Stolen phone

Probably9857

[deleted] a lot of confusion here, stemming from the fact that the OP seems (or at least seemed in the beginning) to be more concerned with disincentivising theft of the physical device more than he is concerned with securing the data on it from the theives.

Who can say he is wrong? Maybe he doesn't trust his roommates, who are not hackers, but might very well like to steal his device and sell it.

In any case, that would be an unusual threat model, and not one that GrapheneOS or most other serious security projects would prioritize.

ErminioOttone

Probably9857 Yes that' was my point because if as I understood from the post there are no disincentives from phone stealing and blocking it as if it was a stone. I don't see the differences in terms of security of datas with a standard android phones like s23, recent oneplus and so on. At the end no matter what thieves will shutdown the phone and will need to factory reset the phone - so deleting everything - as in GOS. So my question or maybe what I wanted to see in videos or in some presentations is the security comparaison between GOS devices and random other phones like android or apple.

Xtreix

ErminioOttone I tried but there are no differences in unlocking it by password or fingerprint. I might have a too old (for sure) phone.

Hello and welcome.

I've never used Samsung phones, so maybe it's different on your device, but on GrapheneOS on a supported Pixel, when you boot or reboot the device without unlocking it, the device is in BFU mode (before first unlock) the point of BFU is that data is encrypted at rest, this is to make data extraction by an attacker extremely unlikely if not impossible, keeping data secure is what you want because stealing your data is worse than stealing your phone, in BFU mode, you can't use your fingerprint if you've set it up, you need to use your PIN/Password (if you've set it up too, which should normally be the case), in AFU (after first unlock) that means your device has been unlocked once, in which state, data are no longer encrypted at rest and you can unlock it with your fingerprint.

If you want an option that can remotely erase data, this option is not available as far as I know, you can probably use Find My Device with a Google account for this with sandboxed google play.

Restarting the device after 18 hours if it has not been unlocked at least once within this time lapse is precisely intended for theft and loss, you can reduce this time to 10 min, again, the aim is to quickly put the device in BFU state.

Xtreix

ErminioOttone I don't see the differences in terms of security of datas with a standard android phones like s23

You're missing a lot if you compare the security and privacy features only through theft and loss. Unlike the Samsung S23, GrapheneOS lets you auto-reboot, with the option of setting a time between 10 minutes and 72 hours.

Once again, the aim is to quickly put the device in BFU mode, which you don't seem to understand.

No software can prevent someone from stealing your device, you can try Find My Device or Wasted on F-Droid to wipe data remotely, but I wouldn't rely too much on the reliability of these third-party solutions.

If you're worried about theft, a possible but impractical solution is to use a secondary profile for outdoor use.

You can reread what GrapheneOS offers in terms of functionality, but at this point I think you've received enough good answers to your questions.

https://grapheneos.org/features
https://grapheneos.org/faq#encryption

de0u

ErminioOttone I don't see the differences in terms of security of datas with a standard android phones like s23, recent oneplus and so on. At the end no matter what thieves will shutdown the phone and will need to factory reset the phone - so deleting everything - as in GOS.

But there is another hazard possible in a theft scenario: can a thief access the data on the phone? Can the thief transfer money from bank accounts? Can the thief access your contacts and trick your family members into sending money? That could cost much more than the price of a replacement phone.

The Pixel hardware and GrapheneOS are designed to protect data against disclosure. If a thief steals a phone and can't access the data and wipes the phone, this is a success in terms of protecting the data against disclosure.

Blastoidea

It is also incorrect to believe hat a Samsung phone is equally secure when compared to a (not EOL) pixel, running GOS.

The two things are not the same.

[deleted]

Blastoidea they may not be equally secure but Samsung does a great job at securing their devices and in regards to this I have found an interesting 3 part article which I plan on reading very carefully when I get time

https://www.riscure.com/tee-security-samsung-teegris-part-1/

rufus

After reading all of this I do have a question.
If I do lock my phone through the 2sec. press power button menu. Is it in a save state like BFU or does this happen only after reboot?

spiral

rufus

No, that is not BFU.

Again, BFU = "Before First Unlock." A full reboot of the phone is required to put the phone into BFU state.

rufus

And another question:
What would be a usefull and recommended setting to protect my datas from thefts?

GeneralVerdacht

https://blog.google/products/android/android-theft-protection/

Android 15 will receive anti theft deterrents like Password protected factory reset, Theft detection, Remote Locking by Telephone number + Security Challenge. I assume especially the last two options will be integrated in Google FMD Service and are only available by Google Play Services.

other8026

GeneralVerdacht I expect most if not all of the features listed in that blog post will not work on GrapheneOS even if Google Play is installed because that and any other Google apps wouldn't have the necessary privileges.

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