Just installed Norton app lock.
It does lock the application I want to lock, (which happens to be Password Safe by Schneier.)
However, if I launch the appliction by just selecting the application’s data file (.psafe3), Norton app lock is not invoked, thus providing no protection.
Is this typical app lock behavior? Seem too easy to bypass??
Well, don't thank me yet. In my experience, these fixes do not happen very quickly.
Many thanks, @peterweb!
Great detective work. Thanks for that. I'll escalate this thread to try to get the necessary help.
Like I said, this was not a problem on older Android OS. This happens literally only after my update from Android 10 to 11.
I just checked my wife's phone, which is also on Android 11. It appears to be an issue with the new Gesture Navigation, which I use but my wife doesn't. On her phone, which uses the traditional 3-button navigation, I couldn't bypass Norton App Lock. But once I activated Gesture Navigation, I could now bypass Norton App Lock the same way I described in the last post, even after I reverted back to 3-button Navigation - and rebooting the phone didn't help.
Based on this little experiment, it is clear that there is, indeed, a bug in the app, likely particular to Android 11, and that has nothing to do with any priority in the setting.
Thank you for looking into this and I hope there will be a resolution soon.
On my Android 9 tablet, when I try to open a locked app I get the App Lock prompt. If I tap on recents, I see the app and tap on it. It tries to come up but is replaced again with the App Lock prompt.
Look through Android Settings in the Display, and Apps sections to see if there is any kind of setting that gives an app priority. I cannot find the post now, but I seem to remember something like this for another issue. If you can find it, see if you can set App Lock to always be on top.
Another loophole to close... Have been using Norton App Lock for ages and never noticed any problem until my phone was recently upgraded to Android 11.
Norton App Lock does launch as expected whenever I open an app. However, it can now be bypassed simply by pushing up the bottom bar (once Norton App Lock PIN screen opens) to view all recent apps and then clicking on the app that I tried to open again. This will then unlock any app each and every time without fail.
I only discovered this by accident and that was an unpleasant surprise to say the least. I hope Norton will dispatch a fix for this bug soon as it's otherwise a sound product but one that is now only giving unsuspecting users a false sense of security.
It is not typical behaviour to try to start an app by accessing an app's data files. Norton App Lock probably only gets called when tapping on an app's icon.
I'll pass this along to my contacts to see if I can find any information on this.