Developers Find Backdoor In Android Samsung Galaxy Devices

[MatheusSanzo]

Developers working on Replicant OS, a free and open-source spin of Google's Android operating system, have claimed to uncover a backdoor into the device's file-system for several Samsung Galaxy mobile devices using the stock Android image.

 

Replicant developers' research finds "Samsung Galaxy devices running proprietary Android versions come with a back-door that provides remote access to the data stored on the device. In particular, the proprietary software that is in charge of handling the communications with the modem, using the Samsung IPC protocol, implements a class of requests known as RFS commands, that allows the modem to perform remote I/O operations on the phone's storage. As the modem is running proprietary software, it is likely that it offers over-the-air remote control, that could then be used to issue the incriminated RFS messages and access the phone's file system."

 

Among the known affected devices are the Nexus S, Galaxy S, Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab 2, Galaxy S 3, and Galaxy Note 2. The Galaxy S seems to be in the worse shape with the back-doored program running as root.

For those Samsung Galaxy users there is a back-door sample and steps for investigating and analyzing this issue within a Samsung binary blob. In terms of the legitimacy of the backdoor, the developers believe, "the incriminated RFS messages of the Samsung IPC protocol were not found to have any particular legitimacy nor relevant use-case. However, it is possible that these were added for legitimate purposes, without the intent of doing harm by providing a back-door. Nevertheless, the result is the same and it allows the modem to access the phone's storage."

Source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTYyODE

 

Nice job, NSA.

[coen113]

yay, the last bit of privacy i had is gone

[scaryjam823]

Well so much for me getting a Galaxy note 2 or 3...

[Thunderjolt]

Hey, At least I don't own a Samsung phone lol...............

[JantsoP]

I have Galaxy S4 with CM. When i got the phone, i just booted to stock os to get 50gb free dropbox space, then installed cm

[LAwLz]

I have Galaxy S4 with CM. When i got the phone, i just booted to stock os to get 50gb free dropbox space, then installed cm

I haven't looked into it, but it might sadly be in one of the binary blobs Cyanogenmod uses, so you might not be safe even on Cyanogenmod.

[qwertywarrior]

always flash CM/replicant  etc

[Beskamir]

I haven't looked into it, but it might sadly be in one of the binary blobs Cyanogenmod uses, so you might not be safe even on Cyanogenmod.

Hopefully Cyanogenmod's team will fix that otherwise I'm not very happy with having a backdoor to my S4.

 

Although that being said Linus once said in a wan show that most people don't root their phones and unfortunaly he's right which means that we (techies that know about this stuff) should still get companies to make secure stock operating systems. Even though the much easier option would be to just let someone patch it and then install their patch.

[LAwLz]

Hopefully Cyanogenmod's team will fix that otherwise I'm not very happy with having a backdoor to my S4.

Hopefully they will. Sadly they can't just remove it since that would break a ton of things. They modify it either since it's closed source. Someone working on Replicant suggested that they block the message instead. The backdoor will still be there, but trying to access it won't work.

My biggest worry isn't the government or Samsung spying, my biggest worry is if an exploit is released in the wild, so that anyone can just download it and then read and write things on my phone. That's the main reason why I am strongly against backdoors.

Now if you excuse me I'll go find a good camera app, then root and flash my Galaxy S 4...

[Beskamir]

Hopefully they will. Sadly they can't just remove it since that would break a ton of things. They modify it either since it's closed source. Someone working on Replicant suggested that they block the message instead. The backdoor will still be there, but trying to access it won't work.

My biggest worry isn't the government or Samsung spying, my biggest worry is if an exploit is released in the wild, so that anyone can just download it and then read and write things on my phone. That's the main reason why I am strongly against backdoors.

Now if you excuse me I'll go find a good camera app, then root and flash my Galaxy S 4...

Well the sad truth is that people won't care about backdoors until it affects them directly. Therefore i would actually want someone that isn't with the government to exploit it. Hopefully politicians would be unable to redirect the rage as they always seem to be able to and get forced to shut down ALL back doors by passing laws against them...

[JantsoP]

Well shit. Guess i have to wait for fix and then update to new nightly.