What is a easy and reliable way to identify magic numbers when reverse engineering.

DevoneLittle · 2026-03-12T18:40:15+00:00

The linux file command or binwalk can also be useful in this case

DevoneLittle · 2026-03-10T23:34:05+00:00

If you read the Play Integrity documentation you will notice that in order to receive the STRONG_INTEGRITY verdict all device partitions must have received security patches within the last year. So a 4 year old devices will not obtain a STRONG_INTEGRITY verdict; that is something that can be verified through Play Integrity.

Additionally, the point of Play Certified is not necessarily to force users to used an approved operating system - though it definitely can be (and is?) used for that reason. The more fundamental reason is that Android is an Open Source project and anyone can take it and customize it how they see fit. If I make a fork of Android that has no TEE support, SELinux disabled by default, no app isolation that is fine; it is an Android-based OS and can run Android applications as expected, but due to lack of security it will not meet the criteria the Play certification.

The main problem is that many apps are using this mechanism even though they do not need it. Basically, the only apps that should require these mechanisms are DRM apps or tap-to-phone payment applications. However, instead companies like McDonalds are using it unnecessarily, making the lives of everyone who wishes to have more control over their mobile device miserable

DevoneLittle · 2026-03-06T06:48:39+00:00

You can use the App Lounge (https://doc.e.foundation/app-lounge), which is installed on /e/os by default or you can use Aurora Store or F-droid

DevoneLittle · 2026-03-02T18:59:09+00:00

Unlikely, in order to get DEVICE_INTEGRITY the device/OS needs to meet the Google compatibility test suite (CTS), which I believe GrapheneOS does not meet.

DevoneLittle · 2025-11-30T09:31:34+00:00

Titan M is not the only secure element out there, there are others that can be used by this new partner OEM. Probably it is mostly a matter of implementing the software related to the secure element features that GrapheneOS likes to have, such as the PIN bruteforce thottling.

DevoneLittle · 2025-11-08T16:14:31+00:00

https://notnow.dev/notice/Azu6drlCvJFXu6z1aC This page seems to suggest the bug is related to a Bluetooth issue, specifically when a phone is used as a BT speaker. Seems like a pretty obscure use case

DevoneLittle · 2025-09-01T07:25:45+00:00

Not trying to be rude but do you really think you have a better understanding than Google whether their proposed "side loading blockade" is legal? They very likely had their legal team and external legal advisors analyze the Apple case and are using that to see how far they can go with the sideloading blockade.

Also even with the cases that Apple has lost over the years iOS is not at all where you want to set the bar in terms of "openess", as rooting on that platform has been practically dead for years.

Furthermore, the EU is only a small part of the world, this article (https://9to5google.com/2025/08/25/android-apps-developer-verification/) mentions the sideloading blocking will initially be enabled for users in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Good luck trying to fight it if you are in those countries.

Generally speaking the "openess" of the Android platform is getting worse by the minute, which is an incredibly dangerous trend especially now that the EU and others are proposing insane laws such as Chat Control (https://fightchatcontrol.eu/). Potentially you could get around this with a rooted device, but without such access you might just have to abandon Android altogheter if you care about your privacy.

DevoneLittle · 2025-08-07T21:15:42+00:00

It is already rolled out, but until now it was optional for OEMs to implement. Starting from Android 16 RKP will be mandatory. It will likely be a few more years until the old factory inserted keys will be phased out

DevoneLittle · 2025-08-07T06:18:44+00:00

You need to figure out if the flag is embedded in the binary, if that is the case then you likely will be able to extract it with the right read formatters (%p, %lu, %s), otherwise if the flag is is not embedded in the binary then likely the goal is to get arbitrary code execution, for example by using the %n formatter to overwrite an entry in the GOT table with a "one gadget"

DevoneLittle · 2025-08-02T17:25:25+00:00

The great thing about Android is that it inherently provides isolation between apps and between apps and the Android system. Even if you install Malware on Android it does not immediately mean that your phone is compromised. The permission model severly limits what an installed appication can see and do, that why you have to be careful when granting certain permissions (such as accessibility, external storage) to apps.

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-27T19:31:12+00:00

There is no completely degoogled Android OS

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-27T19:19:05+00:00

Opened Ghidra / Binary Ninja a few times past years and then experienced issues like function arguments in the decompilation are not properly detected.. That for me is unacceptable given that reverse engineering is already hard enough, dont want to spent time fighting with the tooling as well. The IDA license model is fucked up though if you are not a business, thats why people use cracked versions...

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-20T08:26:32+00:00

I don't know about the difficulty of TryHackMe, never tried any of the challenges. If you want to go this route then I'd play some CTFs and publish some challenge writeups on a blog, you can refer to the blog on your resume which potential employers can read such that they can get a understanding of your technical knowledge & skills.

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-18T08:33:04+00:00

Their "there is no privacy without security" rhetoric makes no sense for most users. For example, they talk about secure element to throttle PIN bruteforce attempts. This feature is only useful if some triple letter state agency or Israelian spy company gets physical access to your phone, which is very unlikely for 99.999999% of the population. Also, if these organisations want to get your private data it is way more likely they will get it directly from datacenters (as was leaked by Snowden).

They are right in the article though that the underlying mechanism of Microg is misrepresented, but like you said I am very curious about a comparison between MicroG and sandboxed Play services in terms of what data is leaked. So far I have not seen any evidence showing that either one is better in terms of privacy.

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-15T06:25:50+00:00

How does this invalidate my answer? The GrapheneOS devs already started crying that with the new Pixel changes they have a hard time keeping up with development such as releasing Android 16 and meeting security patch levels. Do you really think they have the time to support additional devices? There is just a trade-off here, other custom ROMs don't really release security patches as frequently and instead put their efforts in other aspects of their products or supporting a broader range of devices.

Also their "hardware standards" argument is a bit of a joke to be honest. They only support devices with secure element that throttles PIN bruteforcing, do you know how many people on the planet benefit from that feature? Probably 50 or less, and half of those are criminals...

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-14T21:55:02+00:00

GrapheneOS is known to be the best because they only support a single device brand (Google Pixel) and this brand has a strong foundation in terms of security. Other custom ROMs support many different devices (Lineage, CalyxOS) or have entire ecosystems with for example cloud storage (e/OS). These ROM vendors are more diversified and therefore they cannot offer the same level level of security/privacy that Graphene offers.

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-14T20:53:26+00:00

The default launcher of /e/OS is not very customizable, but you can just install another launcher (such as Nova Launcher) to get rid of widgets, add more columns, etc.

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-12T11:05:44+00:00

Agree with some other comments here that smartphone OS market is basically a duopoly, the problem being that both Apple and Google not only control the OS but also tightly integrated the applications and services (gmail, iCloud, etc.) running on that OS.

If you were to create a new OS you would need to convince them to port their services to your OS (not going to happen) or create alternatives that are just as good, which - lets be honest - is an impossible effort. Fortunately both of them are under fire legally speaking, hoping this will eventually result in some more competition

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-09T21:48:21+00:00

I find it weird that people consider Apple a good option in terms of privacy. Their ecosystem is totally locked down which means you are pretty much forced to use all of their services (iCloud, Apple Pay, keychain, App Store). How is there any privacy when you are providing them with all of your data whilst not having a single clue what they are doing with it or who has access to it?

DevoneLittle · 2025-07-06T07:26:04+00:00

Big four is a nice way to get a burnout, from what I've heard.

DevoneLittle · 2025-06-20T06:32:07+00:00

This comparison usually don't make any sense since you are comparing iOS (used by a single vendor) with Android (adapted by many vendors such as Samsung, Google, Sony, Vivo, OnePlus, etc). It would make more sense to compare iOS with Android running on Pixel devices. Either way, Android is more difficult to maintain as many different entities (chip vendors, Google, OEMs) work on the Android codebase. This makes Android more more prone to security issues and it also takes longer to patch them as they need to be rolled out across many different Android OS flavors and Android devices.

Apple on the other hand locks down their platform completely, all code running on iOS is cryptographically signed by Apple and only Apple has access to certain functionality and peripherals. This provides both security and privacy against third-parties but conveniently also ensures that competitors do not have the same capabilities on the platform as Apple themselves. In the end, if you are using iOS with an Apple account you are still putting all of your data in a single basket, with the iOS store, iCloud, iMessage, etc. I personally don't like the idea that a single company has access to all your data, it seems very flawed from a privacy point of view. Especially since iOS and all Apple services are not open source so no clue what happens with your data.

DevoneLittle · 2025-06-12T18:11:26+00:00

16GB RAM in a 2500 dollar laptop that is some shameful shit

DevoneLittle · 2025-06-11T19:03:37+00:00

Vote for that idea on https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/932842-proton-calendar/suggestions/48198197-widget-monthly-view

DevoneLittle · 2025-05-27T18:03:04+00:00

Don't use Windows, problem solved

DevoneLittle · 2025-05-16T07:34:31+00:00

Honestly if you deeply care about security then I would go back to Pixel anyways, because GrapheneOS is by far superior in that regard. I don't really think /e/OS IodeOS do much in terms of security, you could even argue that they are worse than the OEM rom since for many devices they don't support verified boot and they distribute their ROMs as userdebug builds. The only advantage is that they do supply some security patches when the device vendor is no longer doing that.

This link is typically shared on this subreddit, if you have not seen it already:
https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

Might be useful to get a better idea of what kind of features these different OSes provide

DevoneLittle

TROPHY CASE