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My 2004 Nokia feature phone had a mobile web browser, with some degree of HTML rendering capability, and no way to update the phone OTA. HTML or data support se

My 2004 Nokia feature phone had a mobile web browser, with some degree of HTML rendering capability, and no way to update the phone OTA. HTML or data support seem like a weird place to draw the line.

astrange 10y ago
A web browser and no software updates sounds like a great way to get your phone hacked to me.
- godzillabrennus 10y ago
  The browsers were so bad on those devices no one used them.
  - khedoros 10y ago
    I mostly used it to download ringtones and backgrounds to the phone. It was pretty terrible for any actual web browsing (not to mention the low speeds of the data connection, anyhow).
  - usrusr 10y ago
    If you have a specific use case, say, reading hacker news comments, then minimal feature phone browsers tend to be sufficient more often than not. The gap between "something that is important to me" and "everything that is important to me" can be huge.
- khedoros 10y ago
  Not as good of a way as it would be with a modern phone. You'd basically have to find a bug in the HTML or image parsing/rendering. As I remember it, that device didn't support cookies, javascript, plugins, etc. And honestly, hacking into mobile devices over an internet connection wasn't really part of the zeitgeist at the time. That mostly came later, when people stored more than some SMS, MIDI ringtones, and some phone numbers.
  - astrange 10y ago
    > You'd basically have to find a bug in the HTML or image parsing/rendering. Like this one? https://www.rapid7.com/db/vulnerabilities/mfsa2010-41-remote-codex-using-malformed-png-image https://www.rapid7.com/db/vulnerabilities/mfsa2010-41-remote... Opera Mini or a pure-JavaME browser would be safe, but just having an image decoder is too much to expose to whole internet.
    - khedoros 10y ago
      Sure, if it was found for whichever library code was used on that device, and if you also found a way to use it to get the OS to expose data that it usually wouldn't. I'm not saying that someone couldn't work out a way to exploit that phone, I'm saying that it's not going to happen because there's no point (and also wouldn't have been one while I was still using it). As a practical concern, I'm more worried about my phone now (an up-to-date Android) than I am about any feature phone, including recently-released ones.

My 2004 Nokia feature phone had a mobile web browser, with some degree of HTML rendering capability, and no way to update the phone OTA. HTML or data support seem like a weird place to draw the line.

astrange 10y ago

A web browser and no software updates sounds like a great way to get your phone hacked to me.

godzillabrennus 10y ago
The browsers were so bad on those devices no one used them.
- khedoros 10y ago
  I mostly used it to download ringtones and backgrounds to the phone. It was pretty terrible for any actual web browsing (not to mention the low speeds of the data connection, anyhow).
- usrusr 10y ago
  If you have a specific use case, say, reading hacker news comments, then minimal feature phone browsers tend to be sufficient more often than not. The gap between "something that is important to me" and "everything that is important to me" can be huge.
khedoros 10y ago
Not as good of a way as it would be with a modern phone. You'd basically have to find a bug in the HTML or image parsing/rendering. As I remember it, that device didn't support cookies, javascript, plugins, etc. And honestly, hacking into mobile devices over an internet connection wasn't really part of the zeitgeist at the time. That mostly came later, when people stored more than some SMS, MIDI ringtones, and some phone numbers.
- astrange 10y ago
  > You'd basically have to find a bug in the HTML or image parsing/rendering. Like this one? https://www.rapid7.com/db/vulnerabilities/mfsa2010-41-remote-codex-using-malformed-png-image https://www.rapid7.com/db/vulnerabilities/mfsa2010-41-remote... Opera Mini or a pure-JavaME browser would be safe, but just having an image decoder is too much to expose to whole internet.
  - khedoros 10y ago
    Sure, if it was found for whichever library code was used on that device, and if you also found a way to use it to get the OS to expose data that it usually wouldn't. I'm not saying that someone couldn't work out a way to exploit that phone, I'm saying that it's not going to happen because there's no point (and also wouldn't have been one while I was still using it). As a practical concern, I'm more worried about my phone now (an up-to-date Android) than I am about any feature phone, including recently-released ones.