Comment by codedokode
9 hours ago
The stupid thing about Android is that it requires you to set a PIN to use Always-on VPN which is necessary for traffic filtering (as Android doesn't provide access to nft).
9 hours ago
The stupid thing about Android is that it requires you to set a PIN to use Always-on VPN which is necessary for traffic filtering (as Android doesn't provide access to nft).
That seems like a good trick to me if you want to prevent people from installing spyware without any obvious signs.
You can almost hide the warnings (there's one small notification in the bottom of the notification tray you can't disable) and on some phones even the VPN icon, but you can't hide the new lock screen code your victim suddenly needs to enter to use their phone.
It used to be that Android showed random popups and notifications about identified security risks, which were awfully annoying if you have a private CA certificate installed. Luckily Google got rid of those.
In my experience, you can also set up biometrics on basically every phone, and Google has a few "don't lock the phone while it's with you in your pocket" like services you can optionally enable as well. Your backup PIN doesn't have to be four numbers, you can put a whole passphrase in there if you want it to be secure.
You could also do facial unlock. Less secure than Apple's implementation but more than good enough if you didn't have any lock screen set before that.
The issue with many people like me like to use tailscale, so they should probably think about giving too many warning.
Why wouldn't you set a PIN?
I already have a very long password. I object to unnecessary extra layers -- you can rely on secure hardware via the system if you must authenticate me again, but do not pretend to become your own steward.
Most of my apps that decide to ask for their own PIN (e.g. Klarna, Privacy.com, myFICO) have some deterministic garbage that's easy to guess because they provide no real security. I refuse to entertain security theater with real secrets. (real secrets = ones I don't remember)
What's the point of setting a PIN if Cellebrite can hack almost any phone?
Not every pocket thief or drunkard who finds your phone has cellebritr. Security measures consider the threat model.
More specifically, another commenter in this thread says it's to make sure the user is aware of the configuration of a VPN which, if done maliciously, funnels all your traffic toa a hostile place.
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