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Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 13, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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1 - Honestly the basic device lock of a reputable brand of phone (Apple, or one of the big non-chinese Android) is beyond the capabilities of the common of mortals; it usually takes intelligence agency level ressources to even consider it. And it's likelier that those agencies simply have a backdoor in place anyway or trust in their ability to lean on the device manufacturer to help them in. Or they'll use the 5$ wrench bypass.

Now outside of the basic lock, there's a few things to consider. Some manufacturers have online accounts that have features that, if enabled, could potentially be used to reset a device's lock. I think Apple forces you to wipe your phone, and I think Samsung does too now. But at least it used to be an option, and probably still is for some manufacturers.

The main way people get their phone hacked is not through the lock screen, but by installing things they should not, the same as on the computer. But instead of Roblox hacks, they see an ad telling them they can get free premium currency in their favorite gacha waifu skinner box by installing this one off store APK and give it permissions to everything.

2 - I don't know Second Space, but as I use Samsung I do know the Secure Folder; it's not just a separate set of folders, it's more separate than that; apps in the standard context cannot see or interact with the data and apps in the Secure Folder context. I'm not sure exactly how they do it, but theoretically that part is not a difficult thing to do.

What is more difficult, is making sure the operating system itself doesn't leak the data; as it necessarily have access to both sides of the fence. For instance, that happened very recently with Samsung: https://www.sammobile.com/news/we-found-a-security-flaw-in-one-ui-7-secure-folder/ (to be fair, it's not necessarily a security bug as the settings probably work as Samsung thought it should, but it's a UX oversight that can likely lead to unintended disclosure for the user).

Ultimately though, that is the root problem of all computer security: computers are fancy calculators, they are not conceptually inclined to protect information. They have to be tricked into protecting information, and it's easier to trick them into disclosing it.

as I use Samsung I do know the Secure Folder

What is more difficult, is making sure the operating system itself doesn't leak the data; as it necessarily have access to both sides of the fence.

Yeah that's how I imagine the failure mode/drawback of such things, I have a cheap-ish xiaomi phone and the Second Space feature AIUI is essentially a second "desktop"/container you can switch to at will that's running the same OS, and the two are essentially separate installs beyond the basic features. It sounds impressive (and a hassle to set up) so I wonder how it's actually done under the hood and whether the filesystems are somehow separate too without it being obvious.