There are no secure smartphones

7. Mixed-signal design ends up in a lot of modern stuff, including mobile SOC's. Another hardware guru that taught me ASIC issues said he'd split his security functions (or trade secrets) between digital and analog so the analog effects were critical for operation. Slowed reverse engineering because their digital customers didn't even see the analog circuits with digital tools nor could understand them. He regularly encountered malicious or at least deceptive behavior in 3rd party I.P. that similarly used mixed-signal tricks. I've speculated before on putting a backdoor in the analog circuits modulating the power that enhances power analysis attacks. Lots of potential for mixed-signal attacks that are little explored.

8. Peripheral hardware is subverted, counterfeit, or has similar problems as above. Look at a smartphone breakdown sometime to be amazed at how many chips are in it. Analog circuitry and RF schemes as well.

9. EMSEC. The phone itself is often an antenna from my understanding. There's passive and active EMSEC attacks that can extract keys, etc. Now, you might say "Might as well record audio if they're that close." Nah, they get the master secret and they have everything in many designs. EMSEC issues here were serious in the past: old STU-III's were considered compromised (master leaked) if certain cellphones got within like 20 ft of them because cell signals forced secrets to leak. Can't know how much of this problem has gotten better or worse with modern designs.

10. Remote update. If your stack supports it, then this is an obvious attack vector if carrier is malicious or compelled to be.

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11. Apps themselves if store review, permission model, and/or architecture is weak. Debatable how so except for architecture: definitely weak. Again, better designs in niche markets used separation kernels with apps split between untrusted stuff (incl GUI) in OS and security part outside OS. Would require extra infrastructure and tooling for mainstream stuff, though, plus adoption by providers. I'm not really seeing either in mainstream providers. ;)

That's just off the top of my head from prior work trying to secure mobile or in hardware. My mobile solution, developed quite some time ago, fit in a suitcase due to the physical separation and interface requirements. My last attempt to put it in a phone still needed a trusted keyboard & enough chips that I designed (not implemented) it based on Nokia 9000 Communicator. Something w/ modern functions, form-factor, and deals with above? Good luck...

All smartphones are insecure. Even the secure ones. I've seen good ideas and proposals but no secure[ish] design is implemented outside maybe Type 1 stuff like Sectera Edge. Even it cheats that I can tell with physical separation and robust firmware. It's also huge thanks to EMSEC & milspec. A secure phone will look more like that or the Nokia. You see a slim little Blackphone, iPhone, or whatever offered to you? Point at a random stranger and suggest they might be the sucker the sales rep was looking for.

Don't trust any of them. Ditch your mobile or make sure battery is removable. Don't have anything mobile-enabled in your PC. Just avoid wireless in general unless its infrared. Even then it needs to be off by default.

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>>58132149
I mostly agree about the baseband but iPhone is pretty fucking close in all other categories. They've tightened the fuck out of it to the point that hacking companies are offering millions for an RCE exploit.

I went to BlackHat 2016. This was one of the best talks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLGFriOKz6U

>>58132149
no one will read this shit
no one is dumb enough to believe their spy device is secure.

>>58132568
>no one is dumb enough to believe their spy device is secure.
Most people are.

>>58132149
Other breaking news: Water wet.

What do you suggest we do? Connectivity is a mainstay in the modern era, and cell networks are by far the most reliable connection.
In a perfect world everyone has a proxied one-way query setup, but that would take a miracle. What CAN we do for the general populace?

>>58133929
Regress to before connected world.