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> The point is that there is such complexity in your average smartphone, that strictly enforcing radio silence with software from within is practically impossib
by dewster 10y ago
> The point is that there is such complexity in your average smartphone, that strictly enforcing radio silence with software from within is practically impossible.
Change is never impossible for something we ourselves design and manufacture.
>The GSM/LTE/whatever radio runs very closed source firmware.
This seems like a problem that could be fixed.
>Your phone could have been "jailbroken" without your knowledge by a 0-day exploit, effectively negating the OS security.
Probably sounds quaint, but run SW from a ROM.
>Make a hardware switch that powers off all radio subsystems. Even if that were possible, your iPhone would not like a subsystem disappearing from existence. It isn't designed to handle that contingency and will surely fail in spectacular ways.
You seem to be saying that the iPhone SW can't be altered to tolerate the disappearance of a subsystem, I just don't believe this is true. It's a poor excuse to do nothing.
If humans are incapable of writing secure SW, then put in one or more physical switches that powers down all transmitters, and write SW that can adapt to this. Don't tell me that's impossible or even all that difficult.
- Sylos 10y ago>>The GSM/LTE/whatever radio runs very closed source firmware. >This seems like a problem that could be fixed. The problem is that it's illegal to reflash the firmware, because the Radio Frequency Giveaway Committee* is scared that people would abuse that to send on frequencies that they haven't permitted. *Probably not the official name.
- jonknee 10y agoYes, all these problems could be fixed if you make all your own hardware. Snowden doesn't manufacturer iPhones though, so he's left with a clever hardware hack.
- yourad_io 10y ago> Probably sounds quaint, but run SW from a ROM Even your CPU accepts firmware updates - in the form of microcode updates. There is no ROM any more :/ It wouldn't fix much either - find a bug/vuln in the ROM and those devices are owned "for life", since they can't be patched. > You seem to be saying that the iPhone SW can't be altered to tolerate the disappearance of a subsystem, I just don't believe this is true. It's a poor excuse to do nothing. I'm describing the situation as I see it today. It could; it won't. Apple has no incentive. Their shit is super secure already, haven't you heard? > If humans are incapable of writing secure SW We kind of are. Consumers don't really care until their inbox lands on wikileaks. @hillary waves