www/proprietary proprietary-back-doors.html

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       18/01/11 21:17:17

Modified files:
        proprietary    : proprietary-back-doors.html 

Log message:
        Rewrite the basic mobile phone back door
        to match malware-mobiles.html.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/proprietary/proprietary-back-doors.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.55&r2=1.56

Patches:
Index: proprietary-back-doors.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/proprietary/proprietary-back-doors.html,v
retrieving revision 1.55
retrieving revision 1.56
diff -u -b -r1.55 -r1.56
--- proprietary-back-doors.html 25 Dec 2017 13:20:04 -0000      1.55
+++ proprietary-back-doors.html 12 Jan 2018 02:17:17 -0000      1.56
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
     <p>The Furby Connect has a <a
 
href="https://www.contextis.com/blog/dont-feed-them-after-midnight-reverse-engineering-the-furby-connect";>
     universal back door</a>. If the product as shipped doesn't act as a
-    listening device, changing the code could surely convert it into one.</p>
+    listening device, remote changes to the code could surely convert it into 
one.</p>
   </li>
 
   <li>
@@ -108,15 +108,30 @@
         total control of the machine by repeatedly nagging the user
         for an admini password</a>.</p>
     </li>
-  <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
+  <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";>
-       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>
+      transmit even when they are turned off</a>.  This means their movements
+      are tracked, and may also make the listening feature work.</p>
   </li>
 
   <li><p><a 
href="https://theintercept.com/2015/12/28/recently-bought-a-windows-computer-microsoft-probably-has-your-encryption-key/";>
@@ -255,25 +270,20 @@
 But there is no excuse for <em>deleting</em> the programs, and you
 should have the right to decide who (if anyone) to trust in this way.
 </p>
-
-<p>
-As these pages show, if you do want to clean your computer of malware,
-the first software to delete is Windows or iOS.
-</p>
 </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).
+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://jon.oberheide.org/blog/2010/06/25/remote-kill-and-install-on-google-android/";>
-forcibly and remotely install apps</a> through GTalkService (which
-seems, since that article, to have been merged into Google Play).
+forcibly and remotely install apps</a> through GTalkService.
 This is not equivalent to a universal back door, but permits various
 dirty tricks.
 </p>
@@ -424,7 +434,7 @@
 
 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2017/12/25 13:20:04 $
+$Date: 2018/01/12 02:17:17 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>