The Human Interface Device (HID) Attack on Android Lock Screen Non-Biometric Protections and Its Computational Complexity

Abstract

Nowadays, information obtained from mobile phones is often the subject of evidence in front of a court. ForensicNowadays, information obtained from mobile phones is often the subject of evidence in front of a court. Forensicanalysts often come across smartphones about which they have no prior information. However, they need to extract data fromthem. The main prerequisite to extract the data is to bypass Android lock screen protection. The HID attack is a promisingmethod to break Android lock screen protection. In many cases, this is the only way how to break the smartphone´s nonbiometriclock screen protections on newer Android OS versions. The article contains examples of three non-biometric typesof Android smartphone lock screen protections and their computational complexity. The paper describes hardware and softwarerequirements for implementation of HID attack.