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Replicant Developers Find Backdoor In Android Samsung Galaxy Devices

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  • #21
    Originally posted by oliver View Post
    Luckily, I haven't seen people be anti-oss here.
    Better not move to gaming topics.

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    • #22
      Apparently this can be/is blocked with CyanogenMod 11 and proper SELinux policies. Not sure all devices have the correct SELinux policy though.

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      • #23
        Originally posted by AnAkIn View Post
        Apparently this can be/is blocked with CyanogenMod 11 and proper SELinux policies. Not sure all devices have the correct SELinux policy though.
        Be very very careful with CM selinux policies. They are inconsistent between devices (left entirely up to the maintainers of that specific device), and generally extremely loose.

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        • #24
          But so this is not just for the remote wipe ability, in case your phone gets stolen..?

          Originally posted by wizard69 View Post
          Don't get too wrapped up in the supposed open source superiority here. Open Source just makes it easier for people to analyze the code for ways to exploit it.
          Yes, and it's also that much easier to fix it.

          Unlike in this case, where the proprietary firmware doesn't _have_ its source code available.

          Originally posted by wizard69 View Post
          In all likely hood this hole will be replaced by another. I really doubt this is an accident.
          Duh.
          Last edited by ArchLinux; 12 March 2015, 04:30 AM.

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          • #25
            This shows why any baseband modem on the same bus is unsafe

            Just as the Tor folks working on a secure phone have said, this is a usage of the baseband modem to attack the operating system. Have the replicant folks really managed to remove the offending driver blob for the modem, yet get the modem working? In my judgement, having the GPS not work because there is no driver is a major plus, as turning GPS off in a normal OS is not effective against law enforcement back doors. The Tor project folks are working from the assumption that an external cell phone modem is the only way to safe the device. You could so this on the existing Samsung devices by removing the 3g/4g modem and using wifi instead to hook to a carrier's provided portable cellular wifi modem. That's a one-time investment in security that separates your OS and your data from the carrier and their networks. They become no more dangerous than any of the other equally untrusted routers your packests will pass though,

            Now let's suppose Replicant finds a way to run the radio with open drivers and open firmware only, so as to close any backdoors not loaded into mask-programmed ROMs. A small, portable phone form factor device that can operate on at least one carrier's network, yet gives that carrier and any police giving them warrants no access to your data nor to your position would be a huge development. I do not need 3D graphics in a phone, those are needed only in my big desktops and in fact I don't use them in my netbook for performance reasons. Just the ability to boot, to show data on a screen, and to connect to a network and make actual phone calls, deal with SMS messages, and conduct Internet activity while blocking CALEA-demanded cop access to the device from the carrier is working more than well enough as far as I am concerned. It doesn't matter that it does not play games, and if you need GPS there are passive single-purpose devices not registered to any owner for that purpose. Buy it with cash and throw out any "warranty registration" cards and you should have safe GPS.

            Here's a use case for this sort of thing if the cell phone app world really takes over. As a Bi man with probable Aspergers I can only meet partners in explicitly set up "cruising" environments and as I cannot otherwise read people for interest. Suppose the cell phone cruising apps like Grindr run all the brick and mortar clubs out of business with "help" from condo developers backed by city officials. I would probably have to buy a second netbook as a dedicated device not used for encryption and never seeing my files, and install Android on it either directly or in a VM to isolate it from machine details. Use it with a second, dedicated portable wifi hotspot, all of this with one purpose only: to run the proprietary "Grindr" gay dating app without exposing my secure machines to their probable trackers. Set up in a fixed location like a coffeeshop with known GPS coordinates, feed those coordinates to Grinder as it works by GPS positions. Android might have to be running in a VM so the GPS device could be faked with known manually input coordinates.

            I would not trust running any of this on my normal netbook full of encrypted files and used for activist work, even in a VM as VM hypervisers can be defeated and broken out of. I would have to assume the folks at Grindr and/or the Android developers were at least as good hackers as myself, and that there was at least one person in there on the take for either security forces or the ad/tracking industry.

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