I read it as “This is a silly Android thing that I don’t have to deal with because I use custom roms”.
I use Graphene and use this feature, but I can understand why it would seem silly to some people and I can think of use cases where you wouldn’t want it to happen (like using your phone as a security device with Haven (https://github.com/guardianproject/haven)) installed.
Most Android users don’t understand the BFU/AFU states and the security implications, it is good that default android is including a sane security default that’ll be pushed out to the standard Android users.
If you ever think your phone is about to be stolen or seized you want to power it off for this exact reason
That’s the thing, you don’t (have time to reboot)… my friend’s phone got snatched while he was recording, he had good enough reflex to press the lock button, but I don’t know if that’s enough
He uses GrapheneOS, and the attacker wasn’t a cop…
An advanced attacker that has access to forensic imaging tools can pull data off of your phone as long as it has been unlocked the first time after boot.
There are some models and some OSs (like Graphene on the newest Pixels) that are safe, for the time being, in AFU mode. You still want to power the phone off if you have the chance.
In your friend’s situation, his phone can be powered, isolated from RF to prevent remote wiping and kept in a lock state in order to preserve the keys in memory until an exploit is found for that model. If the OS automatically reboots after 3 days, it prevents this kind of attack.
Oh now I get the use case for such feature, I was thinking: why would the attacker wait for 3 days to Unlock the device or even give you time to reboot it (that’s why I mentioned this story)
You want to do this even with custom roms.
Having your phone automatically go into the BFU state ensures that there’s only a small window for a thief to extract data from your phone.
If you ever think your phone is about to be stolen or seized you want to power it off for this exact reason.
They’re saying custom ROMs like Grapheneos have had this for a long time already.
I read it as “This is a silly Android thing that I don’t have to deal with because I use custom roms”.
I use Graphene and use this feature, but I can understand why it would seem silly to some people and I can think of use cases where you wouldn’t want it to happen (like using your phone as a security device with Haven (https://github.com/guardianproject/haven)) installed.
Most Android users don’t understand the BFU/AFU states and the security implications, it is good that default android is including a sane security default that’ll be pushed out to the standard Android users.
Lineage as well, mine reboots at 4am every day
That’s the thing, you don’t (have time to reboot)… my friend’s phone got snatched while he was recording, he had good enough reflex to press the lock button, but I don’t know if that’s enough
He uses GrapheneOS, and the attacker wasn’t a cop…
It is not enough to lock the phone.
An advanced attacker that has access to forensic imaging tools can pull data off of your phone as long as it has been unlocked the first time after boot.
There are some models and some OSs (like Graphene on the newest Pixels) that are safe, for the time being, in AFU mode. You still want to power the phone off if you have the chance.
In your friend’s situation, his phone can be powered, isolated from RF to prevent remote wiping and kept in a lock state in order to preserve the keys in memory until an exploit is found for that model. If the OS automatically reboots after 3 days, it prevents this kind of attack.
Oh now I get the use case for such feature, I was thinking: why would the attacker wait for 3 days to Unlock the device or even give you time to reboot it (that’s why I mentioned this story)
It makes sense for a number of reasons. You could be being detained or your device could be sitting in lost and found.