Burner phones are a strange concept. If you want to store sensitive data on it, you shouldnt use some cheap android phone or even a dumbphone without encryption support.
All Android phones have Google malware installed by default, as system apps, which means those apps can do whatever they want.
So every piece of data you put on there is possibly tracked and collected.
Then there are 2 more problems
the software is proprietary and cannot be externally wiped clean
the software is outdated
This makes it vulnerable to Pegasus attacks and others. There are tons of secure practices to avoid getting it, like LTE-only, HTTPS only, encrypted and trustworthy DNS, sandboxed processes, blocked javascript execution from unknown websites…
But still if the phone is outdated there are unpatched and publicly known security issues. Just spamming them at all phones is likely to succeed as so many people run vulnerable versions, as vendors suck.
Then if you have pegasus, the only way for security is to reflash the A/B partitions, both. Factory reset is not secure as it will keep what is already in the system partitions.
The firmware is protected and signed by the vendors, so it is likely clean.
But Pegasus installs itself to the phone storage.
If you A cant obtain factory images or B cant flash the phone at all, you cannot wipe it clean.
So a good activism phone needs
trustworthy and minimal system apps / stock software
modern software updates
possible to reflash whole device externally
nice to have: ability to verify checksum of system partition, like GrapheneOS Attestation
This makes them poorly pretty expensive. I think a slightly outdated GrapheneOS phone is okay though.
Most of that is solved by installing a ROM that’s not user hostile, keeping it updated of course, and using the phone strictly as a purpose specific device.
That means you run a trusted VPN on it so HTTP/S and DNS concerns go out the window.
Sandboxed processes, blocked JS? Fine if you only install what’s necessary and don’t use the web browser. JS blocking is not a huge hurdle though, ublock does it with just 2 clicks.
Then if you have pegasus, the only way for security is to reflash the A/B partitions, both. Factory reset is not secure as it will keep what is already in the system partitions.
That’s right but I don’t think that this is enough. If the Pegasus malware (package) really is able to do that many things, it’s a walk in the park for it to modify any of the partitions, including that which contains the modem, or just data like the modem’s IMEI and MAC addresses.
In the cause I would either restore a backup of all partitions, or throw the phone away (not literally).
The firmware is protected and signed by the vendors, so it is likely clean.
Except if they patched the verification mechanisms of the OS.
Also, the firmware may be protected, but what about data partitions which are read by vulnerable software.
This makes them poorly pretty expensive. I think a slightly outdated GrapheneOS phone is okay though.
Are you sure? My 6 years old phone still receives LOS updates
Yes I know, and I want to try DivestOS one time. But they do incomplete patches.
They cannot update the kernel themselves or even worse the firmware. The kernel needs to be built and patched for the specific hardware, GrapheneOS relies completely on Google here. And the firmware needs to be signed by the vendors, so no chance either.
And especially baseband, cellular stuff has extremely many vulnerabilities in the code.
The point is not cheapness but that you don’t care about the future of that phone. It’s only a tool for the protest, if it lasts longer that’s good but you expect it to get confiscated and never given back, you don’t care what cops did with it if you get it back, it does not have data you need in your daily life or anything irreplaceable, and you’re not really afraid that it gets destroyed by accident or maliciously.
Burner phones are a strange concept. If you want to store sensitive data on it, you shouldnt use some cheap android phone or even a dumbphone without encryption support.
All Androids since 9 at least have been encrypted by default as long as you have a lock screen enabled. Doesn’t matter if its cheap, it is there.
All Android phones have Google malware installed by default, as system apps, which means those apps can do whatever they want.
So every piece of data you put on there is possibly tracked and collected.
Then there are 2 more problems
This makes it vulnerable to Pegasus attacks and others. There are tons of secure practices to avoid getting it, like LTE-only, HTTPS only, encrypted and trustworthy DNS, sandboxed processes, blocked javascript execution from unknown websites…
But still if the phone is outdated there are unpatched and publicly known security issues. Just spamming them at all phones is likely to succeed as so many people run vulnerable versions, as vendors suck.
Then if you have pegasus, the only way for security is to reflash the A/B partitions, both. Factory reset is not secure as it will keep what is already in the system partitions.
The firmware is protected and signed by the vendors, so it is likely clean.
But Pegasus installs itself to the phone storage.
If you A cant obtain factory images or B cant flash the phone at all, you cannot wipe it clean.
So a good activism phone needs
This makes them poorly pretty expensive. I think a slightly outdated GrapheneOS phone is okay though.
Most of that is solved by installing a ROM that’s not user hostile, keeping it updated of course, and using the phone strictly as a purpose specific device.
That means you run a trusted VPN on it so HTTP/S and DNS concerns go out the window.
Sandboxed processes, blocked JS? Fine if you only install what’s necessary and don’t use the web browser. JS blocking is not a huge hurdle though, ublock does it with just 2 clicks.
That’s right but I don’t think that this is enough. If the Pegasus malware (package) really is able to do that many things, it’s a walk in the park for it to modify any of the partitions, including that which contains the modem, or just data like the modem’s IMEI and MAC addresses.
In the cause I would either restore a backup of all partitions, or throw the phone away (not literally).
Except if they patched the verification mechanisms of the OS.
Also, the firmware may be protected, but what about data partitions which are read by vulnerable software.
Are you sure? My 6 years old phone still receives LOS updates
Then get a burner pixel 3a and install grapheneOS or DivestOS
I think 3a is already too old. I think 4a is a better minimum, but this is still insecure of course.
https://divestos.org/pages/devices#device-sargo
Yes I know, and I want to try DivestOS one time. But they do incomplete patches.
They cannot update the kernel themselves or even worse the firmware. The kernel needs to be built and patched for the specific hardware, GrapheneOS relies completely on Google here. And the firmware needs to be signed by the vendors, so no chance either.
And especially baseband, cellular stuff has extremely many vulnerabilities in the code.
The point is not cheapness but that you don’t care about the future of that phone. It’s only a tool for the protest, if it lasts longer that’s good but you expect it to get confiscated and never given back, you don’t care what cops did with it if you get it back, it does not have data you need in your daily life or anything irreplaceable, and you’re not really afraid that it gets destroyed by accident or maliciously.