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pulled info from my phone by being in the same room

B

bharvey1508

Lurker
so i was at a party the other night and a guy asked me what phone i had the next thing he did was showed me a picture from my gallery. when i asked him how he did it he told me he knows a way to pull pictures from my phone anytime i move it thru the air he could pull a picture from my phone and when he sat his droid down on top of mine he could pull all the info off of my phone and it would be on his does anyone know anything about this and is there a software out there to block this thanks
 
He asked me to open my gallery and then wave my phone in the air so i opened my gallery and then made one swipe thru the air with my phone and he said do you have this pic. I then said yeah how did you do that and he sat his phone down on top of mine and he had all of my info on his phone he said i work at altell and i know a lot of secrets to the android software. However he would not tell me how he did it.
 
bharvey1508 said:
...when he sat his droid down on top of mine he could pull all the info off of my phone and it would be on his does anyone know anything about this and is there a software out there to block this thanks
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The guy's yanking your chain. You can't do that.
 
he did it right in front of me. i sat my phone down and when he picked his up it had all of my contacts on his phone and all of my pictures on his.
 
its an app in the market.... think its called something like 'bump it'? ..... check to see if you have it on your phone........ thats exactly how it operates
 
copestag said:
its an app in the market.... think its called something like 'bump it'? ..... check to see if you have it on your phone........ thats exactly how it operates
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Except bump requires both parties to authorize the transfer. It shouldn't work just by waving the phone around.
 
Full details on your phone make, model, Android version and whether you had Bluetooth on, please.

Before anyone asks, I'm satisfied with credentials at present.

Last I saw, it took config work to open a Bluetooth path, but that is a weak protocol. I'm of the belief that this was a parlour trick rather than an exploit, but best we reflect anyway.

The waving around or proximity was non-sense, absolutely.
 
The waving around or proximity was non-sense, absolutely.
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Exactly. You 'waving' your phone in the air does absolutely nothing in terms of file transfer. As suggested, the only thing CLOSE to this would be Bump app. But again, it requires both phones to be aware of the transfer. Maybe this guy set bump up on your phone without you knowing?
 
Or vipered info from an open wifi (never use those) or just got to the phone physically - it was a party, accomplices abound among buddies.

Still - while I think it's ok - Bluetooth holes never cease to amaze me.

And then there's the fact that GSM phones are completely non-secure and be cracked in a matter of minutes and eavesdropped - but I've never heard of any vectors for that leading to data compromise (I'll have to go back and look that up, unless somebuddy else wants to google "GSM hacked" "GSM cracked" etc in the meantime.)

None of these problems are endemic to Android. People choose to use GSM, fine, they choose to deal with open wifi, fine. But most people trust Bluetooth, so I'd like to chat and search on this one just to be sure.
 
EarlyMon said:
Or vipered info from an open wifi (never use those) or just got to the phone physically - it was a party, accomplices abound among buddies.

Still - while I think it's ok - Bluetooth holes never cease to amaze me.

And then there's the fact that GSM phones are completely non-secure and be cracked in a matter of minutes and eavesdropped - but I've never heard of any vectors for that leading to data compromise (I'll have to go back and look that up, unless somebuddy else wants to google "GSM hacked" "GSM cracked" etc in the meantime.)

None of these problems are endemic to Android. People choose to use GSM, fine, they choose to deal with open wifi, fine. But most people trust Bluetooth, so I'd like to chat and search on this one just to be sure.
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How to Hack GSM Nework, Phone
 
EarlyMon said:
That's what I remembered from this months ago - 2G only, not a full device access.
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I've heard rumor that 1 carrier(sprint I think) roams data on verizon. And when they roam on verizon they can only roam 2g so if this were true? Could it happen this way with other carriers? If so there's a easy way...
 
CDMA (read: Verizon, Sprint) is inherently hardened to this. When accessing Verizon towers from a Sprint phone, carrier info is exchanged for financial uses, but so far as I've heard, that's it.

GSM is inherently weak here. That said, the 3G (and any 4G) is using cdma-like (or LTE or WiMAX) tech that's also hardened.

GSM is 2G only, sfair.

What are you envisioning with roaming?
 
Last time I was on Verizon tower, I got 2G services only. I've head that may have changed, tho, not sure.

I'm missing your point. If you think the vulnerability is due to roaming alone, it's not. 1xRTT and EV-DO are both CDMA.

Please help me understand.

http://www.mobileburn.com/definition.jsp?term=1xRTT

Roaming doesn't make CDMA into GSM, GSM is vulnerable - but not because it's 2G. Among GSM's disadvantages are: poorer voice quality, it's 2G (not referring to GSM EDGE), poorer traffic management possible - and - it's vulnerable.

It has advantages, but it's disadvantages are CDMA's strengths.
 
EarlyMon said:
Last time I was on Verizon tower, I got 2G services only. I've head that may have changed, tho, not sure.

I'm missing your point. If you think the vulnerability is due to roaming alone, it's not. 1xRTT and EV-DO are both CDMA.

Please help me understand.

What is 1xRTT? - Definition

Roaming doesn't make CDMA into GSM, GSM is vulnerable - but not because it's 2G. Among GSM's disadvantages are: poorer voice quality, it's 2G (not referring to GSM EDGE), poorer traffic management possible - and - it's vulnerable.

It has advantages, but it's disadvantages are CDMA's strengths.
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Yea I think we just got confused with so many links ;)

what I was trying to say is that how it all started is that the hacking can be done on 2g. And when Sprint roams data on verizon its 2g. I realize this doesn't change cdma.
Heres where the question comes in. If sprint can roam off verizon and it drop data service down, then could at&t or tmob could roam off each other. And if they can/do roam off each other would do they drop to more poor data service for the other person. This is where the whole idea comes back to the beginning of example at&t is roaming on tmob so tmob drops gives at&t 2g service. And at that point the ability to hack is wide open.

There is no significance or importance to any of this. You just got my wheels spinning in my brain. :D
 
Sounds to me that someone copied everything off your phone when you weren't looking. Sounds like a good trick too. I should do this to my friends...
 
bharvey1508 said:
so i was at a party the other night and a guy asked me what phone i had the next thing he did was showed me a picture from my gallery. when i asked him how he did it he told me he knows a way to pull pictures from my phone anytime i move it thru the air he could pull a picture from my phone and when he sat his droid down on top of mine he could pull all the info off of my phone and it would be on his does anyone know anything about this and is there a software out there to block this thanks
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Invoking Occam's Razor here...did anyone present have access to your phone at any time when you weren't looking?
 
i hope it was a trick...

not a real app that any phone can do to another phone....
Please please tell me it aint so.......
 
Bah. I call shenanigans.

If I am wrong however, it'll be all over the tech news in the next few days. I wont get concerned until then.
 
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