13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number

Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by sudosysgen on Saturday June 06, 2020 @08:25PM (#23443586)

In truth though, it is not very difficult to get a hold of an IMSI that does not refer to you, via an anonymous SIM cards you can get a hold of a few different ways. And it is not very difficult to find the maintenance service menu of your phone and disable everything except 4G and 5G either. However, it is much simpler to just leave your SIM card at home and use other means of access :)

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by opless on Saturday June 06, 2020 @09:21PM (#23443895)

Not all phones have access to baseband controls, and I’ve never seen a “turn off 2G” option, but yes you can turn off 3/4G.

It’s easy to get a burner phone in some countries, but many you need a passport or government-issued ID to even get a prepaid SIM! Let alone a phone!

Governments really don’t like citizenry to be anonymous.

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by sudosysgen on Saturday June 06, 2020 @10:50PM (#23444377)

For example on my LG V30, I can go to the dialer and enter :

    *#*#4636#*#*

I can then go into "Phone info" and set the radio to "LTE only" or "LTE/WCDMA", and if there is no 2G/3G/etc... I will not be have any service. [1]

This also works for most android phones, with small exceptions.

[1] : https://ibb.co/JvZVHXF

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by opless on Sunday June 07, 2020 @07:10AM (#23446520)

Also there’s other ways of leaking your IMSIs, EAP-SIM and carrier wifi for example.

No idea yet how widespread the implementation is as I’m teaching myself all of this in my spare time!

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by sudosysgen on Sunday June 07, 2020 @10:56AM (#23447788)

EAP-SIM and Carrier WiFi is also not very difficult to disable. In any case, an IMSI leak is not as bad as an IMEI leak.

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by opless on Sunday June 07, 2020 @11:14AM (#23447940)

Also ... define “not difficult to disable” when it’s not exposed in the UI.

A *# code doesn’t count here also ;)

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by sudosysgen on Sunday June 07, 2020 @11:59AM (#23448269)

For me, not difficult to disable means that it takes less than 15 minutes to do so. difficult to disable would take hours and require specific knowledge.

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by opless on Sunday June 07, 2020 @11:11AM (#23447913)

I think you May have that backward. But why do you think this?

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by sudosysgen on Sunday June 07, 2020 @11:29AM (#23448061)

Because the IMSI is changed much more easily than the IMEI, and if in LTE only mode is only temporary.

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by opless on Sunday June 07, 2020 @07:07AM (#23446500)

Not all phones are android;)

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by sudosysgen on Sunday June 07, 2020 @10:55AM (#23447775)

Presumably someone that really cares about privacy would use an Android :)

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Re:13,500 Vivo Smartphones found running on same IMEI number by opless on Sunday June 07, 2020 @11:12AM (#23447923)

If someone really cared about privacy, you’d not be using cellular technologies at all ;)

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