I’ve put my work aside for now to contribute what I could find from a quick Google search. I’ll continue gathering more information when I have time. Please understand: I have nothing against GrapheneOS — I use it myself on a Pixel Pro. In my opinion, it’s currently the most secure smartphone OS available.
That said, I want to raise awareness about how Swedish police are actively exploiting not only GrapheneOS, but all mobile operating systems. My goal is to shed light on these topic as no one in Sweden discuss this big and not many outside of Sweden knows about this.
Case Reference – Malmö TR B 11984-24
FUP (investigation protocol, in Swedish):
https://files.catbox.moe/xbr5dk.zip
In this particular case, six Pixel devices (all running GrapheneOS) from six different individuals were accessed by the Swedish police. It’s unclear from the documentation whether access was gained via HDA or through physical extraction tools like Cellebrite.
I’ll be requesting more FUPs (court documents) over the coming days. This takes time, as most links expire quickly — meaning I have to contact the courts.
Relevant sources:
Swedish Government proposition describing HDA:
https://www.regeringen.se/rattsliga-dokument/proposition/2024/11/prop.-20242551
Academic study from the University of Gothenburg discussing HDA, including interviews with four Swedish Police IT personnel:
https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/handle/2077/78556/gupea_2077_78556_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
It’s very difficult to obtain reliable sources on this topic in Sweden, as it’s rarely discussed publicly. The only concrete way to verify this activity is through FUPs, which I need to manually request from the courts and then upload. These documents indicate that Swedish police are capable of accessing phones remotely — regardless of operating system.
That said, it's important to note that factors like user settings or installed apps may also play a role. For example, nearly all Swedes (over 99%) use the BankID app, which is required for authentication across most digital services. It’s possible that such apps or permissions affect exploitability — but that’s speculation at this point.
What I do know — both from court documents and friends who has been jailed etc — is that Swedish police have used HDA techniques to infiltrate devices across different operating systems.
For instance, I personally had a close friend who had a Pixel 6 running GrapheneOS. According to the police, they successfully installed HDA on his device and were able to see all Signal, Telegram, and other encrypted communications for over a month — eventually leading to his arrest. I plan to request the FUP for that case as well. This was summer 2024. I dont have any info regarding version of his phone as it has been taken by police.
It’s a lot of work to get all the FUP, but if the GrapheneOS developers become aware of how these exploits are being used, and can patch or mitigate them, then all this effort will have been worth it.