Re:Open Whisper Systems partners with WhatsApp to provide en...
by rsync on Tuesday November 18, 2014 @11:29AM
(#8624632)
"This is how you deliver strong security to the masses."
You cannot deliver strong security on a mobile phone platform. The carrier owns you. In fact, the carrier owns you doubly over because it can control "your" computer via two pathways - with the baseband and the SIM card - both of which you have no control over.
You cannot be secure on a device that a third party can interact with at the level of DMA. Further, while I keep adding a caveat about some phones whose SOC involves a baseband that is more akin to a USB modem, in terms of architecture, it turns out that even these "less terrible" SOC designs still have kind-of-sort-of ways to attain full control by the baseband over the AP.
It really is that bad. You gain no protection from the carrier or a state actor that can influence the carrier, and certainly no protection from a rogue cellsite that can instruct your baseband (or your SIM) to manipulate main memory arbitrarily.
You cannot deliver strong security on a mobile phone platform. The carrier owns you. In fact, the carrier owns you doubly over because it can control "your" computer via two pathways - with the baseband and the SIM card - both of which you have no control over.
You cannot be secure on a device that a third party can interact with at the level of DMA. Further, while I keep adding a caveat about some phones whose SOC involves a baseband that is more akin to a USB modem, in terms of architecture, it turns out that even these "less terrible" SOC designs still have kind-of-sort-of ways to attain full control by the baseband over the AP.
It really is that bad. You gain no protection from the carrier or a state actor that can influence the carrier, and certainly no protection from a rogue cellsite that can instruct your baseband (or your SIM) to manipulate main memory arbitrarily.