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How do you completely wipe (flash) and reimage an Android device?


vailixi

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My brother got some ransomware on his phone. I would just encrypt and factory reset a couple of times. But I can't access anything on the phone. Any time I try to open up settings it just pops up this fake FBI thing.

I need something like DBAN but for an android phone.

The only other device I can see it being able to boot from is the micro sd card. But can this thing network boot. Is there a way to boot android any kind of recovery mode?

I don't really phones all that good.

Ok so I figured out how to boot into safe mode and factory reset the thing. But hey, are there some other nifty ways of gaining access and wiping? Like say I wanted to install ubuntu phone or kali nethunter.

There always seems to be some old phones just taking up space in a drawer around here.

Edited by vailixi
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To install other roms, you generally need to root the phone or OTG boot off another device with ADB to pre-load a new rom(if phone is in developer mode), but for factory reset, best way is through the phone unless it's not working. Like in your case, malware may prevent normal functions.

Before doing that, I would look on the app store for a tool called "uninstaller" which can find hidden installed apps that don't show anywhere under the normal settings > apps section, to try and find the fbi app or such, even when not rooted. It may find some things you'd want to look for removing even after you fully reset it, sicn eosme phone scome with guardian software preinstalled form the phone providers for remote wipe and tracking. If it's embedded lower than this can see, usually you need to be root to find and remove them, but tools like the terminal app can often let you see all files using "ls -a" in the terminal. It doesn't let you remove them sinc eyou're not root, but sometimes lets you see files you normally can't from the settings> app section as well.

I used uninstaller on my wifes phone to get rid of some stuff that wasn't listed in the regular settings >apps section, so it's worth using in the future if you find it comes back, since it may be piggybacked off a legit app from your play store account. When we updated to new phones, apps we removed reinstalled themselves from the store when setting things up, so the other app may creep back onto the system but not run till you start a specific app it's tied to.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.connectbot&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rhythm.hexise.uninst&hl=en

Worse case scenario, boot over otg using adb and developer mode and then wipe it completely if the phone supports USB booting. By default most androids won't boot directly over OTG and USB without dev mode though. I think kitkat allows by default though.

edit: I shoudl have mentioned, with connect bot, to connect and see yoru phone, from the SSH button select local, adn then give it any name, and it drops you into a local shell on the phone to type androind/linux commands.

Edited by digip
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If it's a Samsung phone you can use a tool called Oden to flash the stock rom back on the phone, this wipes all the memory on the phone, including the bootloader, which is probably where your fbi crapware is now installed. The reason I asked which phone is because most manufacturers have a tool similar to this, but they usually aren't interchangeable.

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If it's a Samsung phone you can use a tool called Oden to flash the stock rom back on the phone, this wipes all the memory on the phone, including the bootloader, which is probably where your fbi crapware is now installed. The reason I asked which phone is because most manufacturers have a tool similar to this, but they usually aren't interchangeable.

I'll look into this. I'm not any good at phones.

I got the phone fixed. I thought It is was going to be a bit more work than it was.

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I wonder if that will work on my Kyocera or SII which are both on Virgin Mobile.

Wugfresh toolkit is a sweet GUI that grabs images and dependencies and lets you flash with or without root.

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