A flaw in Android's Pattern Unlock

[adamw79]

I'm wondering if this would really be considered a serious problem with the default pattern unlock... after using my phone, it occasionally gets smudges on the screen. The smudges tend to flow up/down and left/right based on your swipes and scrolling. Well, I noticed after unlocking my phone and immediately relocking (turning off the screen) that obviously it left a smudge tracing my lock pattern. I handed my phone to my girlfriend and pointed it out and asked if based on seeing that if she thinks she could unlock my phone. She gave it a shot and obviously did on the first try. It's probably not a huge deal and typically I am constantly rubbing my screen clean on my shirt as well as blowing and wiping my thumb off on my shirt or something just to get a smoother contact to the screen, but it is a minor security flaw.

Also, what is the point of hiding the pattern when you unlock, but showing the (incorrect) pattern if you enter it incorrectly... if someone was looking over your shoulder they may not learn the actual pattern, but if it's only off by one it would help cut down on the number of patterns they need to try to unlock the phone.

So yeah, I guess I don't really like the pattern unlock to begin with and maybe this is just me ranting against it. I've tried other locking type apps from the app store, but they even less secure, easily bypassed by pressing the home button, or pulling down the task manager at the top and going into advanced task manger and killing it, etc...

I want a better lock and more options for locking my phone!!!!

(HTC EVO)

[Fabulas]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; Sprint APA9292KT Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

Guess you'll just have to wipe it on your shirt........that's what I do

[RicoRich196]

Froyo will introduce other locking features such as pin code and alphanumeric I believe. Although I knew about this I doubt too many people would look at the screen first to determine your gesture.

[orangekid]

I use a lock pattern that retraces my steps a couple of times, plus certain screen protectors don't do this. Also you should be swiping your today screens back and forth which should smudge the 4-5-6 area of the lock pattern as well, are you cleaning your screen and then resmudging it?

[clockcycle]

Ever notice those touch/press button devices on doors/cars? The black ones tend to have the buttons you press fade enough that you can tell which buttons are being pressed