IIRC one of the mobile operating systems has a duress pin that instead of deleting all your shit, it just opens up basically a different user profile. So you can throw a few random apps and photos etc until it looks convincing, and just have that on standby. Put in your normal pin and you get the profile you actually use.
Cop demands to see your phone, and it’s just a “sure - it’s 4022” and they get to scroll through some uninteresting bs.
Go home and put the real pin in and it’s back to normal - nothing’s deleted.
It’s kinda like carrying a throw-wallet with a few bucks and expired credit cards… get mugged, hand em that, and be on your way with your real wallet in another pocket.
It’s gonna be sus when your browsing history and other stats on that profile doesn’t collate with how a normal person uses their phone.
They might confiscate the phone.
My point is that you shouldn’t assume your phone is secure.
That’s a good point. I wonder if there’s a way to combine the throw-wallet duress pin with the delete-everything duress pin.
Like, enter the duress pin, get the fake profile AND start a timer: if the real pin isn’t entered within 1 hr (or whatever timeframe the user set it to), then it factory resets.
Best of both worlds.
Definitely would be pretty easy to figure out a fake phone profile. Unless you are constantly updating it, any photo/emails/texts call logs will have timestamps from like months/years ago. Might fool a few, but even less if it becomes a widespread thing and authorities become aware of how it works.
The solution is to have a Model Citizen account that’s you’re daily driver and a Malcontent account that’s the one to be deleted on duress.
They might confiscate the phone.
If you have something worth hiding on your phone that isn’t hidden when they look at it, they are DEFINITELY going to confiscate your phone
You must enforce the principle of least prilevelege.
Not by just using SELinux in your PC, but IRL.
Any google phone, you can use you “wrong” thumb two or three times (fast), then you are required to enter pin. Easy, quick way to lock you phone more securely if you encounter police.
And Samsung devices have a “Lockdown Mode” that can be triggered by holding down the power button which does the exact same thing (also disabling lockscreen notifications if they were on until you enter your pin)
You can also just hold the power button to bring up the power menu which includes a Lockdown button. This disables biometrics and will require a PIN to unlock.
This should work on any Android device, but definitely works on my Pixel. The shortcut might be different for different devices, though.
Better to hit the reboot though, then it’s completely locked.
Also locks the sim card if you have a lock on that
It also happens all the time to me because the fingerprint sensor on my 6A is garbage heh
The feature I want is a specific fingerprint that triggers a lockdown, perhaps requiring a long password rather than a short PIN to exit.
Graphene does that if you use the wrong finger 5x in a row, I do wish you could lower the number though.
Same on Lineage, so that’s presumably an Android default. It’s slow.
Why not make one fingerprint the erase button?
Like left index finger causes a factory reset.
I feel like this is one of those situations where you might be able to use something like an NFC tag to force your phone into a locked state where it would require the pin to unlock.
I think an SOS style pin input is great in theory but I don’t know that most people will use it because it’s not necessarily going to help in places where you might be required or forced to give up biometric unlocking credentials (some countries make it so there is not a legal way to refuse to give up your fingerprint or face scan etc). This isn’t any easier than setting a lockdown key combination etc. Currently on my phone the lockdown is set to enable if I press the power button and volume up key at the same time and I think it’s similarly easy to do on iphones.
I feel like this is one of those situations where it also might be a workable idea to use something like an NFC tag to force your phone into a locked state where it would require the pin to unlock. If of course lockdown mode can’t be enabled on your device using a key combo and you have NFC available.
It would be nice if there was a way to use 2FA to unlock a phone. Using a password in combination with biometric or NFC token. That would also allow for the use of an emergency pin as well.
GrapheneOS has 2FA implemented with fingerprints. When enabling it, you choose a 2nd factor pin you have to enter every time you want to unlock using your finger
(Allowing you a reasonable compromise between convenience, as in not having to put in a long password every time, and having more protection against physical abuse or coersion, OFC not the serious kind, but it helps with e.g. the coppers)
That’s nice. I wish a security token was also an option, but it doesn’t appear they have any intention of implementing that. I don’t like the idea of using biometrics for anything specifically because of law enforcement and how there I can be compelled to provide biometric data. A security dongle is almost the same, but with the “advantage” that a little bit of security through obscurity can be implemented since they not only have to know a token is required, but also which one.
Technically that’s also a disadvantage in that a security token can be lost vs biometric, but that’s the risk profile I would personally prefer.
I have a similar take on biometrics, but love their convenience (plus I don’t have to type out my passphrase in public, which IMO is a huge plus) and with GrapheneOS I get to have my cake and eat it too :>
