www/proprietary malware-mobiles.html

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       18/01/11 21:16:37

Modified files:
        proprietary    : malware-mobiles.html 

Log message:
        Add/move the principal phone malfeatures to the top.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/proprietary/malware-mobiles.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.51&r2=1.52

Patches:
Index: malware-mobiles.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/proprietary/malware-mobiles.html,v
retrieving revision 1.51
retrieving revision 1.52
diff -u -b -r1.51 -r1.52
--- malware-mobiles.html        12 Sep 2017 02:42:20 -0000      1.51
+++ malware-mobiles.html        12 Jan 2018 02:16:37 -0000      1.52
@@ -33,6 +33,49 @@
 </p>
 </div>
 
+<div class="highlight-para">
+<p>Nearly all mobile phones do two grievous wrongs to their users:
+tracking their movements, and listening to their conversations.  This
+is why we call them &ldquo;Stalin's dream&rdquo;.</p>
+</div>
+
+<ul>
+  <li><p>The phone network
+    <a href="https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/problem-mobile-phones";>
+      tracks the movements of each phone</a>.</p>
+    <p>This is inherent in the design of the phone network: as long as
+      the phone is in communication with the network, there is no way
+      to stop the network from recording its location.  Many countries
+      (including the US and the EU) require the network to store all
+      these location data for months or years.</p>
+  </li>
+  <li><p>Almost every phone's communication processor has
+      a <a name="above">universal back door</a> which
+      is <a 
href="https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/12/remotely_eavesd_1.html";>
+      often used to make a phone transmit all conversations it
+ hears</a>.</p>
+    <p>The back
+      door <a 
href="http://www.osnews.com/story/27416/The_second_operating_system_hiding_in_every_mobile_phone";>
+      may take the form of bugs that have gone 20 years unfixed</a>.
+      The choice to leave the security holes in place is morally
+      equivalent to writing a back door.</p>
+    <p>The back door is in the &ldquo;modem processor&rdquo;, whose
+      job is to communicate with the radio network.  In most phones,
+      the modem processor controls the microphone.  In most phones it
+      has the power to rewrite the software for the main processor
+      too.</p>
+    <p>A few phone models are specially designed so that the modem
+      processor does not control the microphone, and so that it can't
+      change the software in the main processor.  They still have the
+      back door, but at least it is unable to turn the phone unto a
+      listening device.</p>
+    <p>The universal back door is apparently also used to make phones
+      <a 
href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/07/22/nsa_can_reportedly_track_cellphones_even_when_they_re_turned_off.html";>
+      transmit even when they are turned off</a>.  This means their movements
+      are tracked, and may also make the listening feature work.</p>
+  </li>
+</ul>
+
 <p>Here are examples of malware in mobile devices.  See also
 the <a href="/proprietary/malware-apple.html">the Apple malware
 page</a> for malicious functionalities specific to the Apple iThings.</p>
@@ -60,14 +103,9 @@
 <h3 id="back-doors">Mobile Back Doors</h3>
 <ul>
   <li>
-    <p>The universal back door in portable phones
-      <a 
href="https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/12/remotely_eavesd_1.html";>
-        is employed to listen through their microphones</a>.</p>
-    <p>Most mobile phones have this universal back door, which has been
-      used to
-      <a 
href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/07/22/nsa_can_reportedly_track_cellphones_even_when_they_re_turned_off.html";>
-       turn them malicious</a>.</p>
-    <p>More about <a 
href="http://www.osnews.com/story/27416/The_second_operating_system_hiding_in_every_mobile_phone";>the
 nature of this problem</a>.</p>
+    <p>See <a href="#above">above</a> for the general universal back
+      door in essentially all mobile phones, which permits converting
+      them into full-time listening devices.</p>
   </li>
 
   <li><p><a 
href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/replicant-developers-find-and-close-samsung-galaxy-backdoor";>
@@ -81,17 +119,20 @@
   </li>
 
   <li>
-  <p>In Android, <a
-  
href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2506557/security0/google-throws--kill-switch--on-android-phones.html";>
-  Google has a back door to remotely delete apps</a> (it is in a program
-  called GTalkService).
+  <p>In Android,
+  <a 
href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2506557/security0/google-throws--kill-switch--on-android-phones.html";>
+  Google has a back door to remotely delete apps.</a>  (It was in a
+  program called GTalkService, which seems since then to have been
+  merged into Google Play.)
   </p>
 
-<p>Google can also <a
-href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150520235257/https://jon.oberheide.org/blog/2010/06/25/remote-kill-and-install-on-google-android/";
-title="at the Wayback Machine (archived May 20, 2015)">forcibly and remotely
-install apps</a> through GTalkService (which seems, since that article, to have
-been merged into Google Play).  This adds up to a universal back door. </p>
+  <p>
+  Google can also
+  <a 
href="https://jon.oberheide.org/blog/2010/06/25/remote-kill-and-install-on-google-android/";>
+  forcibly and remotely install apps</a> through Google Play.
+  This is not equivalent to a universal back door, but permits various
+  dirty tricks.
+  </p>
 
   <p>
   Although Google's <em>exercise</em> of this power has not been
@@ -491,7 +532,7 @@
 
 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2017/09/12 02:42:20 $
+$Date: 2018/01/12 02:16:37 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>