this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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this was a streisand effect for me because i didn't have duress password set up on my grapheneos phone (security & privacy => device unlock) before but i do now! :D
best promotion ever haha What is it? FU-123?
I imagine the best duress PIN is something you'd actually see a "normal" person set as a PIN, like their birth year or something innocuous and easy to remember (and easily believed by whoever's demanding your PIN), while their real PIN would be longer or more abstract.
Honestly I would use a stupid basic one that someone might try and use if they were guessing. Like a duress pin of 1-1-1-1, 1-2-3-4 or 2-4-6-8. It gets the people who take the device and then try and break into it without your permission as it's almost certain they will at least try one of those three.
Worst case scenario they ask you and you say what it is and they give you a blank stare of "really?..." it's not like they wouldn't try a pin you gave them.
I don't recommend a duress password of 1-1-1-1, because that could be set off accidentally.
Or those common dumb ones could be attempted by someone just trying to snoop on your phone.
that's sort of the point of it being super basic. The intent is you want it to be tried before they somehow manage to get your actual pin, or give up and try to force you to provide it.
if they put the pin in before you tell them a pin the argument for destroying evidence is weakened heavily as it isn't a you initiated thing.
that's fair, I don't know if graphene supports press enter to submit but, I usually have that setting enabled on my devices
The sort of code an idiot puts on his luggage.
Exactly that, its not easy to fat-finger, but is dumb enough that its the second thing anyone would guess.
Yeah, you actually gotta remember it too! So a 1234 pword is kind of great
Or Jenny's phone number.
8 6 7 5 3 0 9
Is it with a Zero or letter O? They sing the letter "O". Or, what about handing "niiine"... 3 nines?
Sounds dumb to give it out, but mine is my normal 8-digit pin, just backwards. It's easy to remember and seems like a legitimate PIN.
that would throw me for a loop longer than I would like to admit, it took me like 10-15 seconds to process what mine would be backwards and mine is only 4 digits lmao
It may be an IT person thing but I like numbers lol.
On GrapheneOS, you can also set a "second factor PIN" in the unlock settings under "Fingerprint Unlock", so that to unlock your screen you need to first use the fingerprint unlock and then separately enter your PIN. This means BOTH are required every time you unlock. Your phone can't be unlocked unless it's your finger AND unless you enter the PIN that only you know.
And under the Screen Lock settings you can also enable "Scramble PIN input layout", so that the number buttons on your unlock screen will be out of order, so people watching you or recording you can't just make note of the shape your index finger is making when touching the numbers to unlock your phone(like people looking over your shoulder or recording on store security cameras).
What I find foolish is there's no pin only to unlock (no biometrics), but biometrics available when unlocked
Plenty of my apps have biometric verification I'd love to take advantage of, but I don't need or want one to unlock the phone itself
But there is
Settings > Security & Privacy > Device Unlock > Fingerprint and there you can toggle to use the fingerprint for device unlocking and/or verification in Apps
Huh cool
That definitely was not there when I installed GrapheneOS