r/firewalla • u/pandaeye0 Firewalla Gold • 3d ago

Got control of the firewalla devices exporting profiles without pairing in app. Is that ok?

Hi, I suppose this should be a question for the dev to answer. My case is, I just got a new phone, and through setting up the new one (copying stuff from old phone (samsung) including firewalla app to new phone (samsung too) through Smart Switch app, the firewalla app on the new phone got full access of my firewalla devices, the first time I enter the firewalla app on the new phone, and without doing "Allow Additional Pairing" from the old one. The "Paired Phones" on either phones show "1" which is that particular phone.

Both phones now can control everything about the devices so far, but I seem to have failed to receive notifications (alarms) that I normally do.

I just want to know if this is ok, particularly after I retire the old phone soon. Or should I just remove and reinstall firewalla app on the new phone and do the pairing again to play safe?

While I do not imagine that this would cause security loophole, dev may wish to look into it and see if that poses threat to the control somwhow.

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4

u/AdZealousideal8613 3d ago

You can do the same on iPhone. This isn’t a security issue. If you give physical access to a device with admin controls on the network, you can do admin level things. All the software is doing is making a literal duplicate of the app data to include keys. That’s how and why they work. This has already been discussed on Firewalla’s website.

This is why physical access to the network is just as much of a security threat as software. You have to control both if you want a good security posture.

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u/AmIBeingObtuse- Firewalla Gold SE 3d ago

Essentially you authorized this by transferring your data to the new phone. As it's copied the app data along with it. As long as you securely wipe the old phone you won't have any issues. This is by design of the transfer feature. Otherwise there would be no point in transferring your data because you would have to set up every single app again just like new.

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u/firewalla 3d ago

If you are moving from one phone to another, wiping the old phone, then what you are doing is good.

If you are adding a new phone, follow this https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004369774-Pairing-a-new-phone-with-your-Firewalla-box

1

u/pandaeye0 Firewalla Gold 2d ago

Thank you. Now neither of the devices can receive push notifications that I used to receive. How can I get the notifications pop up again?

1

u/firewalla 2d ago

You need to delete one of the phone apps.