[tor-talk] How safe is smartphones today?

Mike Perry mikeperry at torproject.org
Fri Apr 4 02:44:08 UTC 2014


nb.linux:
> Mike Perry:
> > anonymous coward:
> >> My special concern is about the baseband CPU. The baseband potentially
> >> allows full access to the whole system. And the baseband is closed source.
> >>
> >> Thus, the baseband is the perfect trojan for "them". I asked a phone
> >> maker that makes "cryptophones" what they say about the baseband CPU as
> >> a backdoor. They did not reply to the present day.
> >>
> >> If it really is that simply for "them" to break into a smartphone, all
> >> the security apps are worthlesse. Be it TOR, ChatSecure, TextSecure,
> >> RedPhone, everything would be crap. "They" could easily steal your
> >> secret keys and contacts.
> >>
> >> Thus, what does the scientific community say about these concerns?
> > 
> > You may like:
> > https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy
> > 
> > It's still not perfect (nothing is), and it's certainly nowhere near
> > user-friendly yet, but I happen to think it's a step in the right
> > direction.
> In case you don't know it yet, you may also read
> https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/replicant-developers-find-and-close-samsung-galaxy-backdoor
> and
> http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/SamsungGalaxyBackdoor
> 
> So free software matters, e.g. by not implementing risky features.
> But it is not a guarantee and may only work sometimes, as it depends on
> the architecture of the phone.

Yes, I mention this and that link several times in that post.

Thanks for the direct link to their wiki though. I updated one of the
links to the backdoor to that URL.

-- 
Mike Perry
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