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I always thought this aspect of Wifi password security was a weird annoyance. It just makes thing inconvenient without providing any real security - and it's le
by geokon 4y ago
I always thought this aspect of Wifi password security was a weird annoyance. It just makes thing inconvenient without providing any real security - and it's leaked into Android and taken to new extremes. For instance you can get and share Wifi with goofy QR codes - but syncing the whole wifi password list between devices? Impossible without rooting your device
They then up the goofyness in that it doesn't provide any mechanism in the UI to actually see the password, but you can screenshot the "share QR" code, read the QR in an app, and finally extract the password phrase that way (at least in all the Android versions I've tried). I have to do this dance regularly b/c scanning a QR code from a laptop is a pain
Loosing all my wifi passwords when I get a new phone always kinda sucks...
- lxgr 4y agoCouldn't have said it better. Apple used to play that security-by-obscurity game too in their implementation of password sharing with nearby devices, and by not allowing users to view passwords in the Wi-Fi settings (even passwords they hand-entered themselves, as if they can't also make a copy of that in a much less secure place at that point). Fortunately, they've come around in the newer iOS versions. But which Android feature are you referring to? On my Pixel, I can share the PSK as a QR code – not just the hash as far as I can tell.
- bombolo 4y agoHe wants to share it as a string, since humans aren't too well versed into reading qr codes.
- franga2000 4y agoYou can sync your WiFi passwords....to your Google account. It's a privileged permission, like most fun things on Android these days are, for totally legit and not at all anticompetitive reasons.
- jeroenhd 4y agoI wanted to write a quick app to switch between VPNs based on which WiFi network I'm connected. The Wireguard app exposes an API for this and many years ago I remember enjoying the broadcast receiver API of Android to react to such general changes. Thought I'd have myself an app in half an afternoon. Well, it turns out getting the name of the current WiFi network is near impossible. There are four different ways for four different ranges of Android versions, the most recent of which plain doesn't work on my phone. Somewhere down the line the greedy tracking on mobile apps has gotten so bad that even Google wants to make sure their users know they're being tracked. Without a permanent notification and a permission you can't grant in a popup, you're just not getting the WiFi name. I completely understand why they changed the API and I'll even agree with the most recent incantation, but the state of mobile app development has become truly deplorabele because of tracking companies and everyone must now suffer the consequences.
- cma 4y agoAt least in the past there was no fine-grained option to backup other things like bookmarks without also giving google all of your wifi passwords: https://micahflee.com/2013/07/use-android-youre-probably-giving-google-all-your-wifi-passwords/ https://micahflee.com/2013/07/use-android-youre-probably-giv... The only way was turning on some enterprise mode most home routers don't have, I think because they didn't want to get sued for leaking company passwords.
- AndriyKunitsyn 4y agoOn my Pixel, Android 13, I can see the wifi password in plain text on the QR code screen, below the QR code.
- crtasm 4y agoI recently discovered that on LineageOS (Android 10), good to know Google does this too.
- Vogtinator 4y agoSame on my Xperia, which is pretty close to stock Android.
- lozf 4y agoThe `zbar' package (specifically `zbarcam`) makes scanning QR codes easier (especially when you can hold a phone in front of the webcam).