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The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

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Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#141

Post by meeb »

vegetablepotpie wrote: post #139
eknkc wrote: post #134

If you buy a phone in Turkey, it's IMEI is registered to a gov authority and you can use / transfer it as you wish. If you happen to buy one from another country, it will be locked after 60 days of use and no carrier will connect it after that. You can use your passport to to prove that it was not imported commercially but you brought it with you and register it. For $1000 (yeah). And it is locked to your ID. Can't t…

> Can't buy a gsm module for your arduiono What do you mean by that? Ostensibly I can. https://www.adafruit.com/product/2687 Note: it’s on back order, but in theory I would be able to buy a GSM module for my Arduino.

They mean you can buy the adapter, but it won’t work in Turkey as the EMEI isn’t on the official allowed list and isn’t registered.

Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#142

Post by lxgr »

heilhippo wrote: post #105
lxgr wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are AT commands, which specify (one way of) communication between a modem or phone and a PC, or maybe a smartphone OS and a baseband. The phone/baseband doesn’t talk to the network in AT commands.

In theory it doesn’t, in practice it does.

No, it doesn't.

AT commands also don't make it onto your phone line, after all. They're for communication between a host and a modem/baseband, not between a host and another host or even two modems.

Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#143

Post by AceyMan »

vegetablepotpie wrote: post #139
eknkc wrote: post #134

If you buy a phone in Turkey, it's IMEI is registered to a gov authority and you can use / transfer it as you wish. If you happen to buy one from another country, it will be locked after 60 days of use and no carrier will connect it after that. You can use your passport to to prove that it was not imported commercially but you brought it with you and register it. For $1000 (yeah). And it is locked to your ID. Can't t…

> Can't buy a gsm module for your arduiono What do you mean by that? Ostensibly I can. https://www.adafruit.com/product/2687 Note: it’s on back order, but in theory I would be able to buy a GSM module for my Arduino.

as a native English speaker I transparently read that as,"there's no point in buying a GSM module [...]", but I can see how others might possibly be tripped up by that construction.

Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#144

Post by eknkc »

AceyMan wrote: post #143
vegetablepotpie wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can't buy a gsm module for your arduiono What do you mean by that? Ostensibly I can. https://www.adafruit.com/product/2687 Note: it’s on back order, but in theory I would be able to buy a GSM module for my Arduino.

as a native English speaker I transparently read that as,"there's no point in buying a GSM module [...]", but I can see how others might possibly be tripped up by that construction.

Oh this is interesting. I’d think it is implied enough that there would be no confusion.

My native Turkish might be seeping through though. Thanks for the heads up.

Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#145

Post by xw38011 »

least wrote: post #28
mytailorisrich wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no privacy concern, really, as this is unique to the device, not subscriber, and only shared with the network operator, who obviously already "tracks" the subscriber through the SIM , which contains the subscriber identifier (IMSI). On the other hand, the IMEI in principle makes tracking and disabling of stolen devices easy. By the way, in the UK it is actually an offence to change the IMEI [1] [1] https://w…

This is 100% a privacy concern if you're dealing with state level actors.

I would think state level actors have enough tools to deal with this issue. If nothing else they could go the old fashioned way and just, you know, follow you.

Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#146

Post by hinkley »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #68
hinkley wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I’m more concerned with the fact that the carriers know the IMEI of phones and claim that they can do nothing about stolen phones. That was the beginning of the end of my infatuation with the mobile space. I should have been well positioned for early retirement during the early smart phone gold rush but was just so put off by the Ma Bell feeling of the mobile industry that I had exited before most people had…

The article literally talks about blacklisting and has a photo of what a blacklisted phone shows when this happens.

And what time frame did I apply for when I exited mobile?

Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#147

Post by ztetranz »

hiatus wrote: post #138
ztetranz wrote: post #92

Fun fact: Lots of cellular modem/routers have the easy ability to change IMEI. Doing so is a fairly common practice in the rural internet community. i.e., those using cellular for their internet access either because cable / fiber or an official cellular option like T-Mobile home internet is unavailable or they're mobile in an RV. These people are not trying to do anything particularly nefarious but they do it so tha…

What are some of the devices that allow you to easily change the IMEI?

I have one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NDDH6S8 which is easy to change. You still need some knowledge to run some AT commands on the modem. It's easy to find the instructions online and it can be done from the web based admin. Yes, they have AT commands like old dialup modems.

Anything from https://thewirelesshaven.com. I have an old one of their routers and the latest firmware literally has IMEI as a textbox in the admin.

Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#148

Post by tredre3 »

sambazi wrote: post #110
xjay wrote: post #16

Android defaults to sending the IMSI (SIM ID) to Google. > SUPL is used as part of the A-GPS (Assisted GPS) system to get a faster Time to First Fix. The problem is that Android's implementation automatically sends the IMSI (ID of the SIM card) to the SUPL provider for no apparent reason. And because Google is the default provider it's a big breach of privacy. https://github.com/Magisk-Modules-Alt-Repo/supl-replacer…

and then proceeds to download a blob to be interpreted by the firmware over plain http

The S in SUPL stands for secure, it's ssl encrypted. Whether or not the implementation is good, I don't know, but saying it uses plain http is patently false.

Re: The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number

#149

Post by chirau »

miki123211 wrote: post #116
tschwimmer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sorry that this happened to you. The debugging and tear down sound like they would make for an extremely interesting blog post though. I encourage you to write it up and post it here - I’d definitely read it.

Some YouTuber bought one of these (not specifically an S24) and found a hidden app that "told" the phone what it should be. You could set how much RAM you wanted, how much storage, what CPU and so on, and then that info would be shown in all the "about" screens. They went to a few Tb of ram if I remember correctly. Changing any of these parameters didn't have an impact on what the phone could actually do, just to be…

Would you have a link to the video by any chance? I would like to invest some time in showing how to detect and remove said app
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