Mobile Security - Comments

Alexander Kanavin comments on "Hello World!"

2006-12-15T11:57:09Z

Would you like to tell us your full name, and perhaps a job title, and maybe even what you do at work? :-)

Aquarius comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-01-06T21:50:56Z

What will happen if a thief decides to update a phone software? All internal data will be lost after update including Phone Guard, as I guess. Is it possible to do it anyway while phone is locked?

Neil comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-01-08T10:58:17Z

IF the phone is locked using the remote SIM lock, that is, the built in/native Symbian feature, then no, it won't work. When the phone is locked, so is access to the filesystem and so it won't be possible to enable the phone mode to enable the firmware update. If the phone is not locked in this way, then yes it will be possible to flash/format the device as I stated above (see low level format).

neil comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-01-08T11:00:09Z

PS If like me, it takes multiple attempts to guess the captcha correctly, press F5/refresh this page to get a new code (you will not loose your comment).

Aquarius comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-01-09T08:51:55Z

> IF the phone is locked using the remote SIM lock, that is, the built in/native Symbian feature

Neil, my N73 does not have this built-in feature. As I know this function is available only in Eseries devices.

>it won't be possible to enable the phone mode to enable the firmware update

What about updating the firmware via Phoenix (I've heard it is possible in "dead mode" without the phone being on) and other updaters?

Neil comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-01-09T12:04:11Z

You are correct when you state remote lock is not a feature of N Series. And when flashing the device, of course everything is possible.

Aquarius comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-01-12T14:49:08Z

>I plugged in a USB data cable to my PC and to
>the phone's pop-port and I was still able to
>dump the contents of the phone and memory card

One more weak point of Phone Guardian 1.0 is that the password is stored in the file C:\pguard.dat as a plain text without any encoding. Moreover this file can be deleted even if the application is running (when the phone is not locked yet). After that Phone Guardian asks to enter new password :).
So, waiting for improvements in newer versions.

P.S. Neil, thank you for the answers.

Anonymous comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-01-29T09:30:53Z

Just an imitation of original Guardian antitheft, from symbian-toys
http://www.symbian-toys.com/guardian.aspx
unfortunately not available for 3rd edition.

- Guardian features an advanced shadow copy system; in 90% of cases the program is not deleted after a hard-reset.

flosse comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-02-24T11:50:50Z

I think its quite weird that, even though the Symbian S60 3rd edition is all the same code base, there is such fundamental differences in feature set based on the series. I mean additional software would be one thing but I would guess that something low level as remote lock etc. shouldn't be made series specific as it is a security feature that would benefit all phone models.

My 2 cents

Flosse

http://blog.2blocksaway.com

Ajay comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-04-18T09:37:28Z

What if phone is switched on without the SIM card?
Can than the thief go into appliation manager and remove the Phone Guardian? If this is possible than there is no security to the phone.
Secondly if you enable lock if SIM changed in phone security it shall not allow any message to be sent in case of sim changes.

kid comments on "Phone Guardian by Symbian Guru"

2007-07-03T23:34:55Z

Hi all,

today I read one interesed story abou this thema at this site:

Security CENTRAL Forum

http://www.SCForum.info