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Best Practice to bypass Android lock

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(@gryhound)
Posts: 2
New Member
Topic starter
 

Like most, our department is seeing more and more pattern locked Android phones. We currently use Cellebrite UFED for our extractions, but with most Androids, rare is the day that one that already has USB debugging checked, and then we are stuck.

We are coming up on a fresh budget year and I am looking for advice on best practices / training that would assist us in more technical methods other than banging my head against the Cellebrite or trying to interpret greasy fingerprints on the screen. Are there any good resources in rooting or other methods I should be looking at? I'm willing to learn - just need a good direction to start.

 
Posted : 19/11/2013 5:14 am
(@memoryleak)
Posts: 3
New Member
 

If usb debugging is enabled, try (by using Android Debug Bridge) to remove gesture.key file from a phone.

 
Posted : 19/11/2013 7:12 pm
(@dcs1094)
Posts: 146
Estimable Member
 

Like most, our department is seeing more and more pattern locked Android phones. We currently use Cellebrite UFED for our extractions, but with most Androids, rare is the day that one that already has USB debugging checked, and then we are stuck.

On UFED Touch Ultimate/UFED 4PC if debugging mode is not checked, it is still possible to bypass the pattern lock on Androids and at least obtain a physical dump and on most models the pattern code as well.

Am i right in thinking you have the UFED Classic?

 
Posted : 19/11/2013 10:02 pm
(@jlindmar)
Posts: 30
Eminent Member
 

Det. Feyen,

Cellebrite is constantly updating capabilities, so I wouldn't lose faith on that front. You may also want to take a look at ViaForensics and their experience/capabilities with Android.

https://viaforensics.com/home/

I would take a good look at JTAG training and equipment. Teel Technologies offers a course for LE.

http//www.teeltech.com/tt3/repair-jtag.asp?cid=38

Regards,

Jesse

 
Posted : 20/11/2013 12:46 am
(@sandfurz)
Posts: 7
Active Member
 

But i think JTAg or chip off is not that easy way to do in every case. And your device could be damaged.

The pattern lock and/or the passcode of the device is stored in a secure part of the android file system. It's safed as a hash. I think it was a SHA-1.
When you get that data you easily can decode it and get your patternlock or passcode.

There are some solutions to extract physical data without having on USB-debugging. But every solution I know needs to get root rights.
So you need to get some information how to root the device you want to investigate.

There are some howtos describing the axtraction and finding the patternlock hash. Just google for it for more information.

But I think the hardest part is to get (forensic safe) root access.

As much as I know is that the forensic tools like EFED or XRY use a temporarly root-hack or exploit to get the root access. But I dont know if there are any changes to the system memory of the device.

Greets

Patrick

 
Posted : 06/12/2013 3:05 pm
(@kbertens)
Posts: 88
Trusted Member
 

Use the rubberducky from hak5 to brute force it.
Doesnt work for all phones but if it supports a keyboard it supports the ducky.

 
Posted : 06/12/2013 7:22 pm
(@alistair)
Posts: 23
Eminent Member
 

If USB Debugging is not enabled, you can still bypass the lock by installing a custom recovery (such as TWRP or CWM) which will allow USB debugging in recovery mode automatically. However, unlocking bootloader might initiate a wipe of the /data partition, but there are also ways to install custom recovery bypassing a wipe (a lot of info can be gained from xda-developers forum).

And given android's flash infrastructure, even if info is wiped, you can always recover it by dumping the physical partition after bypassing the lock (of course this might not be adequate if it's an official investigation).

Good luck!

 
Posted : 07/12/2013 2:19 am
bigjon
(@bigjon)
Posts: 159
Estimable Member
 

The Cellebrite kits ( Touch and UFED4PC) both get past locks on the Androids. whether USB debug is enabled or not
You have to do a Physical extraction, place cable into handset and boot loader loads up, average time on the Touch is approx. 2 hours for Galaxy S2/3/4/, however on the UFED4PC it can be around 25 mins

 
Posted : 08/12/2013 5:56 pm
CopyRight
(@copyright)
Posts: 184
Estimable Member
 

Okay Android ha, So what you want to do is Root + CMW an android device which will automatically turn on the USB-Debuggning which is the most important stage of android forensics, then you can use ADB mode to deleted the password.key or gesture.key, or you can use CCL script to identify those codes by knowing the encrypted value of gesture.key and someonetimes knowing the salted hash if theres an alphabetic password used, then using those hashes to decrypt the original passcode. Those values can be extracted by taking a file system dump then going to thier directory to read the hashes, the file system dump could be taken by cellebrite after (rooting and CWM) [ usb debugging on], or by connecting direclty to the phone by JTAG and the difficulties of this process depends on the model of the phone.

I hope this helps.

 
Posted : 17/12/2013 9:49 am
(@zergling)
Posts: 38
Eminent Member
 

I strongly suggest to test it on a "safe" device if its a sensitive case. There are numerous of devices that store encrypted backups of .key files and the settings.db in other partitions.

After reboot the device will try to match hashes with the backup files and restore them eventually or do a wipe (worst case)

So its a try&error method anyway.

 
Posted : 19/12/2013 5:41 pm
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