Android Factory Reset : How trustworthy from a PRIVACY view?

1.  It is an accepted fact that one can remove all data from Android devices by resetting it to factory settings, or doing a "force reset." One can do so by either using the Settings menu to erase all your data or by using the Recovery menu.It is also understood that by performing a factory data reset, all data — like apps data, photos, and music etc will be wiped from the device.This reset in most of the cases will be required as a maintenance issue or when the user decides to sell his mobile to some other third guy.Now when he does a factory reset for ensuring himself that all his/her data is removed from the mobile,there is a sad angle recently revealed in a paper named "Security Analysis of Android Factory Resets" by Laurent Simon and Ross Anderson@University of Cambridge available at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/fr_most15.pdf  that proves with technical demonstrations to negate the fact that the data and all privacy of accounts goes with the reset.Read on further for brief details...

2.  Even with full-disk encryption in play, researchers found that performing a factory reset on Android smart-phones isn’t always what it’s assumed safe up to be.Researchers found the file storing decryption keys on devices was not erased during the factory reset and they were successfully able to access data “wiped” Android devices from a wide variety of sources, including text messages, images, video, and even third-party applications. What’s more, researchers were able to “recover Google authentication tokens”, thereby enabling them to sync up any data a user had tied to Google’s services, including private emails.The study unveils five critical failures:

- the lack of Android support for proper deletion of the data partition in v2.3.x devices;

- the incompleteness of upgrades pushed to flawed devices by vendors;

- the lack of driver support for proper deletion shipped  by  vendors  in  newer  devices  (e.g.  on  v4.[1,2,3]);

- the  lack  of  Android  support  for  proper  deletion  of  the internal  and  external  SD  card  in  all  OS  versions; 

- the fragility  of  full-disk  encryption  to  mitigate  those  problems up to Android v4.4 (KitKat)

RECOVERY DETAILS OF DATA BY RESEARCHERS

ATTRIBUTED REASON

3.   Smartphones  use  flash  for  their  non  volatile  memory storage  because  it  is  fast,  cheap  and  small.  Flash  memory is  usually  arranged  in  pages  and  blocks.  The  CPU  can read  or  write  a  page  (of  typically  512+16  to  4096+128 data+metadata  bytes),  but  can  only  erase  a  block  of  from 32   to   128   pages.   Each   block   contains   both   data,   and “out-of-band”  (OOB)  data.When  removing  a  file,  an  OS  typically  only  deletes  its name  from  a  table,  rather  than  deleting  its  content.  The situation is aggravated on flash memory because data update does not occur in place, i.e. data are copied to a new block to  preserve  performance,  reduce  the  erasure  block  count and  slow  down  the  wear.  This makes a vulnerable issue as realised here by both these researchers.

Hardware Trojans : Do we have a Solution or Clue to resolve?

1.    IT Security is an ever interesting field and those passionate about this field will always find surplus to read about so many happening things in the field.In the already chaotic environs of Cyber Security there comes another GIGANTIC issue...by the name of HARDWARE TROJANS and I use this word Gigantic not just to reflect my reaction on the subject...but for any first time reader on the subject this will be a huge issue in times to come and is already in for majors.The issue is yet unattended because no one has clue where to detect,how to detect and what to do to resolve?

2.   Electronic systems have proliferated over the past few decades to the point that most aspects of daily life are aided or affected by the automation, control, monitoring, or computational power provided by Integrated Circuits (ICs). The ability to trust these ICs to perform their specified operation (and only their specified operation) has always been a security concern and has recently become a more active topic of research. Without trust in these ICs, the systems they support cannot necessarily be trusted to perform as specified and may even be susceptible to attack by a malicious adversary.A new disruptive threat has surfaced over the past five years  , a hardware-based security threat known as the Hardware Trojan.Hardware Trojans are intentional,malicious modifications to electronic circuitry designed to disrupt operation or compromise security including circuitry added into Integrated Circuits (ICs). These ICs underpin the information infrastructure of many critical sectors including the financial, military, and industrial sectors.Consequently, hardware trojans pose a security risk to organisations due to the broad attack surface and specific organisations’ reliance on ICT infrastructure. Hardware trojans can be difficult to prevent and even more difficult to detect. Most of the current security protection mechanisms implicitly trust the hardware, allowing hardware trojans to bypass software or firmware security measures .Hardware trojans inserted during fabrication or design stages can become widely dispersed within an organisation and pose a systemic threat.

3.   Hardware Trojans are usually composed of a Trigger and a Payload.The trigger is the activation mechanism and the payload generates the effect. Prior to triggering, a hardware trojan lies dormant without interfering with the operation of any electronics.The trigger mechanism for our network hardware trojan is based on a communication channel in network packet timing, while the payload is an adjustable degradation level of the ethernet channel through noise injection into the ethernet controller’s clock.

4.  The ease with which Hardware Trojans can make their way into modern ICs and electronic designs is concerning. Modifications to hardware can occur at any stage during the design and manufacturing process, including the specification, design, verification and manufacturing stages. Hardware Trojans may even be retro-fitted to existing ICs post manufacture.

5.   With above as a preview it makes any one wonder upto what extents would one require to go for a 100 % secure IT attribute.Imagine the risk stake this would put on a typical country who is entirely dependent on global vendors for its own Defence and Consumer goods....or for that matter even developing countries would feel the pinch....no clue as to where to start from...or even if a frame work is desired to setup a standard for controlling this menace it would be prudent to only get dependent off shores since in most of the cases expertise would not exist only.......

Thanks to these two papers for giving me an over view on the subject.

Hardware Trojans – A Systemic Threat by John Shield, Bradley Hopkins, Mark Beaumont, Chris North

Hardware Trojans – Prevention, Detection,Countermeasures by Mark Beaumont, Bradley Hopkins and Tristan Newby