So North Korea apparently has an android phone with basically a rootkit on it, that doesn’t allow you to open anything not signed by it on it, takes screenshots periodically and stuff.
Now assume you just wanna get around this, and have tools available, how do you do it?
Would you need to solder a new memory there? Could you try some sort of exploit first?
A North Korean would probably smuggle one from China… I mean at least their malware is less invasive…
I think the solution will be a separate device. Even if you tampered with the one you’re given, you’re still running on their network. Even if you wanted to just chat over Bluetooth mesh with your fellow Winston Smiths, this doesn’t seem like a good idea.
In the border regions with China, some people who want to communicate with the real world, have phones that connect to the Chinese networks. A satellite able device would be better but probably too expensive.
My thoughts go to flashing the OS. I only have experience with Pixel Devices flashed to Graphene, but options exist. From there, VPNs might be helpful.
But I’m not sure that’d be adequate, and it assumes you have access to gigabytes of internet connection already and (as pointed out by other commentors) probably wouldn’t get around network issues.
Ultimately, getting an outside device with satellite connection is an easier route.
VPNs wouldn’t do shit, I think their cellular data is air gapped. only high officials can access the outside internet
This is good to know.
Is that to say they run copy cat versions of major services on a national intranet (so as to make it appear comparable to the real internet)?
I suspect they don’t mask the fact the net is air gapped. So $randomWesternService is simply not available.
Excuse me if the following question is very dumb, but if there’s even custom hardware on these phones, like a chip that does this screenshotting, wouldn’t flashing on a new OS do nothing against that?
Hard to say. I expect its more likely that you’re right than wrong, but that’s not to say it’s definitely that way.
So I’m not 100% certain this is how it would act, but them having a separate chip for screenshots - like, what does that mean? So I see two possibilities: a hardware subsystem Frankensteined onto an existing phone; or a separate SOC that exists within the phone’s frame for monitoring.
For the Frankenstein’s version, it’d probably basically be a timer, minor image processing (to read the screen), and a small memory store (to keep data from screen caps). It’d probably route instructions through the phones CPU. I don’t know thats flashing your OS would prevent this from operating, but that’s where I’d start in trying to bypass it.
For the separate SOC, yeah you’re fucked. Maybe you can bust open the frame and remove it…lol, but good luck without the internet handy.
