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📝 Page Status: Draft — sourced but not yet reviewed

  • Status: draft
  • Sources: 4
  • Relationships: 2
  • Research debt items: 3

GrapheneOS

Summary

GrapheneOS is a privacy- and security-focused open-source mobile operating system that runs on supported Google Pixel phones. Official documentation describes an optional duress PIN/password that irreversibly wipes the device (and installed eSIMs) when entered in place of ordinary unlock credentials.1

Verified Facts

  • GrapheneOS’s features documentation states that users can set a duress PIN/password that will irreversibly wipe the device, along with any installed eSIMs, once entered anywhere device credentials are requested (including the lock screen).1
  • The same documentation states the wipe does not require a reboot and cannot be interrupted, and that both a duress PIN and a duress password are mandatory to enable the feature.1
  • The documentation states that if the duress PIN/password is the same as the actual unlock method, the actual unlock method takes precedence and no wipe occurs.1
  • TechCrunch reported that counsel for Samuel Tunick confirmed GrapheneOS was running on the phone at issue in United States v. Tunick.2
  • TechSpot’s coverage likewise centers the Tunick prosecution on GrapheneOS wipe/passcode features during an airport search.3
  • The Tunick indictment alleges deletion of digital contents of a Google Pixel phone but does not name GrapheneOS.4

Historical Context

Public reporting in 2026 connected GrapheneOS’s duress wipe capability to a Northern District of Georgia prosecution alleging that providing a passcode during a CBP secondary inspection caused deletion of phone data. OIR separates the project’s documented feature set from unresolved case-specific facts about which software and credential were used.

Technical Analysis

Assumptions: This page relies on GrapheneOS’s public feature description rather than an independent code audit. A duress credential is an optional, user-configured unlock-path input that triggers an irreversible wipe rather than unlocking user data. Whether any particular wipe in a law-enforcement encounter was caused by GrapheneOS duress credentials is a fact question for the underlying case record and is not established solely by the existence of the feature.

Relationships

Sources

  1. SRC-GRAPHENEOS-FEATURES: GrapheneOS Features Overview — Duress PIN/Password.
  2. SRC-TECHCRUNCH-TUNICK-DURESS-2026: TechCrunch — DOJ Accuses American of Wiping Phone with Duress Password (July 24, 2026).
  3. SRC-TECHSPOT-TUNICK-GRAPHENEOS-2026: TechSpot — Prosecutors Charge Atlanta Man After GrapheneOS Phone Wipe.
  4. SRC-TUNICK-INDICTMENT-2025: United States v. Tunick — Indictment (N.D. Ga. Nov. 13, 2025).

Research Debt

  • Locate a primary court filing that names GrapheneOS (if any) rather than relying on press-attributed counsel statements.
  • Add GrapheneOS about/FAQ and supported-device documentation source records.
  • Document other OS/vendor “duress wipe” or panic-credential features for comparative technical context.

Document metadata

  • Last verified: 2026-07-27

  1. SRC-GRAPHENEOS-FEATURES — GrapheneOS Features Overview (Duress PIN/Password). Official project documentation. ↩↩↩↩

  2. SRC-TECHCRUNCH-TUNICK-DURESS-2026 — TechCrunch (July 24, 2026). Secondary journalism; counsel confirmation attributed by TechCrunch. ↩

  3. SRC-TECHSPOT-TUNICK-GRAPHENEOS-2026 — TechSpot Tunick / GrapheneOS report. Secondary journalism. ↩

  4. SRC-TUNICK-INDICTMENT-2025 — United States v. Tunick Indictment (Nov. 13, 2025). Charging instrument. ↩