Samsung Blocking Third Party Repairs?

[Mnky313]

Summary

tl:dw

After swapping genuine Samsung parts between 2 Galaxy A51s the fingerprint sensor fails to read and doesn't allow you to enroll new fingerprints while displaying a message about how the sensor 'needs calibration' (there is no way for someone outside of a Samsung service center to calibrate it themselves afaik.)

This only started happening after a security patch update (September) meaning it's most likely either a bug or some form of software limitation rather than a hardware incompatibility.

After downgrading one of the phones with a replacement screen to an earlier security patch it worked perfectly fine.

Quotes

Quote

"this issue has only been occurring since a September security patch update"

Quote

"you can see it works perfectly fine on the march security update"

Quote

"what we've learnt based on my testing is that Samsung has begun some form of pairing components thanks to a software update on this phone. Both the display and fingerprint sensor are paired to the phone"

My thoughts

I think this is ridiculous and really hope this is just a bug and not an intended thing. Samsung has been slowly copying Apple's bad decisions and if this is another one they decided to copy it should be met with backlash. There is absolutely no reason why genuine parts pulled from a phone shouldn't work in a different phone of the same model. Especially something like a display which is probably one of the most common parts to break on a smartphone.
This is one of Samsung's more budget A series devices but it's still unknown if this is an intended thing or if it will be a thing on the S series. Hugh Jeffreys says in the comments he ordered some S21s so there will probably be a similar video of him swapping parts between them.

 

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGLQ9ZRntZo

 

This is my first time posting a news topic so if this is incorrect in some way, sorry.

[SansVarnic]

I sure hope this is not the case, Samsung pretty much uses third party for most of their warranty repairs. At least here where I live in Iowa.

[SlashedM]

Someone told me that the S20 and Note20's finger print sensor also stop working after a self screen repair as well, although only on Android 10.

[Mnky313]

2 minutes ago, SlashedM said:

Someone told me that the S20 and Note20's finger print sensor also stop working after a self screen repair as well.

I replaced an S20+ 5G's display (with embedded fingerprint sensor) and didn't have any issues, though I don't know what security patch it was on.

Edit: There are forum posts about other A series (I saw A50 and A70 at least) having similar issues so it's very possible it happens on S series devices as well on the latest security patches

[SlashedM]

2 minutes ago, Mnky313 said:

I replaced an S20+ 5G's display (with embedded fingerprint sensor) and didn't have any issues, though I don't know what security patch it was on.

Believed it may have been a bug, Android 9 did seem to work even with one, but not 10. Someone else said that even though they did the repair themselves Samsung did help them out and it was sent into repair by them, however I don't know if they had to pay for it, and it was an A70

[Mnky313]

1 minute ago, SlashedM said:

Believed it may have been a bug, Android 9 did seem to work even with one, but not 10. Someone else said that even though they did the repair themselves Samsung did help them out and it was sent into repair by them, however I don't know if they had to pay for it, and it was an A70

interesting, my experience with Samsung's warranty on the S20+ was them telling me 'because I opened it the warranty is void and I needed to pay for the repair' even though it was under warranty...

[SlashedM]

1 minute ago, Mnky313 said:

interesting, my experience with Samsung's warranty on the S20+ was them telling me 'because I opened it the warranty is void and I needed to pay for the repair' even though it was under warranty...

May have been wrong, as it did say OEM part, so it could have been a official samsung repair at a carrier or such

[HarryNyquist]

Man, all Samsung's ads criticizing Apple for their anti-consumer moves are looking REAL ironic about now...

[TetraSky]

Ah, excellent. Once again, Samsung is copying the worst possible crap Apple is doing... After shitting on Apple for doing them previously.

[williamcll]

Give it a few weeks and people should know how to get around this.

[Results45]

Yeah as far as Mr. Jeffreys has tested, only the A51 and iPhone 12 Series have serial-locked parts.

 

 

Apple and Samsung made the leap this year. Wouldn't be surprised if Google and Huawei soon follow suit.

[RejZoR]

15 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Ah, excellent. Once again, Samsung is copying the worst possible crap Apple is doing... After shitting on Apple for doing them previously.

I sure wouldn't want biometrics to be easy to tinker with. Anyone ever thought about this side of things and not rush to conclusions of evil corporations?

[Mnky313]

5 hours ago, RejZoR said:

I sure wouldn't want biometrics to be easy to tinker with. Anyone ever thought about this side of things and not rush to conclusions of evil corporations?

Because the data for biometrics isn't stored on the reader itself. Technically there might be an attack that uses the connector the trick the phone but even if that is possible (which I don't believe it really is) you could just require the pin on reboot (like most phones already do) and that would fix the issue. Or just require the fingerprint to be re-enrolled if it detects the sensor/display has been replaced. There is no reason to completely break functionality like this.

[Mnky313]

22 hours ago, HarryNyquist said:

Man, all Samsung's ads criticizing Apple for their anti-consumer moves are looking REAL ironic about now...

Samsung has a track record for making fun of apple and then doing the EXACT thing they made fun of...
They made fun of apple for removing the headphone jack, now they removed it

They made fun of apple for not including a charger in the box, now they don't

[PocketNerd]

On 1/16/2021 at 8:06 PM, SansVarnic said:

I sure hope this is not the case, Samsung pretty much uses third party for most of their warranty repairs. At least here where I live in Iowa.

Those third parties probably have access to Samsung calibration software if they're doing official warranty repairs. So there would be nothing to worry about.

[RejZoR]

5 hours ago, Mnky313 said:

Because the data for biometrics isn't stored on the reader itself. Technically there might be an attack that uses the connector the trick the phone but even if that is possible (which I don't believe it really is) you could just require the pin on reboot (like most phones already do) and that would fix the issue. Or just require the fingerprint to be re-enrolled if it detects the sensor/display has been replaced. There is no reason to completely break functionality like this.

And how do you know manipulating sensor can't affect data stored elsewhere? Wouldn't be the first time for such vector to be exploited to bypass things.

[wamred]

I swear Samsung has been becoming apple lately

[Awesome84]

Looks like someone has been taking lessons from Apple.

[spartaman64]

7 hours ago, RejZoR said:

And how do you know manipulating sensor can't affect data stored elsewhere? Wouldn't be the first time for such vector to be exploited to bypass things.

i mean theres endless things you can say this about. how do you know being able to remove and add hard drives wouldnt be a vector? how do you know being able to change ram wouldnt be a vector? how do you know usb ports arent a vector? well actually we know for sure they are a vector so should devices with no usb ports be advertised as having better security? i guess thats one way apple can advertise their one port macbook

[Commodus]

41 minutes ago, wamred said:

I swear Samsung has been becoming apple lately

It's been trying that since 2010! The original Galaxy S was practically conceived as an iPhone knockoff.

[wamred]

1 hour ago, Commodus said:

It's been trying that since 2010! The original Galaxy S was practically conceived as an iPhone knockoff.

I didn’t know that, oof. I hadn’t been keeping up with Samsung that long. 

[RejZoR]

4 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

i mean theres endless things you can say this about. how do you know being able to remove and add hard drives wouldnt be a vector? how do you know being able to change ram wouldnt be a vector? how do you know usb ports arent a vector? well actually we know for sure they are a vector so should devices with no usb ports be advertised as having better security? i guess thats one way apple can advertise their one port macbook

Guess why Apple isn't allowing any of that on portable devices? Here's a hint. But everyone is too busy screeching how anti-consumer Apple is...

[Commodus]

2 hours ago, wamred said:

I didn’t know that, oof. I hadn’t been keeping up with Samsung that long. 

Oh yeah, it wasn't even subtle. Same overall phone aesthetic, to the point where even the icons were decidedly iPhone-like. Samsung already had a bad habit of chasing after the competition before (the BlackJack was its not-so-subtle attempt to ride the BlackBerry bandwagon), but it was blatant.

 

For that matter, I still remember how the original design for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 looked a bit like the original iPad, but was conveniently redesigned in several weeks after the iPad 2 showed up. Samsung clearly got better in the years since, but there are still moments like this where it shadows Apple's movements.

[jagdtigger]

One more reason to not buy their phones (the removal of the audio jack and sdcard slot was enough for me, this just confirms my decision)

[spartaman64]

54 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Guess why Apple isn't allowing any of that on portable devices? Here's a hint. But everyone is too busy screeching how anti-consumer Apple is...

why not disallow it for "nonportalable" devices also if its such a security advantage. i guess they are going to advertise removing the lightning port as improving security also