SD card encrypted, cannot retrieve

[FoxKat]

Sam, if you're still watching we're burning up the internet trying to find any possible solution for you. We're cross-referencing information with friends on other forums and although we haven't reached success, and the prospects are not very promising, we're still trying. See https://forums.motorola.com/posts/b027ce4327?start=16&stop=30# and if you wish, read through the entire thread there as well. I've really become a thorn in the side of Motorola for this, and I am generally a HUGE advocate of Motorola, so this is uncharted territory for me.

I want this to end well and be able to remain devoted to Motorola but with so little information and even conflicting information it's getting difficult to not feel some betrayal. I believe we've come to the conclusion that if either "Device" or "Device+Password" were the option used for encryption of that card, and considering "Device" is default, we're not going to recover that data. I still want you to get a card reader, plug into the PC and transfer those files to the desktop of your PC, then download the AES 256 tool, install it and then try right-clicking on one of the encrypted files, choosing AES Decrypt, typing in your old phone's screen lock pin and seeing if it decrypts. If the option to decrypt isn't there on your right-click menu, it could be the file name. Check to make sure it's named with .aes after the .jpg, so for example; mypic.jpg.aes.

Please report back with your results.

 

[meishkov]

This has grabbed my attention I'm still on the OG but glad I found n read thru this before I upgrade, always good to know of all possible vulnerabilities
Encryption has always seemed like a tricky endeavour to me, not surprised somethin like this happened, but it's cuz of the lack of thorough research into their own device setups, the manufacturer is to blame n at the expense of one of their customers discovering it. Damn you moto

Sent from my OG using DroidForums

 

[robssm]

Sam, if you're still watching we're burning up the internet trying to find any possible solution for you. We're cross-referencing information with friends on other forums and although we haven't reached success, and the prospects are not very promising, we're still trying. See https://forums.motorola.com/posts/b027ce4327?start=16&stop=30# and if you wish, read through the entire thread there as well. I've really become a thorn in the side of Motorola for this, and I am generally a HUGE advocate of Motorola, so this is uncharted territory for me.

I want this to end well and be able to remain devoted to Motorola but with so little information and even conflicting information it's getting difficult to not feel some betrayal. I believe we've come to the conclusion that if either "Device" or "Device+Password" were the option used for encryption of that card, and considering "Device" is default, we're not going to recover that data. I still want you to get a card reader, plug into the PC and transfer those files to the desktop of your PC, then download the AES 256 tool, install it and then try right-clicking on one of the encrypted files, choosing AES Decrypt, typing in your old phone's screen lock pin and seeing if it decrypts. If the option to decrypt isn't there on your right-click menu, it could be the file name. Check to make sure it's named with .aes after the .jpg, so for example; mypic.jpg.aes.

Please report back with your results.

don't know if it's a similar issue however I am having a problem with by I can't read or write to the internal memory at all either it makes me wonder if these issues are related

 

[FoxKat]

don't know if it's a similar issue however I am having a problem with by I can't read or write to the internal memory at all either it makes me wonder if these issues are related

If you reboot the phone and it doesn't ask you for a password, or make mention of encryption, then I would say probably not. You may simply be suffering from an app conflict, or it may be a corrupted internal SD card, though I have never heard of the internal card getting corrupted. Have you backed up the data? If so, perhaps the next attempt may be to "wipe" the internal SD Card?

 

[furbymac]

Well I hate to be that guy but I just did a factory reset on my razr and this is what I saw

 

[94lt1]

OK, I think we (i) need to start telling people to unencrypt their devices before doing a fdr... so I would hope that you canceled? And unencrypted then did the fdr?

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

 

[FoxKat]

Well I hate to be that guy but I just did a factory reset on my razr and this is what I saw



View attachment 50578

I have been aware of that screen, but the issue is (at least for Sam - the OP), that being instructed to do a FDR by a Verizon technician over the phone, they should make sure you DON'T have encryption set BEFORE they tell you to proceed. Furthermore, if you DO have encryption set, I still haven't been convinced that it is reversible 100% of the time. So as Agent 94 (94lt1) said, anyone who has encryption should either FIRST remove encryption, THEN copy ALL encrypted data that they can not afford to lose off onto a computer (or copy first), and FINALLY, check to make sure that the data was copied UNENCRYPTED.

I would have done so much more research and might even have a solution or workaround for the problems by now, but family emergencies too coincidental and too extreme to believe, and which have been a terrible and stressful burden on my family have taken me away these past couple weeks. It will be a few more weeks at least, until I am back in full swing.

Please know I am still thinking about you, Sam and everyone else who is counting on me. I don't give up, I just get more determined.

 

[misslilly]

Hi everyone! Any news on how to solve this problem? The same thing happened to me on my Rezound.

This week I gave my new phone to my IT dept to get synched with the Exchange system to get my work email. I totally forgot to remove my (2 year old) SD card that had everything on it Pics, texts, docs etc... seems like they are lost now!

When I got the phone back from IT, I noticed it kept asking me for an encryption password. The keypad lock password and my Exchange password both didn't work. Since I was running out of trys I just hit cancel and I decided to follow up with IT the next day. I also noticed that my apps were gone, and I couldn't re-install them.

By the next morning, the notification bar kept saying the SD card was damaged. I tired to read the card in another phone, and it wouldn't mount. I tried to use a card reader in my laptop, and it couldn't read it. Seems like the only option is to reformat

I put a NEW SD card in the Rezound (with Active Exchange now working), and the phone still wanted me to reformat the new card, and also encrypt it. Now, I have to use the keypad lock password, and then also enter the SD encryption password - every time!! Also, why do I have to encrypt an SD card at all??

Are they any alternatives to get the files back from the old SD card? I'm not sure if it's damaged because of
1) age of the card,
2) unknown password by my coworker in IT,
3) incomplete process with the Exchange set up

Life goes on, but it kind of sucks to lose all my files I have not reformatted the old card, so any suggestions on what to do are welcome!!! :hail:

 

[mandreou]

Hello guys,
I just saw the post and i want to help as much as i can. Did you find any solution for the problem?
Can you please explain me exactly what really happened with the phone? I mean what are the options that Motorola provides for the encryption?
You confused me about this topic.
1) "device" : it takes the MEID/IMEI/ESN (unique identifier of the phone) and encrypt the sd card. Right? What algorithm is using for the key derivation? It just takes the unique identifier or the user must type a password too? Can the user take the uniqe identifier from the company provider?
2) "password" : where the user types the password and the algorithm is computed to produce the "ciphertext" (encrypted data). Does it take something else as input to produce the key?
3) "device +password" : this option combine both 1 and 2, right?

The most important question is about the unique identifier of the phone. Is it possible the user to take back this value from Motorola?

 

[BillBauman]

Hey, folks, I was looking for some other information and stumbled upon this thread. I apologize, I didn't read the entire thing, but I wanted to let you know that you're bordering the impossible of retrieving any encrypted information - short of a LOT of brute-force cracking processing power.

The encryption isn't "done" by Motorola, it's part of Android, the OS. The encryption Android employs is based on dm-crypt. That means it is cryptographically-based and requires both a key file and the password. The keyfile was generated by the dm-crypt service inside the original Android OS running on that phone. That keyfile was saved on that device. When you factory reset, you deleted the keyfile. The password and the data don't get you access. The keyfile and the data don't get you access. The keyfile, the password AND the data, do get you access.

Sorry, for those who have factory reset, it's like having encrypted data on your computer, not saved the encryption key to a separate drive, then formatted your hard drive, reinstalled, and tried to read the encrypted data.

 

[mandreou]

BillBauman , actually i am interested in what you wrote.So, what are you saying is that Motoral Droiz Razr implemented the default encryption from dm-crypt?
Do you know what are the parameters taken for the cipher algorithm? the key size? etc....

 

[replica9000]

Seems the OP hasn't responded in a while. Hope she didn't give up. Sounds like after a factory reset, the encryption key was reset also. I think all that can be done now is make a copy of the card/files, and using some software to try to break the encryption, whether by doing this the card as a whole, or by file.

 

[BillBauman]

BillBauman , actually i am interested in what you wrote.So, what are you saying is that Motoral Droiz Razr implemented the default encryption from dm-crypt?
Do you know what are the parameters taken for the cipher algorithm? the key size? etc....

I'm not an expert on Android encryption. For further information, you might try following the developer's notes online: Notes on the implementation of encryption in Android 3.0 | Android Open Source

 

[BillBauman]

Seems the OP hasn't responded in a while. Hope she didn't give up. Sounds like after a factory reset, the encryption key was reset also. I think all that can be done now is make a copy of the card/files, and using some software to try to break the encryption, whether by doing this the card as a whole, or by file.

Unless an exploit is discovered in the encryption type, or the user waits some number of years/decades for processing power to 100000x (or whatever the case may be), it is very unlikely the data will ever be successfully brute-force decrypted.

 

[FoxKat]

Unless an exploit is discovered in the encryption type, or the user waits some number of years/decades for processing power to 100000x (or whatever the case may be), it is very unlikely the data will ever be successfully brute-force decrypted.

Unfortunately, you are correct. The key file was lost the moment the phone was FDR'd and with each new implementation of encryption a new key file is created. Each key file is completely unique and will essentially never be duplicated. Furthermore, cracking it would take massive amounts of computing power (I'm talking pools of supercomputers linked), and many years, if not decades to do.

I'm afraid the data is unrecoverable at present, but I'd put that card in a jewelry box or Safe deposit box and preserve it. At the rate which technology is advancing, there may be enough computing power at our fingertips in the relatively near future (the next decade perhaps), to do this in minutes rather than years.

Sam, I wish I had better news for you, but whatever you do, don't lose that card.

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