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Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

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Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#121

Post by westmeal »

mschuster91 wrote: post #31
Cantbekhan wrote: post #15

Off-topic but IMHO what is really needed these days is a privacy feature allowing all the UIDs to be changed freely by the user (without the need for rooting and firmware thinkering). Including randomized IMEIs and randomized Android ID (In addition to the already offered randomized MAC and Ad tracking ID changes). Especially IMEIs which are commonly used by many applications and law enforcement to track users (see B…

In Germany it's punishable by law indirectly ( https://tipps.computerbild.de/hardware/firmware/imei-nummer-... ), in UK it is a direct crime that may yield 5 years of jail time ( https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/31/notes?view=plai... ). Be fucking careful when you are traveling with a phone that has an IMEI in the software that does not match the one on the sticker.

How would a cop even know about this and arrest you? Being serious.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#122

Post by GekkePrutser »

dogma1138 wrote: post #98
extrapickles wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most SIM cards are one-time programmable, so they can’t change anything on the card. They do still have a small RW area, but thats generally for user data (contacts). You can get SIM cards that have large amounts of storage for running applets and have better support for OTA, but most carriers don’t like the extra expense.

Aren’t most SIM cards today use over the air provisioning since networks employ thin provisioning theses days?

Yes they do almost all support it (with many security vulnerabilities as a result, Karsten Nohl did a really great presentation on this at OHM2010). But the IMSI is almost always provided at manufacture time.

I think it's also because the card would not be able to be provisioned over the air without getting connected to the network first, and without an IMSI there is no network connection :)

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#123

Post by def_true_false »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #109
unethical_ban wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a huge, and incorrect, assertion. If I could hard-off my mic, I would. I don't use it but once a day, maybe, while I use others frequently. I turn off location manually whenever I am not using an app that requires it. I leave bluetooth on because I use it frequently enough, but if it were an easy hardware switch, I could get in the habit of shutting it off.

> I turn off location manually whenever I am not using an app that requires it Which is almost equivalent to teather from a security point of view. Either you trust the system, in which case you can trust that you can deny location to the programs that according to you "don't require it"; or you don't trust the system, in which case it will just broadcast the position whenever you enable the killswitch to everyone wh…

Switches are simple and predictable. Permission systems have shit UX, and are not granular enough anyway. Furthermore, suppose you need different things to be permitted at different times, e.g. you need the battery to last longer for a few days... good luck changing all your permissions manually.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#124

Post by def_true_false »

kec wrote: post #51
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> any normal OEM's support? What "normal OEM support" (like which company, for example?) has been good at regularly releasing security patches and keeping on top of various vulnerabilities? Especially past the 1-2 years after the release date of the device? Especially if you consider those companies that without any real consent from you install dozens of their own adware and spyware on each update that you can't eve…

Apple’s average full support for iPhone is trending to around 4-5 years since launch. Several times they’ve issued critical security updates years after ending official support.

For someone who needs to run Android apps (read everyone not bought into Apple's walled garden), that's as useful as a brick. Do they even have a browser other than Safari?

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#125

Post by mschuster91 »

westmeal wrote: post #121
mschuster91 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany it's punishable by law indirectly ( https://tipps.computerbild.de/hardware/firmware/imei-nummer-... ), in UK it is a direct crime that may yield 5 years of jail time ( https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/31/notes?view=plai... ). Be fucking careful when you are traveling with a phone that has an IMEI in the software that does not match the one on the sticker.

How would a cop even know about this and arrest you? Being serious.

Easy: check if the imei on the back matches the one shown in the software as part of a theft check. Threaten the user with seizing it for suspected theft or whatever if they refuse.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#126

Post by joemazerino »

davidhyde wrote: post #60
noisy_boy wrote: post #52

I get the point of low cost phone to keep the price low. I also know that there is a group that, rightfully, enjoys hacking on low-powered hardware to push it to limits. However, I wonder if there is also an opportunity to also sell high spec hardware, maybe in limited quantity. These phones are not for the masses anyway and I'm sure there is a Linux enthusiasts segment with pockets deep enough to afford the hardware…

The iPhone 1.0 came out in 2007 and it ran on a single core arm cpu under clocked at 412mhz and with 120MB of ram and the scrolling was butter smooth. I remember being shocked at how responsive the touch screen was compared to other smartphones at the time. The PinePhone contains an AllWinner A64 Quad Core CPU with 2GB of Ram. Sure, its a crappy 5 year old Soc but it is MUCH faster than the original iphone. I know, m…

Let's not forget how much bigger iOS is now compared to 2007. I doubt it would run smooth on a 128MB device in 2020. Phone companies have to keep up with software's requirements.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#127

Post by XMPPwocky »

numpad0 wrote: post #100
kop316 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, I think you misunderstand the page. The Quectel EG25-G is the modem only, the main CPU on the Pinephone is an Allwinner A64 ARM Quad core Cortex-A53. The modem itself has its own linux kernel, app space, etc.

Oh I expected Qualcomm MDMs to run some proprietary RTOS with some NVRAM write protection, but if Linux is already in control then certainly an on-the-fly IMEI switch without resets or QPST/QXDM sounds more feasible.

They do. These types of Qualcomm modems run QuRT, a proprietary RTOS, on the Hexagon processor which handles the baseband and the LTE stack. There is also a shitty little core that runs "psuedo-Android" - you have adb and things like that, but it's mostly a more traditional embedded Linux environment- and handles certain AT commands (they actually go to the baseband first, but get IPCed over to Linux for handling after parsing if they match a registered command).

With root on psuedo-Android, you can probably get code exec on Hexagon - especially for the cheaper modems, they have an older version of the Hexagon architecture and to work under this architecture things like ASLR are relatively rare. But it's more work - there's no obvious "execute arbitrary shellcode" IPC message, you need to do more RE/VR.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#128

Post by david-gpu »

joemazerino wrote: post #126
davidhyde wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone 1.0 came out in 2007 and it ran on a single core arm cpu under clocked at 412mhz and with 120MB of ram and the scrolling was butter smooth. I remember being shocked at how responsive the touch screen was compared to other smartphones at the time. The PinePhone contains an AllWinner A64 Quad Core CPU with 2GB of Ram. Sure, its a crappy 5 year old Soc but it is MUCH faster than the original iphone. I know, m…

Let's not forget how much bigger iOS is now compared to 2007. I doubt it would run smooth on a 128MB device in 2020. Phone companies have to keep up with software's requirements.

> I doubt it would run smooth on a 128MB device in 2020

It would not run at all. No mobile OS has a swap partition as far as I know, and it would not make sense to add one due to performance and power constraints.

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#129

Post by zatop »

cuu508 wrote: post #110
zatop wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During Librem 5 development, they considered using GNOME but, after talking with the upstream devs, they abandoned the idea. Gnome is slow even on laptops, it was made for X and later ported to Wayland, it uses Clutter/Mutter, JavaScript, etc. So here yes definitively it's layers upon layers. On the other hand, Posh is based on Wlroots and there is no layers. It's pure C code talking directly to EGL/DRM/KMS (And in t…

> You can't go more optimised than that. Phosh uses GTK, right? That's a pretty thick layer right there. You used to be able to put pixels on screen with a handful of ASM instructions https://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/tut8.html

Yes this is totally true, I should've been more precise.

There are two parts : 'Phoc' and 'Posh'. Phoc is the Wayland compositor (Wlroots & C), Posh is the launcher UI (GTK).

Phosh is just "an app" (with special privileges to talk to Phoc). All it does is display app icons and windows thumbnails (which are not actual live windows but just screenshots of the apps (like on Android)) it does not composite windows, it does not stand between the apps and Phoc.

This is unlike Clutter & JavaScript which do stand between the apps and the Wayland compositor (Mutter) on GNOME.

So my point is that apps on the Librem talk directly to Phoc (not Posh) which is a super minimal layer and can draw pixels on screen with almost no overhead (and potentially none at all when they'll support hardware layers)

(Note : this is the Librem architecture as far as I understood, maybe I missed something)

Re: Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

#130

Post by alasdair_ »

627467 wrote: post #33

So, I like the accessibility of physical switches but how are they more trusting than software ones? Or light indicators such as Apple's green Dot? Already trusting Open Source requires non technical people to trust others who can read the code to vouch for it. Here, we would need to expect an electronics engineer to understand (from looking at a disassembled device) that the switch actually does what it says it does…

If the camera is used to take a photo, the light would flicker for the briefest of moments. Most people would not notice.
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