HOWTO: pseudo bypass screen locked droid

[raidzero]

First, this is only information and I do not recommend you use it for evil. I figured this out because I am a network administrator and handle my company's phones. When a user defects and turns in their phone, it is useful to pull data from it and otherwise scrutinize it. This procedure does not care if USB debugging is on or off.

overview: install custom recovery, root, get data, remove custom recovery, unroot.

So, lets say you have a droid that has a password on it and you need data from it. You have RSD lite & an sprecovery SBF with ADB installed and working and a droid is bone stock, not rooted or modded in any way.

First thing to do is flash MC1's SPR recovery SBF and boot into recovery. Then apply MC1's root update.zip. then using SPR recovery, mount data.

Next thing to do is pull the sqlite database that sets the screen lock parameters:

adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db .

Will pull to the current directory, then simply open up settings.db using an sqlite program (I use the sqlite managaer firefox extension). Find and delete the lockscreen.password_salt and lockscreen.password_type rows.
from here all you need to do is push the file back and you will have no more password on the phone and can do what you need with it.

If you want to restore the recovery to stock recovery without losing all the phone's data then just use RSD lite to flash back moto's recovery for whatever android version the droid was running. I made one for ESD56 and FRG22D and I can post them up later.

At this point you will still have a superuser.apk lurking, so just uninstall it. Aside from the busybox binary and su binary the phone will have no idea it was ever violated (aside from whatever password it had being gone - but you could always just push the original settings.db back before restoring stock recovery if you wanted to be really sneaky) or just factory reset and pass the phone along to the next user and rest easy knowing you have the data you needed from the previous user should the need arise...

get SPR SBF and root update.zip from here
Root Droid 1 - regardless of OS version

EDIT: my motorola recovery only SBF's attached.. (ESD56 & FRG22D - I don't know how the CG47's differ, but they do, so use the correct one just to be on the safe side)

Oh yeah, I am not responsible for anything. I have tested this method on a droid and it worked fine. so did both of the SBF's I made for ESD56 and FRG22D.

[raidzero]

P.S., let this also be a reminder that the password or pattern on the droid is not at all any insurance for your privacy. If someone wants your info I'd say stealing a droid is probably the easiest way for them to get it.

[supertechguy]

Hey RZ, do you have instructions to do this and/or the recovery only firmware for the Droid X.

BTW... Happy late birthday.

supertechguy

First, this is only information and I do not recommend you use it for evil. I figured this out because I am a network administrator and handle my company's phones. When a user defects and turns in their phone, it is useful to pull data from it and otherwise scrutinize it. This procedure does not care if USB debugging is on or off.

overview: install custom recovery, root, get data, remove custom recovery, unroot.

So, lets say you have a droid that has a password on it and you need data from it. You have RSD lite & an sprecovery SBF with ADB installed and working and a droid is bone stock, not rooted or modded in any way.

First thing to do is flash MC1's SPR recovery SBF and boot into recovery. Then apply MC1's root update.zip. then using SPR recovery, mount data.

Next thing to do is pull the sqlite database that sets the screen lock parameters:

adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db .

Will pull to the current directory, then simply open up settings.db using an sqlite program (I use the sqlite managaer firefox extension). Find and delete the lockscreen.password_salt and lockscreen.password_type rows.
from here all you need to do is push the file back and you will have no more password on the phone and can do what you need with it.

If you want to restore the recovery to stock recovery without losing all the phone's data then just use RSD lite to flash back moto's recovery for whatever android version the droid was running. I made one for ESD56 and FRG22D and I can post them up later.

At this point you will still have a superuser.apk lurking, so just uninstall it. Aside from the busybox binary and su binary the phone will have no idea it was ever violated (aside from whatever password it had being gone - but you could always just push the original settings.db back before restoring stock recovery if you wanted to be really sneaky) or just factory reset and pass the phone along to the next user and rest easy knowing you have the data you needed from the previous user should the need arise...

get SPR SBF and root update.zip from here
Root Droid 1 - regardless of OS version

EDIT: my motorola recovery only SBF's attached.. (ESD56 & FRG22D - I don't know how the CG47's differ, but they do, so use the correct one just to be on the safe side)

Oh yeah, I am not responsible for anything. I have tested this method on a droid and it worked fine. so did both of the SBF's I made for ESD56 and FRG22D.