Digitally delicate primes (Q301438)

Primality testing based on digital observation is a very interesting idea and expectedly difficult topic. Of the few known results, Erdös proved in 1979 the existence of infinitely many weakly primes, i.e., primes that become composite if any single digit is altered. \textit{T. Tao} [J. Aust. Math. Soc. 91, No. 3, 405--413 (2011; Zbl 1251.11089)] showed that a positive proportion of primes are weakly, in any chosen digital base. This fact is now extended in the present article, that a positive proportion of primes become composite if any digit is altered and any digital string of fixed length appended at the beginning or end. As in Tao's work, the method employs a partially covering set of congruences and an upper bound sieve of Brun-Selberg.