Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 357 posts

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#141

Post by philistine »

lysace wrote: post #62
udev4096 wrote: post #7

They stole the idea from GrapheneOS and shipped a barely half-baked version with hardcoded time. GrapheneOS has configurable time for it since years

I'd claim that Microsoft pioneered this time limit security concept with Windows 95 almost 30 years ago. They went with 2^32-1 milliseconds or about 49.7 days. We don't talk enough about Microsoft's strong legacy of security innovations, IMHO.

I'm pretty sure you're joking. Windows 95 crashed if you sneezed in its general direction, I'm pretty sure it would blue screen due to some edge case well before 49 days of runtime.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#142

Post by scarface_74 »

crote wrote: post #12
imcritic wrote: post #6

Isn't this stupid? Why not flush something properly in the RAM instead to wipe the "cached" secrets? A full restart feels like an overkill.

That "something" is at least the entire userspace, so any attempt at doing so ends up being UX-equivalent to a full restart - while having a decent chance of leaving unintended trace data lying around in memory. A full restart guarantees that everything will be wiped.

It’s not about data being wiped. It’s that neither Android nor iOS has fully encrypted storage after you reboot and enter your credentials - biometric or passcodes.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#143

Post by Krasnol »

kqr wrote: post #113
kokada wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes no sense, Android already will reboot itself after receiving an update and being inactive for a while (generally while charging it will install the update in its secondary partition, do some verification checks and reboot if there is no user interaction).

This sounds vendor-specific and not general for Android. I've never had that happen on any device but Windows and I would be very upset if it did happen.

What Android version do you use where it doesn't happen`?

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#144

Post by ololobus »

greatgib wrote: post #34

It's good to have an option like that, even being a default, but there definitively need a switch to disable that if it is your own will. It's not even necessarily that good enough against cops, because in a lot of shitty countries, even some pretending to be democratics, not disclosing or at least inputting your password might be a crime severely punished. If I'm not wrong, there was a guy that had to stay years in…

I can only second this. I have an old iPhone with a second sim-card, because I need it from time to time. And Apple introduced this auto-reboot a bit earlier, iirc last year. The problem is that after rebooting it also disconnects from wifi, so e.g. SMS/handoff synchronization stops working until you enter a passcode. This is very annoying because it was very convenient for me to receive calls/SMS to my main iPhone.

It’s a good and reasonable feature, especially if for some reason you are afraid of state or security agencies in a place where you live, or maybe during travel. It’s still questionable, because in some states you can indeed go to jail if you don’t unlock. Yet, I really want to be able to turn it off for use-cases like mine.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#145

Post by Krasnol »

criddell wrote: post #95
al_borland wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A wipe seems extreme. An unexpected trip to the hospital could leave someone with a wiped phone when they come to.

If that’s something you are worried about, don’t choose that option.

Is there a person on this planet where an unexpected hospital visit could not happen?

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#146

Post by TheBicPen »

booleandilemma wrote: post #15

I just want software that will do nothing user-observable without me explicitly asking it to. No pop-ups, no suggestions, no automatic anything. I don't know if it'll take a fancy buzzword or what. Unobtrusive software? Silent Software?

No notifications? Depends on what your definition of "asking it" is, but having to explicitly do an action to check for notifications and even phone calls seems counter-productive for a phone.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#147

Post by xboxnolifes »

Krasnol wrote: post #145
criddell wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that’s something you are worried about, don’t choose that option.

Is there a person on this planet where an unexpected hospital visit could not happen?

Wrong question. It's not about the chance of having a wipe. But if the having the wipe is worth happening on some false positives.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#148

Post by lysace »

philistine wrote: post #141
lysace wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd claim that Microsoft pioneered this time limit security concept with Windows 95 almost 30 years ago. They went with 2^32-1 milliseconds or about 49.7 days. We don't talk enough about Microsoft's strong legacy of security innovations, IMHO.

I'm pretty sure you're joking. Windows 95 crashed if you sneezed in its general direction, I'm pretty sure it would blue screen due to some edge case well before 49 days of runtime.

No joke.

https://web.archive.org/web/20041207171440/http://support.mi...

https://web.archive.org/web/20130731171959/https://sites.goo...

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#149

Post by elashri »

SXX wrote: post #118
elashri wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I think connecting a device that can be used as authentication method without choosing a defense would negate the purpose of advanced data protection of your account and other devices.

Let's say I'm not super heavy Apple service user. For me Advanced Data Protection is defence against Apple itself and ability to keep little information I share via iCloud somewhat secret: mostly another backup of some photos and few other things. It's not like I'm trying to defend against some state actors or whatver.

But this still weaken your defense against apple or whomever you are trying to defend against.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#150

Post by Lammy »

blackoil wrote: post #101
joak wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good to be able to disable this option: I use old Android phones as servers and don't want them to reboot every 3 days.

https://xkcd.com/1172/ Don't think old Androids will get this update.

Why so dismissive of how somebody wants to re-use an old phone that you would compare them to the absurd fictitious behavior in that comic? Would you rather they become e-waste? If it fits their needs then it fits their needs regardless of the use-case that was marketed.
Post reply on HN