Comments on: TouchWiz Has a Major Security Flaw that Allows Factory Resets With Just One Click (Updated)

By: Khürt L. Williams

Khürt L. Williams — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:08:00 +0000

How would you know if the QR code was random?

By: Khürt L. Williams

Khürt L. Williams — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:07:00 +0000

Read more carefully: ” Reports are coming in now that this is an Android issue that was patched long ago, but may still affect handsets not running the most current versions of Android”

Just because a patch was provided by Google does not mean that the patch was widely availabe or in-use on current devices.

By: Brave_Woman

Brave_Woman — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:43:00 +0000

Or… better yet… just allow the individual users to decide, “stock” or “custom” skins.

By: Chesty_Apple_Boss

Chesty_Apple_Boss — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:42:00 +0000

Oh my God! Any S3 can be instantly wiped of all its data!

Oh, wait, the “update” at the bottom of the article admits this is all useless “old news” and the bug was fixed long ago.

Great story, droid-life!

By: billy routh

billy routh — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:26:00 +0000

Then android would be plain boring. Touchwiz adds suo much more to android and I have a nexus and gs 3

By: billy routh

billy routh — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:23:00 +0000

If we were all stuck with stock android it wouldn’t be nearly as popular as it is. I mean there’s a reason Samsung is the one making the most money off of android. Stock android is good for people who like tinkering with things but not much use to anyone else.

By: billy routh

billy routh — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:18:00 +0000

So do you.

By: PC_Tool

PC_Tool — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:33:00 +0000

“I disagree with you.”

I am happy for you.

“…it cannot be true that manufacturer customization is limited to visual aspects. ”

I never said it was.

“Therefore TouchWiz describes the ROM as a whole, not just the visual differences.”

Ignoring the generally accepted definition in favor of the technical definition is a really good way to ignore reality. Politicians have been doing it for centuries. You are in really good company.

However, the masses seem to disagree with you, judging by the hatred being spewed at OEM skins in this topic right now. Enough semantics, hmmm?

By: Royal2000H

Royal2000H — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:28:00 +0000

I disagree with you. Just as I see Cyanogenmod as a ROM which includes features and customizations to the OS, not just the visual skin. So do I see TouchWiz as a ROM with customizations, not just a visual skin. As you can clearly see – these phones have been customized beyond their visual design, so it cannot be true that manufacturer customization is limited to visual aspects. Therefore TouchWiz describes the ROM as a whole, not just the visual differences.

By: Corey Vallejo

Corey Vallejo — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:58:00 +0000

Agreed. I’ve hated just about every 3rd party launcher/skin I’ve ever used. I much prefer untarnished Android.

By: PC_Tool

PC_Tool — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:53:00 +0000

Point being: At the *very* least, the reporting is ambiguous and likely to be misunderstood by the general readership (as made obvious by the responses).

Regardless of intent, the generally accepted “meaning” was incorrect…and yes, that would be the fault of the reporter either not knowing the audience, not being informed, or purposefully leaving it vague.

By: PC_Tool

PC_Tool — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:49:00 +0000

Two problems with that:

First:
When anyone hears or sees “TouchWiz”…they think “OEM Skin”…just look at the comments; They are all winging on about how OEM Skins are so $#@^ bad. As such, it is obvious that the generally accepted consensus is that “TouchWiz” refers to the OEM Skin.

Second:
Even AOSP has dial-codes. Samsung simply added a few that go beyond what AOSP already has. Sure it’s still “manufacturer customization”, but it would generally have no effect at all on the user outside of this exploit. (I am not excusing the reset dial-code…it shouldn’t be there obviously)

By: Royal2000H

Royal2000H — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:42:00 +0000

For a second: instead of calling touchwiz just the visual skin, consider it as the manufacturer customization to android. In other words, any changes the manufacturer made to the phone, just as any ROM maker would in a ROM. Under that definition, is TouchWiz not the culprit based on the article?

By: PC_Tool

PC_Tool — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:38:00 +0000

…

Yes. The article does state that. …and while these phones *do* have TouchWiz, the skin has nothing to do with the issue. It’s the dial-code that resets the device that is the problem….which is completely unrelated to the skin.

By: Granpa

Granpa — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:37:00 +0000

Yet another reason why Samsung needs to drop Touchfail and just give us phones with ASOP like the Galaxy Nexus.