Setting the date into the future can brick Signal

[Manishearth]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [x] I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
• [x] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

Setting the time in the future appears to put Signal in an unusable state where it requests that you update the app. This state persists even when you reset the clock and restart the app.

It makes sense from a security perspective, but currently there is no way to indicate to Signal that the app is indeed up to date.

I believe it may be possible to get around this by taking a Signal backup and reinstalling Signal. I ended up using an older backup so I didn't try and see if backups were still available.

Steps to reproduce

• Make sure Signal is up to date
• Set system clock into six months into the future
• Open Signal, notice "Your signal version is out of date, please update" banner
• Reset clock back to present. Force stop Signal, then reopen it

Actual result: The banner is still there, and there is no way around it because Signal is already up to date. Most options on the Signal app are disabled. Expected result: Either the banner goes away, or there is a way to have it realize that Signal is up to date.

Device info

Device: Pixel 6 Android version: 14 Signal version: 7.0.0 (but I updated this morning, it should be whatever the previous beta version was)

Link to debug log

(Unfortunately I don't have this)

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[S3curityPlu5]

DUDE maybe you shouldn't be playing with time travel. It is obviously a security protection, did you want them to let future FBI and NSA go to anyone at any time from their craft and hack us from the future and the present. don't make it easy for them. Right, Tucker? 😊