Those of you that have encrypted your tablet what does the encrypt settings page say after you've encrypted it? I tried encrypting mine and the page said it would take an hour or more, however after about a minute with a little android working screen the Xoom rebooted and then forced me to setup an unlock pin. I'm trying to track down a random rebooting problem that I think may have started about the time I encrypted. I went back in to the settings and the encrypt page still says the same thing. It doesn't give any indication that I tried encrypting. I also removed the unlock pin, but it didn't give me any warning about that making the encryption useless, or anything like that. If this behavior isn't normal or expected then I may just reflash it (it's Tiamat 3.2) and not try the encryption net time.
My understanding is that an encrypted tablet requires a lock. If you can remove the lock then it isn't encrypted. I'd try again. If it fails a second time you should track down your instability before having another go. Also, make a nandroid before you try again. A random reboot in the middle of the process may cripple the device.
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
definitely sounds like there's an issue there. Do you have a custom recovery? If so, you could boot into that, pull some data and see if it opens. If it does, yeah its not encrypted.
Not worth mentioning degradation. All encryption always has and always will have performance degradation. It's par for the course
That sounds like a good idea. If it's not encrypted, then I guess the only method is to wipe and reinstall again.
mattkroeder said:
That sounds like a good idea. If it's not encrypted, then I guess the only method is to wipe and reinstall again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so. You can't reverse the encryption flag without a wipe I dont think
mattkroeder said:
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
kenshin33 said:
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went ahead and wiped the phone again. I reinstalled lollipop and made sure to enable a lockscreen PIN before I enabled encryption. It seems to have encrypted properly. It prompts me for my PIN at boot up now.
You make a good point about encryption making it more difficult for someone to get a hold of me if I lose the phone though.
Same problem here, with Nexus 5 and Android v5
My work Exchange server enforces a security policy to the phone which forces you to enable encryption. So I went ahead and did that, and the email app is still saying that encryption needs to be enabled. When I reboot the phone I never get prompted for a PIN to decrypt the device, yet in the settings screen it says it is encrypted.
I'm going to have to re-flash. Is it possible the issue is caused by leaving the bootloader unlocked? or is this is a bug?
EDIT: Update. Reflashed, but first thing I did was relock the bootloader and enable a security screenlock PIN, *then* encrypted the phone. Now it's prompting me for a PIN on boot and looks like it's worked. Hope the Exchange email policy stays happy this time, as it worked before for about a day before it complained about the lack of encryption
this worked for me also
I did what was stated below and it worked....
1. reflashed,
2. locked bootloader
3. created lock pin
4. encrypted, THEN
5. added MDM control (MAAS360) and exchange email.
It seems to work OK now.
Thanks!
JoyrexJ9 said:
Same problem here, with Nexus 5 and Android v5
My work Exchange server enforces a security policy to the phone which forces you to enable encryption. So I went ahead and did that, and the email app is still saying that encryption needs to be enabled. When I reboot the phone I never get prompted for a PIN to decrypt the device, yet in the settings screen it says it is encrypted.
I'm going to have to re-flash. Is it possible the issue is caused by leaving the bootloader unlocked? or is this is a bug?
EDIT: Update. Reflashed, but first thing I did was relock the bootloader and enable a security screenlock PIN, *then* encrypted the phone. Now it's prompting me for a PIN on boot and looks like it's worked. Hope the Exchange email policy stays happy this time, as it worked before for about a day before it complained about the lack of encryption
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mattkroeder said:
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you set up a screen lock pin the phone will ask you then if you would like the PIN to be enabled or not at boot.
kenshin33 said:
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for OT, but how can you remotely brick your phone? Just curious in case I ever need to. Don't live in the best of neighborhoods. I can remote wipe, track, take pics. The normal lost/stolen stuff, but I haven't heard of remotely bricking a phone ever.
Nexus 5 still looking to be encrypted
Only a temp fix---Both my Nexus 7, and Nexus 5 just started asked to be encrypted again....
This is still a problem with Lollipop
thegasmaster said:
I did what was stated below and it worked....
1. reflashed,
2. locked bootloader
3. created lock pin
4. encrypted, THEN
5. added MDM control (MAAS360) and exchange email.
It seems to work OK now.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wipe efs partition (I do have a backup on my computer) and the phone is no longer a phone.
Just to be clear, you can enable encryption on Android 5.0, and it will not force you to lock the phone. (Like the PIN screen and boot lock). When you buy a Nexus 6/9 the data partition is encrypted but there's no lock set. The following is from this article;
First, the encryption doesn't help much if you haven't set a passcode. Ludwig said studies have shown that roughly have of users don't set passcodes on their devices, largely because they find it inconvenient to keep entering them dozens of times a day. Lollipop will still encrypt your data, but it will also automatically decrypt it in normal use. So if you don't have a passcode, much of your information will be available to anyone who picks up your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if you've enabled encryption, and gone through the process, you're phone data partition is encrypted. It's just not locked down until you use some kind of phone lock too. BTW, the article goes on to describe the limited usefulness of having an encrypted data partition and no phone lock;
Lollipop's encryption still offers some limited protection even under those circumstances—for instance, by protecting stored data against anyone who tries to read it directly from the phone's memory. That could shield user passwords and other sensitive data from attackers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As to why Exchange policies don't see the phone as encrypted is probably due to another issue.
Setting PIN to be required at startup after encryption possible fix
I now have my Nexus 5 & 7 working with exchange on Lollipop using this-
1. Reflashed Lollipop
2. Let phone reinstall all my apps
3. Locked bootloader.
4. Set a screen lock PIN
5. Encrypt phone
6. Set screen lock PIN to be required on start up (this was missing before!)
7. Installed MDM control via Mass360-all policies look to be met, including encryption
8. Installed my exchange account via Gmail
//code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79342
Updated thread with solution
---
* It used to be that when I did a reboot or shutdown and restart, I would have to enter a password before the system fully started.
* But now the phone boots into the phone without putting in my password. I can reboot the phone and it will boot all the way to the Lock screen, and I can unlock the lock screen with my fingerprint or my backup password.
* I am concerned that somehow my device is either no longer encrypted or that there is some setting which has stored the boot password.
--
Solution :
For those of you who find they have this problem and have not solved it, I found a solution that works, related to a bug (feature?) in Accessibility.
Apologies if this was suggested further in the thread, and that I'm replying to an old post. But I recently had this problem and figured out a solution.
- Accessibility was enabled and for some reason this cached the boot password. So- when I removed the app (rights) and turned off accessibility, and changed (reset/reentered) the password in security settings... On next boot the phone correctly asked me for password.
YMMV.
subs said:
I posted this elsewhere... But I'm having the same problem. Any thoughts? I can post more details, but don't want to repost this everywhere that I see people having the same unresolved problem.
---
* It used to be that when I did a reboot or shutdown and restart, I would have to enter a password before the system fully started.
* But now the phone boots into the phone without putting in my password. I can reboot the phone and it will boot all the way to the Lock screen, and I can unlock the lock screen with my fingerprint or my backup password.
* I am concerned that somehow my device is either no longer encrypted or that there is some setting which has stored the boot password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, please try not to bump threads almost a year old. I realise that it might have taken you a while to actually reach this thread, but hear me out.
Opening a new thread is always better, since software versions, features and devices are most likely different, along with different device usage habits/users.
You say you're having "the same problem"... as.. who exactly? There's a bunch of different specific "issues" that relate to encryption. Be specific.
For instance, you mentioning fingerprint sensor leads me to presume that you are not using a Nexus 5.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
I updated my OnePlus One via OTA to Lollipop, however experienced some issues afterwards, why I factory reset the phone (still being Lollipop, however in a clean state).
First thing I wanted to do was to enable full disk encryption.
Having nothing configured so far - not even the lock screen (hence I didn't configure any PIN/pattern/passhrase so far) - I activated encryption.
I didn't get asked for any PIN/pattern/passphrase. After "encryption" finished, the phone rebooted as usual, however *not* showing me any prompt (what should I've entered anyway?) but Settings -> Security -> Encryption now prints "Encrypted".
Since Encryption can't be undone without a factory reset I'm now having a phone which says it is encrypted, but not asking me for anything when powering it on.
My assumption is - although I don't know for sure - that several people configure the Lock screen before and then switching to full disk encryption - let them believe their phone got encrypted.
I hope I'm totally mistaken here, but right now it feels like full disk encryption on my OnePlus One with the official firmware is completly bogus!
Any comment on this is highly appreciated!
[email protected] said:
I updated my OnePlus One via OTA to Lollipop, however experienced some issues afterwards, why I factory reset the phone (still being Lollipop, however in a clean state).
First thing I wanted to do was to enable full disk encryption.
Having nothing configured so far - not even the lock screen (hence I didn't configure any PIN/pattern/passhrase so far) - I activated encryption.
I didn't get asked for any PIN/pattern/passphrase. After "encryption" finished, the phone rebooted as usual, however *not* showing me any prompt (what should I've entered anyway?) but Settings -> Security -> Encryption now prints "Encrypted".
Since Encryption can't be undone without a factory reset I'm now having a phone which says it is encrypted, but not asking me for anything when powering it on.
My assumption is - although I don't know for sure - that several people configure the Lock screen before and then switching to full disk encryption - let them believe their phone got encrypted.
I hope I'm totally mistaken here, but right now it feels like full disk encryption on my OnePlus One with the official firmware is completly bogus!
Any comment on this is highly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your phone is encrypted although without a pin or password set it isn't much use. Perhaps a flaw that your phone doesn't ask you to set one up when going through the process (I thought it did). Although initially it was enabled out of the box (with 5.0 - see Nexus 6) but that would mean maybe asking to set up one to when a person first goes through the set up on their phone, which it didn't do (to my knowledge). Also not everyone wants to use a pin/pass to unlock. The security for certain things is enhanced with fde without a pin pass but obviously if it's protected with a password with fde then it should be well secured.
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
I found this older thread about the POCO X3 NFC: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/phone-says-its-encrypted-but-is-it-really.4167645/
I do not know if the info there is also valid for the X3 Pro ... or if it even was correct in the first place. (Cause just 1 other user mentioned this and no one else talked about it.)
In the 2nd post there is tha guy mentioning that MIUI is not changing the decryption keys when changing the password. Is this a problem?
I have bootloader unlocked and Magisk + LSposed installed. Using the latest stock MIUI. From what I have read online ... unlocking hte bootloader just allows to tamper more with the device - and allows an attacker to bypass the hardware security stuff to run brute force without using the phone (to bypass rate limits and run brute force very fast) - shouldn'd that still be safe with a long password?
Well Android allows at max 16 chars and I am using 16 chars letter, numbers, special chars now + biometrics for screen unlock. After the boot it seems it forces you to put in the password. (Biometrics not working.) TWRP decryption is working - and only works with the password I put. (Not with "default_password".) Even when adb is enabled (I usually leave USB debugging disabled) it seems not to work unless I also change the charging options to allow file transfer (not only charging battery) - which always seems to reset to recharging battery only after a reboot. (And not allow for changes unless passwort is put in once at least.)
I am talking mainly about attacks where you are able to power off your phone and someone else gets physical access to it. (Like police or NSA lol. After I got it back I would always completely wipe it to make sure they have not installed some keyloggers.) Unless the bootloader and internal keystore somehow (I do not have much knowledge about this) just checks your passwort but is still using "default_password" in the background (and TWRP also works using this) should not a strong password be safe?
I think the key generation with "default_password" itself still would have some random compoment (every time you reset the sytsem and it gets newly encrypted)? And it only matters if that "key encryption key" gets re-encrypted when changing the password. (And not only encrypted/hashed with "default_password".) As mentioned here by Elcomsoft: https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2018/05/demystifying-android-physical-acquisition/
"It still takes effort to decrypt the smartphone even if the data is encrypted with “default_password”. Much depends on the encryption implementation of a particular vendor. As an example, some vendors will not re-encrypt the KEK (Key Encryption Key) when the user changes their passcode; this in turn allows decrypting the data regardless of the current passcode by simply using “default_password”. The same situation occurs if, at the time of the initial setup, the vendor opts to start encrypting the phone before the user sets the passcode. According to Oxygen, this is exactly what happens on Motorola smartphones, which can be extracted and decrypted regardless of the lock screen password – but only if Secure Startup is not enabled."
(This info still seems to be for the old FDE but I think it should be similar fo file based encryption which is used in the POCO X3 Pro?)
If the TWRP only works with the correct password (otherwise showing encrypted stuff for the files that are supposed to be encrypted in th FBE - not everything like in the FDE but still enough I think) ... is it safe to say that this key encryption key is getting re-encrypted?
TL;DR - Phone will not accept correct encrypt password. Need to dump data partition to computer and decrypt from there, or something like that.
So I have a Nokia 6.1 from 2018 that I used for just about a year. I upgraded to a nicer phone during summer 2019, at which point I transferred all the data I thought I needed, turned the power off, put the phone on a shelf and forgot about it for many months. I remember when I last powered it down, the battery was fully charged. Quite some time later I realized I needed to retrieve some important data written down in an old OneNote account that was synced with that phone and nothing else. Upon logging in, I discovered Microsoft had wiped the account clean due to an extended period of inactivity, meaning the only copy of that data now exists on that phone and nowhere else.
When I dug out the phone and tried to power it up, the battery was completely flat. I plugged it in and it booted up okay, but it would not accept the passphrase to unlock. I can only assume this is due to some sort of bug in Android (I believe it is running 9 Pie, but I don't remember for certain), as I know for a fact the password is correct. I've been putting off trying to unlock this thing for over a year now, but it needs to be done. I've noticed over my several attempts to enter the password that the phone has been behaving somewhat erratically. For example, it doesn't always respond to the power button right away. I'll try to press it again, and the screen will blink on and off several times. Also, when I first tried to unlock the phone, I could enter the passphrase as many times as I wanted, but now when I try, it locks me out for 30 seconds after each attempt, and also notifies me of the total number of failed attempts. When I reboot the phone, the failed attempt counter resets to zero.
Do I have any recourse here? Since I know the passphrase, is it possible to dump the encrypted data partition to my computer and decrypt it from there? The phone is not rooted, nor does it have any custom ROMs or anything like that. I appreciate any help anyone can give.
Quick addendum, I attempted to sideload the final OTA update sourced from the Nokia OTA Repository on Telegram onto the phone via recovery mode. It is running Android 10 now but still no luck unlocking. Interestingly, however, the failed attempt counter now appears to be working correctly, indicating I have entered the incorrect passphrase 31 times now. I'm not sure how many more times I can do that before it wipes everything.