Guardian Rom - Secure Android OS

Discussion in 'privacy technology' started by x942, Jun 9, 2013.

  1. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Thanks :)

    What makes the developer editions of the Galaxy S4 and HTC One less suitable for privacy and security?

    The Nexus 4 seems very cool, except that it's missing LTE.
     
  2. happyyarou666

    happyyarou666 Registered Member

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    honestly i dont think there is one , except that the htc one is the most epic solid build quality android phone yet its like the iphone turned android just better an actual professional device for adults,exspecially the 64gb dev version , (drools), thou i would enjoy having a seperate removable battery and seperate sd card slot but you cant have it all ....yet! xD, the battery is pretty good thou and for extra juice youd just use a

    slim external pocket power source , thou the chinese version apparently has a extra sd card slot and dual sim cards http://www.talkandroid.com/159488-htc-one-heading-to-china-with-dual-sim-and-microsd-card-support/, i found this site , ships international for free ,phones from around the world ,

    here http://www.merimobiles.com/htc-one-802w-dual-sim-active-root-option_p/meri7422.htm?setCurrencyId=1 , thou the chinese version dont have lte, so its either lte or dual sims with extra micro sd card slot... i think ill take the later , exspecially with 128gb micro sds on the horizon and the ability to use a seperate anonymous bought sim in the same high end phone , effectively having both ,IRL and Anonymous numbers at disposal , all we need now is effective cell tower location spoofing ;)

    the nexus4 seems clunky not to mention it looks freakin fugly and its build quality seems cheap not to mention the gorilla glass being one hell of a fingerprint magnet its the same for the galaxy s4 its like an expensive plasticy childs toy no offense
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2013
  3. PaulyDefran

    PaulyDefran Registered Member

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    I've seen new GNex's on eBay for $249, and of course the N4 is $349.

    I will say, I don't find my older GNex lacking for anything yet. I *do* run Franco Kernel though.

    But the N4 is nice, obviously. LTE? If you *need* something faster than 5-10Mbs down, then it is a fair complaint. I don't, so no LTE doesn't bother me.

    I have ZERO experience with a non-Nexus device, so I don't know how "close to Nexus" you can get an HTC One or S4. Google will not be supplying the ROMs for those two, so it won't be AOSP...but it may be close enough to not matter from a privacy standpoint - I'd let x942 comment on privacy and the HTC or S4. Oh, and now you're looking at $600-$650 unless you go on contract (all my thoughts are US based...don't know how the real world works :D )

    No battery removal on the N4 or HTC One...so I'd like to ask x942 if turning those two off, from the OS, really turns them *OFF*? I think it does (as in no tower hits).

    Then there is storage, N4 is 16 and that's it. HTC is 32 I think, and the S4 has MicroSD.

    Decisions, decisions :D

    PD
     
  4. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    @x942

    If you got Guardian Rom on the Galaxy S4 and HTC One, would they still be less suitable for privacy and security than the Nexus 4?
     
  5. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    I know that there are OpenVPN and Tor (Orbot) apps, and that apps are somewhat like Java VMs.

    How doable is app-app networking? Could one, for example, route Tor through a VPN, and then route another VPN through Tor?
     
  6. x942

    x942 Guest

    Any phone running Guardian Rom is more private and secure than most other roms. However at this time unless you are running a nexus device you won't get the following:

    - Mobiflage (Deniable Encryption)

    - Seperate Lock screen password and Preboot Authentication Password

    - AOSP base


    They will get the first two eventually but not until I get a stable build out the door for the Nexus S, GNex, Nexus 4 and Nexus 7.

    The reason I recommend them is because they all have an AOSP source tree which means we have a completely opensource userspace and kernel (minus the few proprietary binaries needed by hardware).

    We could use CM but they pack a lot of unneeded binaries (like telnet & sshd). These are security risks and we don't want them included.


    Re: Orbot - Orbot allows you to use it as a transparent proxy if you give it root permissions. This allows you to TORify everything or just certain apps on a per-app basis. I use it this way as I don't want my personal accounts going over TOR but I want Chrome to go over TOR for all web browsing.

    Re: PaulyDefran - Yes turning the device off kills all connections. I have tested this with my own base station using GNURadio and a USRP. As far as I can tell the phone never tries to connect when off. I left this running for 24 Hours and had no "tower hits". My tests where with the Nexus 4 and Galaxy nexus. I can test the One too as I have one here with me. I honestly think the whole "phone being remotely turned on" is a myth. Even with a hardware backdoor the attacker would have to hijack the shutdown process first before it could be useful. So I would have to trigger the backdoor before your turn you phone off and then it would go into some sort of deep sleep mode where it can still ping the towers. If the device was always pinging the tower we could 1) detect this through a base station 2) batteries would die quickly when the phone is supposed to be off, which would raise questions.

    Dual sims are interesting. You could have your "public" sim in when using the decoy volume and a cash-bought "burner" sim when using the hidden volume.keeps data separate although your IMEI will still be sent out.
     
  7. PaulyDefran

    PaulyDefran Registered Member

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    Good to know that off is *OFF*! No need for removable battery (I never run out of juice). Thanks mate.

    PD
     
  8. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Thanks :)

    OK, thanks :)

    But how about VPN->Tor->VPN tunnelling? Is that doable in Android?
     
  9. x942

    x942 Guest

    Do able yes. assuming you are using TOR locally on the device it should be possible. I will do some testing and get back to you :D
     
  10. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Thanks :)

    How useful/realistic is testing setups using Android VMs in Linux?
     
  11. x942

    x942 Guest


    It's useful but limited. I haven't used the emulator in ages but I do believe you can setup the device to act like a specific model. That way you could test a Galaxy Nexus image inside of it and it would work. Then again I may be wrong. I always test apps on native devices instead of VM's as I won't real world results.
     
  12. happyyarou666

    happyyarou666 Registered Member

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    cant wait for full htc one support , i think im in love , lols

    http://news.softpedia.com/news/HTC-to-Release-AOSP-ROM-for-Existing-HTC-One-Devices-357703.shtml


    http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2341651

    and about IMEI , as far as i know as long as youre phone is bought in an anonymous way the IMEI really shouldnt matter well except for one example bellow, and compared to spoofing the IMEI wich is illegal in most countrys and not exactly easy , its legit ;)

    id be more worried about the ability to find out that the anonymous bought sim is traceable by celltower , hence theyd eventually figure out that you bought that sim with the phonenumber 12345909u and so on,

    say for example youd send out an anonymous sms per the anonymous bought sim card , itll have the phonenumber from the sender in its header , no setting your phonenumber to "hidden" isnt gona solve this , it gets sent regardless , and once its originating sim issue destination backtraced itll point to lets say bran , then they activate a trace program to trace all the worlds cell towers signals for that specific phonenumber , and voila that phonenumber belonging to bran has just been traced to a

    different location say madrid , and so have been effectively deanonymized , boom! correct me if im wrong, we all learn, btw in order to counteract that youd have to either A. be able to be able to spoof a celltowers location and the not so legit spoofing of the IMEI would be required as far as i can tell , since simply trashing a sim after onetime use is kind uneffective since celltowers store logs as everything else does, not to mention the IMEI , so if your not effectively using a one time use phone for anonymous activities in a non surveilled location , theres no use in even trying to attempt to be using an anonymous sim for anonymous activities , legit anonymous activities that is , yes they do exist imagine that ;) or B. spoof the caller id

    https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Caller_ID_Spoofing


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Station_Equipment_Identity

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSISDN
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2013
  13. PaulyDefran

    PaulyDefran Registered Member

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    Unless you plan on using a very expensive, full featured phone like the HTC One, NEVER DURING YOUR NORMAL DAY TRAVELS...I'd just pick up a pre-paid "burner" for those rare occasions you really need anonymity for GSM cell calls :D

    I mean, if you ever use it from your home or work or school at all, that IMEI/IMSI/tower combo (and number of times used) will be in a log somewhere.

    I'd enjoy the phone for all normal stuff, and use CSIP Simple or RedPhone or Gibberbot or TextSecure when I wanted privacy, along with a VPN or Tor. That will be anon enough on the data connection, without having to stress over IMEI, IMSI, on the GSM radio connection.

    PD
     
  14. x942

    x942 Guest

    RE: happyyarou666

    I am hoping HTC releases an AOSP source tree. It would make porting so much easier.

    As far as anonymity goes, it's simple - Even if you could spoof your cell tower ID the IMEI is ALWAYS sent back to the carrier. This means both sims are automatically tied to the phone's IMEI. Not anonymous at all. If you used two seperate carriers that may slow down local law enforcement but not someone like the NSA. Any one with that much metadata could easily match the sims to one IMEI.


    Exactly. If you want security use Redphone/CSIPSimple. I know Redphone for sure doesn't leak meta. Always encrypt and if possible use methods that don't leak metadata.
     
  15. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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    Nice work on Guardian Rom Kyle!

    During emergencies when the Internet goes down, I understand there is a project known as Serval Downunder that can form a mobile Mesh network for smartphones, Wi-Fi routers and other hardware link up in situations where cell towers are down.

    The gotcha is that the usual security restrictions need to be disabled.

    Is it possible that such a Guardian Rom Android device could interface with the Serval app in such a situation, i.e. have the controls to become capable in such a mode?

    I was reading the article Build Your Own Internet with Mobile Mesh Networking when the question occurred even though I doubt this is a modus operandi you may have considered vis a vie providing security.

    -- Tom
     
  16. x942

    x942 Guest

    Thanks! I will have to take a look at the link. I have trying to design a mesh network (out side of the scope of this project) that could work not only in emergency situations but also as a way to form a decentralized telecommunications system. The idea was to have multiple phones/routers/etc. connect to eachother in a mesh. All data would then be encrypted end-to-end using ZRTP for calls within the network, TextSecure like system for texting. Data has it's own set of issues (at least one node on the mesh would need to drop off to the "real" network).

    I had been looking at this mainly for my social group, I think it would not only be more secure (no metadata can leak out - everything is kept in the mesh network). Also since it's decentralized it is much harder to shutdown or censor. The entire Mesh is encrypted too this way only "allowed" users can access it.


    I think, at least for now, this is outside of the scope of this project. At least until we can make it secure.
     
  17. x942

    x942 Guest

    Update:

    Milestone 1 is now available on the Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus (GSM).

    Verizon (Toro) Galaxy Nexus is coming soon. Bug fixes will be out this weekend to address the minor issue of SU not working outside of ADB.

    You may want to wait till the update is out so you don't have to reflash.

    Or wait for update. Everything else works fine. Including encryption :) The linux installer & windows installer will walk you through everything! Both are opensource under GPLV3.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 14, 2013
  18. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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  19. Techwiz

    Techwiz Registered Member

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    The Nexus 4 was my first smartphone, and I'm quite happy with my decision. I didn't known what to expect from android, seeing as my family, friends, and colleagues are iPhone owners. For me, the decision came down to cost, but I've got to say it was worth it for me. My expenses are about the same on this phone as they where on my dumb (brick) phone. I'm just now looking into rooting, so I'm crossing my fingers. If things go well, I'll post back. I'm curious to see how much a difference I'll see after dumping all this bloat ware.
     
  20. x942

    x942 Guest

    Good article. Guardian Rom does not use Google Apps or Framework in ANY way. So this doesn't effect us. The only current way to backup your phone is the following:

    1) Use ADB Backup

    2) Use a custom recovery like TWRP and do a nandroid backup.

    We are working on an encrypted solution that is easier to use. Probably something local like a client software on the phone and computer. (OpenSource of course).
     
  21. x942

    x942 Guest

    Nexus 4 is great, I get my new one this friday :)
     
  22. PaulyDefran

    PaulyDefran Registered Member

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    TWRP backups are in user land, so device encryption should protect. I also drag to a TC Container on the PC. I tried ADB Backup a long time ago...it hung while trying to restore...an app was throwing it off...scared me away from it.

    PD
     
  23. x942

    x942 Guest

    TWRP prompts for user password. Backups are NOT encrypted. Unless something is different in 2.6 I run 2.4 still.
     
  24. adrelanos

    adrelanos Registered Member

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    Is this part of guardianproject?
     
  25. PaulyDefran

    PaulyDefran Registered Member

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    What I meant was (and check me here) TWRP has it's folder in the user data section, just like Titanium, etc...

    When you employ full device encryption (Security>Encrypt Phone), that folder is encrypted (along with the rest) when the phone is off. If you boot to recovery, TWRP asks for the LUKS password. If you don't supply it, the only thing you can see are some unencrypted file system stuff, but all the user data is inaccessible.

    Yeah, I've never seen an encryption option in TWRP, I was just talking about device encryption protecting the user data partition...where TWRP Backups are kept. If you can get to User Data without applying the LUKS Key, from TWRP, let me know how you did it! :D

    PD
     
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