I bought a used Flipper, should i factory reset it before using it?

Because Shipping and import is expensive to my Country i wanted to save some Bucks and bought a Flipper from someone locally on ebay. Now i know its risky to just plug it in my Computer, i wouldn’t do that.
Should i factory reset the flipper before using it or do you think there is not much risk?
I biought it as a learning device and am new to the whole topic.
What would you do in my Situation?

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I don’t think that is strictly needed but it’s a good idea. I can’t remember whether factory reset will format the SD card but if an SD card was included replace it or reformat it. You DEFINITELY want to update the firmware. In my opinion firmware that was tampered with is the most serious possible exploit so it must be changed.

I wonder if there is a “Trusting trust” situation there. Bad firmware can corrupt the update before applying it or just simluate the process without doing anything. DFU may help… unless the adversary had a soldering iron and knife to remove some connections and prevent you from entering it.

Going for original FW/SW is ofcourse a good idea. Just take a peek if you want to keep something from it before clearing storage?

That’s a good observation. It would be much more difficult to bypass a DFU update. I doubt anyone would consider that worth the trouble unless they could target the victim. That would take a lot of effort to afterward sell to a random person that possibly has nothing of value.

I thought about that and suspect anything worthwhile will likely be from Github. If someone is selling their Flipper that suggests they probably aren’t really using it for anything unique. Unless you want the signal to their garage. :laughing:

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For lowering suspicion waiting a week before entering his garage might be a good idea, otherwise they will prolly have a vague suspicion on what or who could be the reason behind the robbery. But that might be a bit unfriendly from reseller perspective, but maybe look if you missed some games/applications and other stuff you did not yet see @UberGuidoZ git to give you a jump-start or hints that could be welcome?

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This is where I’m directing new people. I’m also updating that when I find “new user” friendly stuff.

Yes you should make a factory reset for the only purpose of erasing any existing configurations…

Always factory reset/wipe used devices, if you want to leech/check the contents of the SD if you are a nosy one, have at it. But never trust the handyman you bought it from. It is always best to start clear and find your own way to prevent issues and make the learning process more natural and easy.