Help Keylogger on Xperia?

[victoriaflow]

Friends hello, i am sure thery were similar questions but still i never managed to understand so i'll ask my question here hoping someone answers me I am not that good with software and i used to give my roommate access to my phone from time to time, ussually to check his sport sites. Anyways it turn out he was kinda crazy person and now i fear he could have installed something on my phone like keylogger, so he could easily get my passwords (other friends told me he'd done something like this to his old grilfriend). Now he is good with this stuff, and i want to be sure he didnt put anything. What i did is i restored my phone to factory settings, also checked with Root Checker if i have root access, since other friends told me to check for that, but the app says Root Access is not properly installed, there for the phone should not be rooted? My question is after reseting and checking with this app am i safe now or it still can be something installed? He never had access to my phone for longer periods, usually just for few minutes and most of the time i was checking what he was doing. The phone is locked with password. Thanks and sorry for my not perfect english

 

[scary alien]

Welcome to our AndroidForums, Victoria.

If you've done a factory data reset, then you should be fine.

If you've never rooted your phone and your "friend" didn't have access to it for an extended period of time, and Root Checker doesn't indicate that you're rooted, then it's also unlikely he would have had a chance to install something in the /system partition that a factory data reset would not remove.

Cheers!

 

[victoriaflow]

Thanks for the reply I am pretty sure there is nothing to worry about Now just one more thing, since paranoia kinda kicks in, is it possible the device to be rooted and then unrooted again, but with something bad installed in the system? Now i know this would probably take super long time but still is there sure way to know if something was messed up and if the phone was once rooted, than unrooted again. Also, lets assume that it was, is there completely a way to wipe everything, like the way you can reinstall Windows? Thank you again )))

 

[scary alien]

The answer to your questions are a qualified "yes"--but these processes are very device- and Android version- and often carrier-dependent.

In other words, it's a lot of work; it takes a lot of time; and it takes a lot of knowledge/experience and would require someone to do this without leaving obvious traces, which does not appear to be the current case.

I don't have any personal experience or knowledge about how Xperia devices, but there should/might be a way to restore/flash the device back to it's stock/original state. However, that may not be the case/available for the average user--you'd likely have to research that in your specific device's area here at AF or elsewhere.

 

[victoriaflow]

Thank you. I am leaving this rent apartment next week Now i always check my account activities and they will show if different ip than mine appears. However i only want to ask you one more thing about programs like TeamViewer that can remotely control my phone. Now they require specific authorization and will be visible so he can not hide something like this whitout me noticing it right? If the phone is currently not rooted (According to Root Checker again), i ve done factory reset when i leave this apartment, is there anypossible way for this guy to control my phone miles away without trace? Like to wake it up at night, unlock it and start messing with it while i sleep for example. Or this things require premisson or atleast rooting. And one final thing, although i opened thread about it- if i am using pattern lockscreen password, will ckey logger be able to detect it or its only for words and numbers?

 

[victoriaflow]

 

[scary alien]

Thank you. I am leaving this rent apartment next week Now i always check my account activities and they will show if different ip than mine appears. However i only want to ask you one more thing about programs like TeamViewer that can remotely control my phone. Now they require specific authorization and will be visible so he can not hide something like this whitout me noticing it right?

I believe the TeamViewer app allows you to control a remote PC, not a remote Android device...

There are apps that allow access to resources on your Android, but if you've factory reset and been careful/watchful about what you've installed, you shouldn't have a worry--just don't install stuff that you don't understand, etc...

If the phone is currently not rooted (According to Root Checker again), i ve done factory reset when i leave this apartment, is there anypossible way for this guy to control my phone miles away without trace? Like to wake it up at night, unlock it and start messing with it while i sleep for example. Or this things require premisson or atleast rooting.

Again, be vigilant about what apps you've got installed. Root Checker should suffice for checking if your device is rooted.

And one final thing, although i opened thread about it- if i am using pattern lockscreen password, will ckey logger be able to detect it or its only for words and numbers?

I would indeed think that a keylogger might be able to capture a lockscreen pattern--I just don't know for 100% sure. There are key input code that you can use to emulate screen input without touching the screen and there are APIs for detecting what those keycodes are, I just haven't tested something like that for a lockscreen type of app.

BTW, I merged your other, newer thread asking about the keylogger into this thread since you covered/asked it here, too.

 

[victoriaflow]

Yes, i am always carefull what i do install, but being stupid to give access to other people now causes me these worries. When i move out and reset to facotry i would assume my worries would be over Now i only couldn't get you about if it was possible for this evil person to control my phone remotely (it wont happen anymore, but to ensure the past month) Now as i mentioned it to you i check the IP's and since i only use my mobile data (mobile internet), i am resting calmly that no other ip's were logged to my facebook and other accounts. But do you know is such things exists that could completly take control over your android for prolonged amount of time, being able to start it anytime he wants, just if it is in his hands. If this is possible, facebook wont alert me because it would be my own ip and my own device thats logged, i would have never know. That what scares me a lot. And again, it will in future, but 1 month already passed and it was enough time for this guy to see a lot of personal things. Again, sorry for probably repeating myself, but worry is worry And thans for the really fast reply

 

[scary alien]

Well, without having direct access to your device to poke-around and look at things, the best we can do is speculate and give guidelines and guesses.

If your device is not currently rooted and you've done a factory reset, then that's about the best you can do.

The ultimate would be to have your device re-flashed completely back to stock--but we've not discussed specifics about your device and how easy or hard that may be (that process often being device-, carrier-, manufacturer- and Android-version specific/dependent).

Again, installing spyware/keylogging app on a device in the /system partition that would not be removed/affected by a factory reset would take 1) rooting the device (if that's possible for your device), 2) re-mounting /system in read-write mode (that's not always allowed even with root), 3) properly installing the properly-written spy app in /system, 4) removing root and traces of root. Possible?--yes. Likely?--that all depends on the person doing this, their knowledge, tools, and time for doing the above--all without being caught--and you've not really given information or evidence that this was actually done, so I'm guessing it wasn't .

 

[victoriaflow]

Yes, i belive that would be enough I will be buyin new phone in near futre too so it would be the ultimate reliver You gave me the info i need, and even if its probably just parania rather than something real, its good to know these things for future. Now let me just ask one really last thing! Now as i told you i switched to pattern lockscreen, but i was previously with normal password. Can this password be bypassed? I know you can reset the password or completely remove it buy using support from pc or reseting, but is there a way this guy could have bypassed the system and then just lockked it again, so i never notice anything. I've read about some UI crash hack which let people entering the phone via the camera after applying multipy letters in the password section, leting it to crash and send you to the homescreen. Have you ever heard of this, i though it only works on specific phones because Sony for exapmple does not allow you to paste on the password seciton, and the hack needs to constantly copy and paste letters till it crash. In other words is there any known way(even hard way) for the password to be bypassed and than locked again.. Thats really the last one to know !

 

[scary alien]

Yeah, I'm guessing a pattern or password bypass/hack is really pretty rare.

I've heard what you've heard about the buffer overflow trick for bypassing the lockscreen, but it clearly can't be widespread or all of the folks that have forgotten their passwords/codes (and there's a LOT of them unfortunately) would have that as an option and they clearly don't.