Phone made GSM call on its own without interaction

Blastoidea

Which phone and which carrier?

zxc276

The same thing happened with my parents' phones several weeks ago, although they use some old android devices and the call was in logs of both smartphones. In my case though all devices are hacked in our house since more than 6 years now.
Go to Settings > Security & privacy > Exploit protection > Hardened memory allocator and see if it's enabled.
I have Pixel 8 running on GOS completely compromised and it always stays disabled. I can enable it, but once I quit settings and re-enter them again this option is always disabled.

de0u

zxc276 I have Pixel 8 running on GOS completely compromised and it always stays disabled. I can enable it, but once I quit settings and re-enter them again this option is always disabled.

That sounds alarming! Is it possible to share a video of that?

Del

zxc276 it happens to me as well ... :(

crazysally

de0u My Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro both do self-disable HMA. Video (expires after 3 days)

de0u

crazysally Thanks for posting the video. That makes it clear that a misunderstanding is in progress for at least some users.

The toggle does not globally disable or globally enable the hardened memory allocator! Note that the text says "disabled" and "enabled", not "disable" and "enable". Note also that the "disabled" list says "No apps". That is because that setting page displays two lists of apps: the list of apps with the hardened allocator disabled (ideally empty) and the list of apps with the hardened allocator enabled (ideally a long list).

Toggling the indicator toggles which list of apps is displayed (that is all). Going back a page and then forward causes the disabled-apps list to be displayed.

The video shows that the hardened allocator is disabled for zero apps (good) and enabled for many apps (good).

crazysally

de0u That makes total sense if I actually engage my brain and think about it for 1 second ... lol. I just saw your prior (alarming!) message and looked at my phone and said: 'hey! mine does that too!' 😱

Thanks for the fast reply!

zxc276

Thanks for clarification on that particular feature. Nevertheless, my devices are fully compromised including Pixel 8.

geb2

zxc276

Your phone did the same thing and its compromised? How do you know this and how can I check if mine is too or not?

zxc276

geb2
Not my phone. My parent's smartphone did that, calling the phone of the other parent around 2 months ago. They have some old Android devices (not Pixels, not GOS) that are long end-of-life.
I have seen thousands of pieces of evidence over the last 6 years that all devices are hacked in our house. Not 100% of them are, of course, correct, as can be seen above, but I'd say around 99%.
In your case, it's important if you have actually witnessed that your smartphone is actually calling somebody's phone on its own. If not, this can be some other thing, such as SIM spoofing, as it was pointed out above.
Check out this link: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/cell-phone-fraud
If you haven't seen your smartphone actually calling some number without your action, then your device is very likely to be clean. If you have it, then I don't know what it is. You cannot check it if it's compromised on your own; you'd need to get some digital forensics done, and even then there is no 100% guarantee. Anyway, most people say these devices are very secure.

Heraclius

Are we sure phone numbers discussed here aren't simply being spoofed by scammers?

geb2

Heraclius Yes 100% no spoof. Actual factual conversation.

zxc276

There are also spying apps available. If somebody had physical access to your smartphone, maybe this could be a reason. Although I don't know if the GOS security model would allow an app to remotely control somebody's calls.

geb2

zxc276 This is my question. Is this a GOS bug or is my phone compromised? I have only a handful of safe apps installed.

DeletedUser69

You guys are going a bit too far with this. I have been frequently scouring my settings and checking running processes for close to two years now to discover anything out of place and lo and behold, no mystery apps hogging up my internet traffic or hijacking sensors without explanation. You first need to have a basic understanding of how an Android works before you go on to make bold claims of observations of hostile activities on your device supported by exactly zero proof.

geb2

DeletedUser69 My simple question is why did my phone call on its own without interaction. Any ideas?

AlphaElwedritsch

May I kindly ask what you expect? What you want to hear?

geb2

AlphaElwedritsch
Yes, I have a few far-stretched questions:

Is there a way to check system logs to see what caused the call?
Could this be a hardware glitch or something with the baseband?
Can it be GOS bug or AOSP call app bug?
Has anyone else had this happen with GOS? At least @zxc276 parents with some old stock android?
Are there any known bugs or relatad changes in recent updates that might explain this?
Could the hardware like baseband have triggered the call accidentally?
Is there a chance of external interference like SIM hacking or an exploit?
Is there a way to make sure no malware has caused this?

angela

geb2 Since GOS developers think it's malware, it would help if you listed every App you had downloaded at the time.

I also use FOSS Apps and think this may have happened to me about a month ago. I had a call after the screen is locked. I figured I pressed something incorrectly, despite swearing I hadn't, but then I figured it was more likely that I had pressed the wrong thing.

It's hard to know what happened.

It would be good if GOS had an enable log feature (if people chose it) so there could be a "send last 24 hours of logs" to developers option.

Were you using a VPN or Orbit and were you using WiFi or cellular?

What sort of WiFi router do you use?

Blastoidea

Did OP actually see the phone make this call?

Sorry if I missed it.

geb2

Blastoidea Yes the phone was on the table and then suddenly the call was on with the phone speaker enabled.

Blastoidea

geb2
Thank you.