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Tracking my phone's silent connections

kushaldas.in

21–30 of 110 posts

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#21
Regarding iOS: I stopped using iPhones and (edit typo) quot the ecosystem altogether (apart from an app I still sell in apple app store) because with the lack of an untethered Jailbreak I could no longer install "Firewall IP" and I could not edit the hosts file.

Regarding Android: I switched to Android for the "NoRoot Firewall" and since most Android phones are Root-able I can also edit my hosts file.

The article gives a very good analysis of what I have been telling friends, and my constant complain towards that Cancer called Facebook: why does my e-banking app or Booking.com or practically every air carrier's app, need to alert FB that I am using this or that app?

Anyone with an Android can install that NoRoot Firewall and see in 60seconds what their phones are doing when you are not looking. This in combination with the applications running in the background 24/7 makes privacy a thing of the past.

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#22

Regarding iOS: I stopped using iPhones and (edit typo) quot the ecosystem altogether (apart from an app I still sell in apple app store) because with the lack of an untethered Jailbreak I could no longer install "Firewall IP" and I could not edit the hosts file. Regarding Android: I switched to Android for the "NoRoot Firewall" and since most Android phones are Root-able I can also edit my hosts file. The article giv…

I can highly recommend NetGuard on android, it's non-root and free software.

I wish there was a system that lets me whitelist specific hosts per app.

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#23

Regarding iOS: I stopped using iPhones and (edit typo) quot the ecosystem altogether (apart from an app I still sell in apple app store) because with the lack of an untethered Jailbreak I could no longer install "Firewall IP" and I could not edit the hosts file. Regarding Android: I switched to Android for the "NoRoot Firewall" and since most Android phones are Root-able I can also edit my hosts file. The article giv…

and as always my favourite source for hosts file:

https://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#24

Regarding iOS: I stopped using iPhones and (edit typo) quot the ecosystem altogether (apart from an app I still sell in apple app store) because with the lack of an untethered Jailbreak I could no longer install "Firewall IP" and I could not edit the hosts file. Regarding Android: I switched to Android for the "NoRoot Firewall" and since most Android phones are Root-able I can also edit my hosts file. The article giv…

I can highly recommend NetGuard on android, it's non-root and free software. I wish there was a system that lets me whitelist specific hosts per app.

You can do that with NetGuard, but it's a pro feature you have to unlock

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#25
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking about iOS? What solutions exist to bypass certificate pinning without jailbreaking?

Yes, A tool called Objection can do it. You have to modify and re-sign the app you are interested in bypassing. Requires a developer account and the .ipa of the app you want to work with. https://github.com/sensepost/objection

It seems like this requires a decrypted IPA. Do you know of a way to get those without jailbreaking?

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#26
post #6

I'm not sure how the situation is with Apple, but it always bothered me that on Android, apps can implement their own logic for TLS certificate validation. Apps can use this to hardcode key-pinning and make it effectively impossible (short of patching the app) to inspect an encrypted connection, even if you're the owner of the device. I feel the push for DoH will make this even worse - because then you won't even kno…

Unfortunately Google both supports and recommends this. Recently they've even made it easy for apps to automatically ignore any custom certificates added to the trust store, so they don't even have to bother to implement pinning.

Understandable position for them to take when you have the likes of Facebook / Onavo etc pushing VPNs and root certificates on uninformed users for "research".

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#28

Regarding iOS: I stopped using iPhones and (edit typo) quot the ecosystem altogether (apart from an app I still sell in apple app store) because with the lack of an untethered Jailbreak I could no longer install "Firewall IP" and I could not edit the hosts file. Regarding Android: I switched to Android for the "NoRoot Firewall" and since most Android phones are Root-able I can also edit my hosts file. The article giv…

Apps like AdGuard Pro let you block domains for all apps by intercepting and blocking DNS locally on iOS.

Re: Tracking my phone's silent connections

#30
post #2

Actually would be interesting to see the content of the HTTP packets that are not encrypted! I wonder what kind of information is shared by our smartphones without it being properly secured...

A lot. Running my phone traffic through mitmproxy was a rather sobering experience, especially what leaks on boot before firewall and ad blocker are ready. On Android you can even inspect a lot of encrypted traffic using mitmproxy and the cert in generates, although some apps (like signal) use cert pinning in a way that i haven't managed to get around yet.
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