIN or NVFLASH

. Very few attackers (if any?) will be connecting in APX mode over usb to flash a blob over NvFlash lol.

WARNING FOR CM10/AOKP USERS: Remove the reboot menus!! Reboot into recovery in the reboot options when the power is pushed couldn't make it more obvious to an attacker!

Terminals

It only takes a few commands in android for an attacker to delete a few important links in your security chain. You may want to consider locking your terminal if you're still paranoid.

Plan B approaches

Your Carrier

If you own a smartphone under Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T - don't ever let their sales reps tell you your carrier can't find your phone. They have no problem when it comes selling this information to law enforcement. Granted an attacker may remove the sim card, go into airplane mode, or a sales rep may not have that kind of access, it's still a possibility for them to access your phone's GPS or use tower triangulation. Unfortunately in this case, some carriers like T-Mobile don't collect this kind of data, great for privacy - not as much for security.

EXIF Data

I've talked to the developers of cerberus briefly about implementing features to enable geotagging on photos remotely, but something like this hasn't been implemented yet. However a reasonable amount of device identifying information is still stored in EXIF data of photos taken from your device. Websites like stolencamerafinder allow you to upload photos you've taken on your device and search the internet for photos with exif data containing your devices serial number. It also allows you to enter your serial number and search for that alone. This can potentially find an attacker's facebook profile with that beautiful mirror photo taken with your phone. Once you have a name, websites like spokeo or reverse whitepages lookups can help you find addresses to report to authorities.

Be sure to check your serial number beforehand so you can figure out if this method is reliable for your device.

SSH

Here's a classic recovery video I'll end this with, done largely over ssh.

[YOUTUBE]U4oB28ksiIo[/YOUTUBE]