HTC Sense 6 0 Bluetooth security issue explained

Bluetooth is not a new technology and has long been associated with hands free headsets but with newer devices over the last few years it has obviously evolved into a technology that connects to printers, headphones, speakers, cars and of course other phones.

It wasnt long ago that I still used a Microsoft Zune with my phone sitting idle as I didnt trust the battery or it didnt have the capacity to store my music library, it has only been due to looking into the issue I am going to describe that I have begun to consider using a Bluetooth headset, reflecting on the pain of trying to untangle my headphones as I make my daily commute into the city.

But I digress, I made a discovery on the new HTC One M8 (originally noticed on the M7 port by rider5512) that when I shared had a few other users concerned about using Bluetooth securely.

One of the advantages of being an early adopter and someone who has owned the previous iteration of a flag ship model is that you quickly spot the changes that have been made and one of them was a change in the Bluetooth setup where the ability to set a visibility time out was no longer present and the only options I could see for Bluetooth were on or off.

I checked some other devices, including the Sony Xperia Tablet Z (running the latest nightly of Cyanogenmod 11), the HTC One M7 and the LG G2. I also saw, via a quick Google search that this was standard for Apple devices.

Here you can see that same interface on the HTC One M7 (on Sense 5.5) with visibility time-out options from Cyanogenmod 11 showing on the right:

Of all the other models I checked, only the HTC One M8 lacked this visibility option.

So why might this be a concern?

If your device is visible it means that anyone with a Bluetooth connection can see it, there have been pranks with the name Bluejacking where you can be sent unsolicited text message and pictures which are mostly harmless or as you imagine explicit but nothing more than nuisance, with no data being stolen.

In more extreme cases there is something that is called Bluesnarfing (which sounds ridiculous I know) where an attacker can change or copy information from your phone such as your phone book, address book and calendar or even taking it over completely. Obviously this situations are rare and extreme and as a smart reader of this blog, you are likely avoiding it.

At the very least you will be exposing your Bluetooth address to others, for the paranoid Bluetooth can also be used to track you. Certainly if more people in Hollywood were able to disable Bluetooth visibility the cast of Person of Interest would certainly have to do more work than forced pairing.

Having a visible device will also increase battery consumption!

I asked Jason Dunn, the current outgoing Senior Manager of the HTC community about this and he quickly got a few details from me and escalated it as initially he thought his was current practice as it didnt seem to be broken function on the M8 but the lack of option altogether.

In less than a week (a credit again to Jason and HTC for working closely with the community), Jason was able to give me a simple yet delightful answer.

In simplest terms, the device is only in discover mode, while you are present in the Bluetooth settings screen.

Again, so simple but that has two strong reasons:

• You won’t accidentally leave the device in a discoverable state.
• For non-technical end-users it provides a simple yet effective way for them to easily connect their device to other Bluetooth devices.

You can see a quick demonstration below, on the top my Xperia has been unable to find my One M8, on the bottom (and you will have to take my word for it) is in the Bluetooth settings screen and therefore visible.

Basically, HTC have done a great implementation for end users that does not compromise security at all! Once paired the devices will continue to function and connect as you would expect!

On a final note, it is very sad to see Jason moving on from his position at HTC, but I continue to look forward to his thoughts on Twitter and I already had the pleasure of meeting his replacement, Laura Kimball, at the HTC London meet last month.

Great job HTC!

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How to Enable Harman Kardon sound effect of the HTC One M8

Just few days ago HTC announced the new HTC One (M8) Harman & Kardon Edition. The HTC One (M8) Harman & Kardon edition has been designed for consumers who appreciate high-quality audio and want the best smartphone on the market without compromise. It’s a special edition of the critically acclaimed HTC One (M8) that builds upon the iconic all-metal design in a new brushed black finish with champagne accents, and is another example of HTC’s commitment to offer the best audio experience on a smartphone.

Today we present you how to enjoy this revolutionary audio experience on your “regular” HTC One (M8).

First of all it seems that the changes between the regular M8 and the M8 H&K Edition are only or mainly software related. We believe that the sound processor is the same in both units, however the firmware of that sound processor is probably different. To such conclusion led us the particular part of the M8 Sprint firmware.zip package called adsp.img (Advanced Digital Sound Processor) which is usually the same between each device variants and stays the same since the first device software release date, but in this case it was different. We found out that the adsp.img from the Sprint HTC One M8 was different to the others One M8 variants so its probably needed for a proper H&K sound mod function.

The rest of the changes are located on /system partition:

• system/customize/ACC/default.xml

<item type="boolean" name="support_harman">false</item> has to be changed to

<item type="boolean" name="support_harman">true</item> to make the OS "think" that youre actually using the H&K M8 Edition. This boolean item wasnt present in the early HTC One M8 1.24.401.4 software version.

• system/etc/tfa/playbackHM.* / playbackHM_l.* files which are mostly related to the equalizer settings
• system/etc/audio_policy.conf tuned for higher sampling_rate values (up to 192000)
• system/lib and system/lib/hw libraries, mostly related to the part of the SoC responsible for the audio

This all might sound a little bit complicated, but in fact it was just an explanation about the changes that are required software-wise to enable the H&K support on the regular HTC One M8.

The tricky part is that to flash adsp.img on international version of the HTC One M8 youll need to have Security OFF (S-OFF) device. Without S-OFF you can only update files located on the system partition on your device. Below you can find proper ZIP packages that are suppose to be flashed using custom recovery. First one (for S-OFF devices) together with system partition will also update the adsp.img. The other one (for S-ON devices) will update only system files, however you might not notice any sound improvements without the adsp.img.

Download links:

Harman & Kardon sound mod for the HTC One M8 S-OFF
Harman & Kardon sound mod for the HTC One M8 S-ON

Thanks to baadnewz for brining the initial version of the modification.

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