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Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

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Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#141

Post by placatedmayhem »

petee wrote: post #103
willyt wrote: post #77

I can totally understand why Americans would want to silence these. I'm from the UK and I was in Central Park with my wife and kids when we got an 'Amber Alert' which said something like 'Black Ford SUV reg XYZ123' or something equally cryptic. It was not long after the terrorist attack in Nice where a guy drove a truck thorough a crowd of people walking beside the beach. Everyone's phones started going at the same t…

Ex boyfriend disappearing with a child is totally worth an Amber Alert, and a couple hundred miles is only a couple hours drive by the time they put the alert out...its easy enough to just keep an eye out for a license plate. Nobody is going to know for sure if its a false alarm, or if we'll wind up with a murdered child until after the fact, so why wait or ignore it?

There are significant questions about the efficacy of AMBER Alerts, which is concerning given the massive disruption and potential for negative conditioning for other government-originated alerts (severe weather, terrorism, etc.). Here's one paper from 2014 that analyzes AMBER Alert cases compared to those without an alert:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0735648X.2014.10...

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#142

Post by Scoundreller »

siftrics wrote: post #118
kornhole wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rotate burner SIM's. I never make calls with the SIM. Instead I use jmp.chat if I need to use OTA calls or SMS. I am in airplane mode 99% of the time and use WIFI instead of cellular. I never activate cellular near my home. I am always connected to VPN so that the traffic cannot be analyzed. My phone is anonymous without any identifiers. I think all this mitigates the baseband attacks, but tell me if I am missing s…

If the VPN is compromised, you're compromised.

What are the odds of seven chained VPNs all being compromised?

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#143

Post by 95014_refugee »

tristor wrote: post #76
bjt2n3904 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because another country has a law does not mean my phone should disregard what I told it to do. This absolutely is a user setting. How far we've fallen from sharing the DeCSS flag, to arguing that users shouldn't have control over their devices, and governments and carriers should.

People keep failing to understand that if you can't make your device do something that is illegal, it's not /your/ device. It's that simple. Politically crafted laws are not physical laws of the universe, they not only can be violated, they often /should/ be violated. Laws are not a moral imperative. This particular law (emergency alerts) might not be an issue, but the fact that your device will follow the government…

> all we really need to know about that device.

Namely, that it's created by a party / parties also subject to (and abiding by) these laws?

I'm not sure what you plan to do with this information; certainly a law-abiding supplier is more likely to remain in business, so perhaps it's indicative of a better chance of receiving long-term support for the device...

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#144

Post by brainchild-adam »

kornhole wrote: post #86

If you are using the Android OS originally installed on the phone, you can deactivate many of these at the OS level (not baseband) using ADB. This does not require rooting. An easy way to find and deactivate these codes is to use the UAD (Universal Android Debloater) found on Github.

Thank you for pointing me in this direction. I will have a look at this.

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#145

Post by smoldesu »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #137
qbasic_forever wrote: post #51

Wait until your learn what a country or local government/police can do remotely to the baseband firmware of your phone with a court order... 10-20 years ago the FBI was regularly remotely programming firmware to listen in and record cell phone microphones to capture conversations of suspects. IIRC a mafia case hinged on data gathered in this way so it is not some abstract theoretical or crackpot theory ( https://www.…

Are you saying that a phone manufactured in 2022 can have its firmware remotely changed to record microphones? Specifically can your whatsapp/signal audio calls be recorded by FBI remotely in this manner?

Honestly, a phone manufactured in 2006 is probably vulnerable to a similar attack. The larger point is that state-sized threat actors (and the carriers they work with) have a crazy level of control that cannot be underestimated. Especially in 2022, it's hard to look at any sufficiently complex smartphone and assume it's not vulnerable to sufficiently motivated threat actors.

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#146

Post by jorgesborges »

kornhole wrote: post #95
qbasic_forever wrote: post #51

Wait until your learn what a country or local government/police can do remotely to the baseband firmware of your phone with a court order... 10-20 years ago the FBI was regularly remotely programming firmware to listen in and record cell phone microphones to capture conversations of suspects. IIRC a mafia case hinged on data gathered in this way so it is not some abstract theoretical or crackpot theory ( https://www.…

I rotate burner SIM's. I never make calls with the SIM. Instead I use jmp.chat if I need to use OTA calls or SMS. I am in airplane mode 99% of the time and use WIFI instead of cellular. I never activate cellular near my home. I am always connected to VPN so that the traffic cannot be analyzed. My phone is anonymous without any identifiers. I think all this mitigates the baseband attacks, but tell me if I am missing s…

Just curious and I admire your commitment, but is there some aspect of your life that demands this diligence, or are you simply principled?

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#147

Post by iforgotpassword »

TreeRingCounter wrote: post #80
isodev wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The local (EU) law about emergency broadcast is clear in that it applies to both residents and visitors, and alerts are to be delivered without the need for “opt-in”. In other words, if you’re in range of local services, you must receive the alerts (which, you know, is handy in case of an actual emergency).

My device should serve me, not the EU. If I choose to violate EU emergency alert laws, that's on me.

Then you probably don't have one of those fancy new things called smartphones, as they are all very locked down and don't allow you to access or modify a lot of system settings, limit access to files apps create, don't allow to move some apps to the SD card, some of them even disallow you from installing apps from anywhere but their own app store. Certainly you don't have one of those devices that treat the user in a completely patronizong way.

Of course, you can liberate yourself quite a bit from the draconian rule of the manufacturer by rooting the device, but then you're also able to disable cell broadcasts permanently...

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#148

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

kornhole wrote: post #95
qbasic_forever wrote: post #51

Wait until your learn what a country or local government/police can do remotely to the baseband firmware of your phone with a court order... 10-20 years ago the FBI was regularly remotely programming firmware to listen in and record cell phone microphones to capture conversations of suspects. IIRC a mafia case hinged on data gathered in this way so it is not some abstract theoretical or crackpot theory ( https://www.…

I rotate burner SIM's. I never make calls with the SIM. Instead I use jmp.chat if I need to use OTA calls or SMS. I am in airplane mode 99% of the time and use WIFI instead of cellular. I never activate cellular near my home. I am always connected to VPN so that the traffic cannot be analyzed. My phone is anonymous without any identifiers. I think all this mitigates the baseband attacks, but tell me if I am missing s…

Why?

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#149

Post by dustyharddrive »

jmole wrote: post #92

I bought a Pixel 7 recently. When setting up the device, I was asked to insert my SIM card. Usually, I'd have skipped past this screen, but I thought "Ok, let me swap out my SIM", since I was trading in an older device. Worst mistake ever. Even on an unlocked phone, all the verizon crapware was silently installed in the background. This doesn't happen when you put in the SIM after setting up the phone. Such a backwar…

Could this have happened on Graphene/Calyx/Lineage/Divest?

Re: Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

#150

Post by cutler »

MengerSponge wrote: post #119
kornhole wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rotate burner SIM's. I never make calls with the SIM. Instead I use jmp.chat if I need to use OTA calls or SMS. I am in airplane mode 99% of the time and use WIFI instead of cellular. I never activate cellular near my home. I am always connected to VPN so that the traffic cannot be analyzed. My phone is anonymous without any identifiers. I think all this mitigates the baseband attacks, but tell me if I am missing s…

I break into Tiffany's at midnight. Do I go for the vault? No, I go for the chandelier. It's priceless. As I'm taking it down, a woman catches me. She tells me to stop. It's her father's business. She's Tiffany. I say no. We make love all night. In the morning, the cops come and I escape in one of their uniforms. I tell her to meet me in Mexico, but I go to Canada. I don't trust her. Besides, I like the cold. Thirty…

What on earth does this have to do with the parent post? Please enlighten me.
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