91–100 of 108 posts
How on earth is this a "vulnerability"? It needed adb shell access.
It allowed anyone with knowledge to use the cell network in ways the operator of the cell network didn't like. This is generally considered a major issue and can attract serious legal repercussions for a radio device maker that doesn't take care to enforce only the allowed uses.
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Stop pretending Google was legally compelled to do this. So far not a single law against VoLTE has been cited.
No one said it was the “law” the carriers have certification requirements
If by that you mean the carrier has to be certified by the government for access to the airwaves, then that's just "the law" with extra steps. Nobody has cited a law or regulation that would demand carriers block any device that an end-user can modify to enable VoLTE.
If you mean that the carriers require certain certifications for the devices on their network, and these certifications have no basis in law (i.e. they are permitted to allow VoLTE-capable devices on their network, they just choose not to), then this is just mega-corporations colluding to sabotage consumers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one said it was the “law” the carriers have certification requirements
I don't follow - you'll have to hold my hand through your argument. You said the airwaves are a "shared service license" to the carriers, and so the carriers "have certification requirements". If by that you mean the carrier has to be certified by the government for access to the airwaves, then that's just "the law" with extra steps. Nobody has cited a law or regulation that would demand carriers block any device tha…
Just like with any device on any network an out of spec device can cause issues.
My current favorite: https://furilabs.com/
Yes, it runs a SoC vendor kernel, but please, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
It also runs android in a container, allowing execution of apps that are only available in android, and the ability to shut down the android VM otherwise.
The HN community is probably one of the most equipped to make this transition, so please seriously consider letting go of goggle...
How on earth is this a "vulnerability"? It needed adb shell access.
From the article: >To gain these elevated privileges, Pixel IMS uses Shizuku, an open source Android app that lets other apps run processes as the shell user. It's possible for an app to use wireless debugging to debug the phone it's running on to get shell permissions.
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I am aware, but the cell network itself is considered critical infrastructure as well, and operators are custodians of the radio spectrum. So devices that don't respect operator settings are considered problematic. Now, do operators abuse this power to enforce commercial interests? Absolutely. This may well be a case of that. But the general principle that devices that operate on the radio spectrum and in cell networ…
> Just legislate against the abuses which is never going to happen, because lobbying has overtaken the democratic process, and legislations no longer seem to be about protecting the consumer.
There are many countries that can still legislate, and in fact have created many consumer protection laws like the ones I mentioned.
This phone/carrier nonsense is just stupid. I had lots of trouble with Wi-Fi calling on Android phones: * A phone purchased outside US/unlocked but non mainstream (aka not Samsung/Pixel) phone purchased in the US cannot enable Wi-Fi calling despite having hardware & software support for it, as it's not a supported model * An at&t Samsung phone that is later unlocked cannot enable Wi-Fi calling when using a Visible SI…
Android is the Windows of the phone world. The whole ecosystem is built around selling hardware at margin and making profits with forced installation of McAfee, Candy Crush etc
They are expensive now.
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It had been a thing since mobile phones existed. Pre-paid cards that required paying for unlocking the phone firmware, eventually forbidden on EU countries. Vodafone famously had their own firmware on Nokia N95 in Germany that disabled tethering,.... It starts by regular people being trained to accept that lack of quality and restrictions are normal in digital world.
Depends on how the rollout of mobile networking historically went in a particular country. (Mostly, from what I can see, if it was the entrenched landline monopolists from the start or if they had to outcompete a few upstarts first.) In some places (Russia, Ukraine) you have to explain to people what a carrier-locked phone even is, and they get (understandably) appalled at the concept. Others (Turkey) have went as fa…
This have nothing to do with carriers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Phones, just like cars, are only allowed to be manufactured and sold to the extent that the manufacturer takes reasonable efforts to prevent end-user misuse of the devices they are selling. This is because phones, just like cars, use and can greatly affect shared public infrastructure - the radio spectrum for phones, public roads for cars. As such, it is natural that there are manufacturer enforced restrictions on en…
I wouldn't mind your servile attitude so much if it wasn't dragging the rest of us down with you. A key part of "may your chains set lightly upon you" was "go home from us".
Now, while in this particular case, the "vulnerability" that Google patched wasn't affecting the actual radio components, it may have still caused disruptions to the 4G/5G software - it's not very clear to me. It's also very possible that it didn't, and it was just allowing users to circumvent some market segmentation BS that some carrier marketing invented. In that case, I'm all for using our political power to prevent such BS.
But this is still a completely different argument than claiming that you should be allowed to do anything with your phone because you bought it (at least allowed by the design, even if it would be illegal). This is simply not a real right that anyone recognizes, or even desires - again, beyond some extremist libertarians.