Need Help! is my Droid being hacked?!?

[bobthebob]

hey all - sorry if this isn't the proper forum for this question - I didn't see any others that looked right so here it is:

I need to know if someone has hacked into my phone.

Here's what happened. I got out of the shower a few minutes ago and noticed some strange activity:
my phone was lit up and on - which is strange since it's been sitting on the charger for an hour and it's set to timeout at 1 min - I should also mention it's 3am, so not a lot of activity expected at this hour... but whatever, plenty of possible explanations for that.
what's REALLY strange is that one of my contacts was open and in 'edit' mode.
a new name was filled in for this particular contact and an additional email besides the one that I have in there for that contact.
being a bit confused I foolishly hit the 'cancel' button before I wrote down the new email address - so now I have no way of checking it out.

my question is this: is it possible for someone to take control of my phone remotely and set up new contacts or modify existing ones? and if so - why? what could it possibly gain them?

I *know* for a fact that I did *not* open a contact up, change the name to "Fossil Fool" and input an email I've never heard of.
perhaps I accidentally hit some kind of link that 'added a contact' - but then why was it overwriting an existing one??

what the ****?!?

if someone is ****ing with my phone what steps should I take?

I figured I'd post this on the Hacking forum since you all would be most qualified to answer this question. if this isn't the proper place please just let me know where you moved my post.

cheers.
b

 

[Abdur]

Back up data, and do a factory reset.

 

[Member138406]

Is it possible? Yes. Did you do something to someone that would warrant the effort? Probably not...

With a quick search Fossil Fool is a small hiphop group. Perhaps at some point when browsing the web you hit an add contact link or some social media add contact button and it had just been running in the background and for w/e reason the phone brought it up at that point. I would just keep an eye on it... If it ever happens again, like Abdur said, factory reset it.

 

[nomnompie]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure when you click one of those "add contact" shortcuts, it actually opens up your list of existing contacts, and if you click on one of your existing contacts it actually edits that entry with whatever info is tied to the shortcut.

Could this maybe be what happened?

 

[bobthebob]

thanks people.

two things:
1 I was contacted this morning by the cops (!) about some kind of phone ID theft (!!!!) - which makes very little sense to me since as you say VegasOnAcid - it's hard to say why anyone would bother with me. my credit rating just ain't that good and my total assets in this world wouldn't buy you a high end bicycle...
the cops were completely vague - I live in CA and all they could say is that cops in Louisiana had contacted them about it and I needed to call them.
as of yet the detective hasn't got back to me so I have no idea whether these things are related...

anyway - here's the second thing - what good will it do to do a Hard Reset??
it doesn't reset any of my passwords... how does it change anything?

thanks for taking the time... this is pretty ****ing weird.

bvb

 

[nomnompie]

Factory reset will essentially make your phone (the software side of things at least) exactly as it was when it was shipped new. It will remove all apps/linked accounts/etc and bring your phone back to default settings so in theory if any nasty apps got installed at some point, it will blow it away... thing is, if it's part of an app you downloaded, it will come back if you reinstall the malicious app.

 

[Member138406]

What did the cops ask for? It could be a scam. Usually they ask you to come down to the local office to verify your identity in the first place whenever they want to talk to you.. I would not give them any info over the phone. It might be a case of cloning tho. But even with that you cant remotely access another phone, and usually the local police don't get too involved. Your cell provider does everything.

If you dont know, Cloning is when someone has a phone and they "clone" your number and all calls they make will then show up on your bill and use your mins.

Hard reset would get any kinda malware or tracking devices off the phone. Changing your important passwords might be a good idea too. But generally a remote access program to access your phone is a good amount of effort for any kinda typical scam. If it does end up being a case of cloning, hard reset wont do anything you need your provider to help you out.

 

[bobthebob]

ahh.. I understand. hard reset and *don't* restore except for data...
ack! that would be painful to say the least.
I'm going to have a look at my browser history and see if there were any 'add contact' hotlinks for 'Fossil Fool' first as that makes the most sense - why would some brilliant hacker be interested in doing something as mundane as adding contact info?

as for the cops - SFPD actually came to my house (!!) - I wasn't here but they left a msg to call them with my roomates and I called the SFPD number and confirmed that they really did contact me.

still no word from LaPD yet so I have no idea...

 

[nomnompie]

I don't really know how the 2 could be related... to be honest.. until you hear from LAPD that doesn't make much sense.

 

[shawn1224]

Yea it sounds like a case of "mistaken link clicking". It's happened to me before. No biggie

 

[CuBz]

Fossil Fool relates to old hack hmmm

old hack has issues...: fossil fool

 

[Conzo427]

I have this happening to me now. I have noticed strange things being writen in my search history. A tab on my browser was open that had not been open before. I will be doing a hard reset and changing passwords.

 

[!on]

Is it connected to unsecured WiFi network?

 

[Conzo427]

Yes, it was on an unsecured WiFi network.

I am also realizing that Google saves search queries for my account and syncs them to all of my devices. If I had stayed logged on to a public PC and someone did these searches, the search would come up as if they where typed in on my Xoom. (or if someone stole my password and didn't sign out from my account before making search queries.)

This still does not explain the open tab though unless I accidently pressed enter when a search was auto populated with these strange searches.

Regardless, I did a hard reset on my Xoom and enabled security on my home WiFi network. I hope my info is still secure!

 

[Andy in NY]

Id like to know what happed to the origional poster.. Why were the cops looking for him???

 

[landovr]

Maybe he's in jail.

 

[kct1975]

Hey guys,

I have had some weirdness on my HTC EVO 4G too, just recently.

I have posted this to other threads on this forum so please do not blast me for double posts, but here is my story...

Here is a complete account of the problems I am having....

First, on Saturday 31 December, I was surfing the internet on my phone and all of the sudden a pictire on the web page I was viewing was selected. Then the 'save image' menu poped-up, then the phone itself scrolled through the options and selected the 'Set Image As Wallpaper' option, and then the menu closed. At the time, I did think the whole thing was strange, but I rationalized it as me possibally sending too may touch commands to the device (even though I was not touching the screen when the afore mentioned occurred). Anyway, I went into the settings and fixed my Wallpaper.

Then today, I turned on my HTC EVO device. I checked my e-mail, and then checked out a video on YouTube using the app. I then decided to comment on the video that I had just watched, and as I started to type my comment, the on-screen keyboard started typing random letters and characters. I kept deleting the unwanted text and it kept typing it out. Then I tried to reboot the phone and it froze up and I was forced to do a 'battery pull' (which I know is not great for an Android phone). Once the phone came back up, I tried to send an e-mail to Lookout and the on-screen keyboard started typing random letters and characters again. I again fought the problem with the delete key and again the phone froze, forcing me to do another 'battery pull'. Once the phone rebooted, I then accessed this forum, and attempted to type a message, at which time the on-screen keyboard started repeatedly typing 6 and y. I somehow finally got it to stop and was able to post my message. A little later, however, the phone froze again, and this time after it rebooted, following another ' battery pull' I was on one of my alternate home screen panels, and the phone started attempting to remove icons from the panel by trying to drag them to the bottom of the screen.

Basicly, with all of the afore mentioned issues it seemed as if someone was controlling my phone remotely, and was messing with me.

So in the end, my questions are this....

Has anyone else experienced this problem ?

and

Could a virus or exploit be allowing someone to remotely control by HTC EVO Android device through a 'Middle Man' attack using my the WiFi on my phone and my home WiFi network ?


Additional strangeness and thoughts....

First, it seems that when I turned off the WiFi on my HTC EVO, that problems (freezing, typing in random letters and removing and rearranging icons) seemed to have completely stopped, and then the problems resumed when I turned the WiFi function back on. Please note that I was using my home WiFi network, provided by Verizon DSL, yesterday (Jan. 3) and on December 31 so it was not a strange WiFi network.



Additionally, this morning (Jan. 4) when I started my HTC EVO phone up, it again started typing letters on its own then froze again. I did have the WiFi turned on and was connected to my home network. I did do a battery-pull and reboot the phone and as soon as I left my house, I did not have any problems. Also, I have had the WiFi turned on and have been connected to the office WiFi all day, and have not had a problem.



Please explain the reason that my home network WiFi seems to be adversely effecting my HTC EVO phone ? It is one of the additional reason that I am worried that my phone might have been hacked and is being remotely controlled.

Please note that I am actually quoting myself.

I have tried Lookout, Avast, and other Android Security app, and all have found nothing wrong. Also I have been very careful about only downloading apps from the Android Market.

Lastly, I have also contact HTC Tech support and was given several good suggestions, which I plan on doing (including do in a factory reset)

At this point, I just want to know if anyone else has heard of a virus or malware app that give a remote user access to your Android phone ?

Also is there a problem with my home WiFi network since all of the problems seem to be happening when I am at home ? And if there is something wrong with my home WiFi network, what can I do to fix it?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jerofld]

Is it possible that someone is controlling your phone through your wifi? I'd bet it is possible.

A factory reset would probably be in order. As well as setting up stronger security on your firewall in your wifi router. I would do a reset on the router (with it disconnected from the net). Then pick a new password/username for it. Then set up MAC filtering for wireless devices. In your wifi settings on your phone, you will be shown your wifi MAC address. Make it so only your wifi devices can connect to your router. So if anyone is attacking your router/phone through wifi, they won't be able to connect to the router, even with the correct password.

 

[AndroidAdvntge]

This is the midst intense issue I have ever heard of involving an Android phone. Good read.

 

[kct1975]

Hey there everyone,

Sorry about not posting a reply in a long time, but I honestly have been crazy busy at work. Anyway, my issues have seemed to clear-up on their own. I honestly do not reply know the reason for the problems disappearing, though I am glad. I did follow some of the suggestions I was given here however. As was suggested on this site, I did remove All of the Task Manager apps I had on my phone. It did seem that removing the Task Manager apps did make my phone more stable and it also did improve my battery usage. The other thing, I believe might have helped is the recent OTA push download from Sprint of the Firmware and Android update.

What ever the reason, I am happy that I am no longer having the problems I was having.

Thanks again to everyone for all of their help!

 

[Granite1]

Hey there everyone,

Sorry about not posting a reply in a long time, but I honestly have been crazy busy at work. Anyway, my issues have seemed to clear-up on their own. I honestly do not reply know the reason for the problems disappearing, though I am glad. I did follow some of the suggestions I was given here however. As was suggested on this site, I did remove All of the Task Manager apps I had on my phone. It did seem that removing the Task Manager apps did make my phone more stable and it also did improve my battery usage. The other thing, I believe might have helped is the recent OTA push download from Sprint of the Firmware and Android update.

What ever the reason, I am happy that I am no longer having the problems I was having.

Thanks again to everyone for all of their help!

Hey, thanks for posting back and letting us know what happened.

I'm glad your issues cleared up. If you have any more problems or questions you know we're here to help!!