Comment by h4ck_th3_pl4n3t

3 days ago

While I like the sentiment of the article, I think most people are not aware of how hostile baseband firmwares are implemented on most SoCs that phones come with. Usually the cell tower handshakes that make you trackable can't be put off, meaning the modem will run in sleep mode even when you are in airplane mode (which is kinda funny considering the dangers of air travel, right? Right?).

Are there actually smartphones without an IMEI and with a Wi-Fi card only, preferrably not a Broadcom one?

7 comments

h4ck_th3_pl4n3t

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KeybInterrupt  3 days ago

You might be looking for an android based Media player device.

But they are likely not ideal for the use case...

madethemcry  3 days ago

Can you please give any sources? While it sounds plausible and interesting it's nothing more than a wild conspiracy theory without some background information.

  • h4ck_th3_pl4n3t  3 days ago

    Buy a broadcom smartphone. Turn bluetooth off, and set it to airplane mode. Then Bluepwn your device, with bluetooth turned off.

    Funny how airplane mode didn't work.

    That's just one of the quirks. Baseband and what qualcomm is tracking is way worse.

    I recommend buying an old Motorola Calypso device and fiddling with osmocomBB, you can DIY an IMSI catcher pretty easily. And you'll be mind blown how many class0 SMS you'll receive per day, just for tracking you. Back in the days you could track people's phones remotely but the popularity of HushSMS and other tools made cell providers block class0 SMS not sent by themselves.

    This wiki article is a nice overview: https://github.com/CellularPrivacy/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Dete...

  • aja12  3 days ago

    Baseband SoC running their own OS independent from Android/iOS and staying asleep (while still listening for incoming signals) is very much no longer in conspiracy theory territory and more an established fact now. I don't have the source at hand but it's in one of the standards. And the purpose is very clear: LEA like Interpol must be able to locate any IMEI at any point if in tower range, regardless of the power state of the "main" OS