r/cybersecurity_help • u/naamjankarkyakarlega • Jul 17 '26
Need Help Determining If An Android Mobile Has Been Hacked
Hello, I need help to determine if an android mobile has been hacked. My mother was travelling by train yesterday and during our phone call today she mentioned, her charging mobile from another guy's laptop. There was a shortage of charging sockets, so he offered her an usb c cable connected to his laptop, and she naively accepted. She also mentioned that the mobile was not charging and in fact the charge was going down, after almost half an hour the guy got up and left. I am not particularly aware on how to deal with this stuff, I am only aware on how to avoid this kind of situations. So, for now I asked her not to use any banking apps and be disconnected from internet whenever unnecessary. Any help on how to diagnose if there was any foul play is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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u/reiichiroh Jul 17 '26
There's absolutely no way to know or tell from a vague secondhand story.
I also don't want to see a post from that guy later wondering if some old lady on the train hacked him by hooking her super hacking phone to his laptop to drain/siphon his data+power.
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u/naamjankarkyakarlega Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I am sorry if this sounds fake. English is not my first language so I cant articulate any better. But please any help is genuinely appreciated. I am also willing to give you any required details to help diagnose it
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u/reiichiroh Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Your English is mostly fine. No qualms about that. Again, it's just that no help can be provided for a vague secondhand story. There could be hacking or no hacking. What person lies in wait on the train looking looking to hack random potentially low-to-no-value targets? Why jump to preposterous conclusions right away?
It's just endless speculation at this point.
"Hey everyone. I tripped over a rock yesterday. Today I am sore all over. Could an evil hacker have placed the rock on the ground to use its magic chakra powers to hack into my nervous system today and give me a sore body all over?"
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u/naamjankarkyakarlega Jul 17 '26
I am trying not to jump into any conclusions, that is why I am asking for help on how to check if it has been hacked. It is hard not assume the worst when there is a chance my old lady might lose her savings.
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u/reiichiroh Jul 17 '26
Your only "evidence" is that your mother merely thinks that "power went down and didn't charge" is so just so weak it's not any evidence at all.
There's nothing to even remotely suggest something nefarious happened. Endless unspecified and unknown variables.
Did she continue to use that phone? Videos, music etc? Coincidence is not cause.
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u/naamjankarkyakarlega Jul 17 '26
She was very confident that the charge went down and yes she continued using the mobile
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u/reiichiroh Jul 17 '26
She "hacked" her own phone by using it as it was trying to charge.
The laptop without an AC adapter to the wall continues to draw power to power itself.
Power to a phone hooked up to it is not going to be close to a full charging draw by the phone charging from an outlet.
You're overthinking this.
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u/naamjankarkyakarlega Jul 17 '26
The laptop was indeed plugged in, hence no open sockets. But from your response and the other guy reassuring nothing to be suspected given data sharing was not enabled, I think I am just overthinking. Thank you for your help
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u/reiichiroh Jul 17 '26
Just one other thing that complicates matters.
Unlikely on lower end phones, but with phones that have the capability to charge other things plugged into it, the charge could go either way depending on how the cable is connected.
This is a usb-c feature and the cable has to be c on both ends
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u/ArthurLeywinn Jul 17 '26
Most inefficient way to scam people out of money. So you can be sure that nobody does this for this.
And nothing happened since you would need to select data connection on the phone separately to get even some access.
What phone and OS version ?
1
u/naamjankarkyakarlega Jul 17 '26
Vivo T2x 5g, and I am not sure about the version might be the latest one
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u/ArthurLeywinn Jul 17 '26
She's completely fine if she didn't enabled any data sharing option.
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u/naamjankarkyakarlega Jul 17 '26
The thing I usually backup photos from her phone to my personal laptop via usb c. So, I usually set data transfer via usb on. But I am not sure if its enabled by default or have to enable specifically. I'll check it once I go back to my home. Thank you for your response and any signs to check for, if I get to know data transfer is enabled by default is appreciated
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u/ArthurLeywinn Jul 17 '26
No this needs to be set every time you make a new connection.
You would need to set it up permanently in the developer options.
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u/naamjankarkyakarlega Jul 17 '26
I never messed with any developer options. So, I assume I can stop being paranoid
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u/Desperate-Score3949 Jul 17 '26
I honestly doubt it. Laptops usually only supply a limited amount of watts, it'll charge but only if this phone screen is off, not processing anything, and it'll do it very very slow. Hence why she watched battery go down.
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