this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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Hey guys, I'm looking into buying a refurbished Google Pixel 5 (I have couple of options between amazon and other stores), however I'm not entirely sure about the longevity of a refurbished phone.

Positive reviews are often left by people who just bought the phone, but most of the negative reviews I found were from people who used it for more than couple of months and it concerns me.

Price is good, I'm looking specifically into a Pixel 5 because of the size which is much smaller than my Galaxy Note 9 that I find really uncomfortable to use.

Thank you!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The consequences of vulnerability vary from being able to fingerprint your device when it's not supposed, to escalateling privileges to root or even kernel mode

I'll not pretend I understand the consequences πŸ˜‚

What does that mean for the average user?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From tracking your to full access of your phone and capable of doing anything without you knowing it or lifting a finger.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Tracking me happens all the time. Also I'm old but tech savvy so I'd know if someone had any access to my phone.

I'm still not sure what I should worry about?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I’d know if someone had any access to my phone

This is really a bold claim. How or why makes you so sure of that?

If the attacker/app manages to get some application running in the background as root, how would you know that they had access to your phone?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

To expand on the points mentioned above as well, although you may not be concerned by someone tracking your phone, something like root access is a concern. When the other commenter mentioned someone having access to your phone, it doesn't mean unlocking the screen and moving it around, it means they have the ability to run commands at the highest privilege level at which point, an attacker can do basically anything.

Find ways to export biometrics? Idk, probably, set it up to forward all requests to a man in the middle server? Almost certainly.

To say "if I can't see it, it can't be compromised" is definitely a naΓ―ve stance in my opinion. Whether this is being done intentionally by companies to sell more phones? Well.. I don't think many people would argue the contrary

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A good example though for iphones is an sma that triggers an exploit that escalates access and allows the entity to install their software that monitors and controls your phone is possible. It even deletes the test. So the end user does not know. It's used and purchased by governments. I'm sure there are 0 days on Android that would do similarly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They could steal all of your logins. This includes things like bank accounts. Your phone could be used as part of a botnet to commit criminal acts. They could shorten your battery life and use up your data plan by mining crypto in the background. You know, just like any other compromised computer.