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+ - Replicant developers find and close Samsung Galaxy backdoor->

Submitted by jbn-o
jbn-o writes "The Free Software Foundation reports that developers of Replicant, a fully free/libre version of Android, "discovered that the proprietary program running on the applications processor in charge of handling the communication protocol with the modem actually implements a backdoor that lets the modem perform remote file I/O operations on the file system".

Replicant developer Paul Kocialkowski explains further in the blog post: (emphasis mine)



Provided that the modem runs proprietary software and can be remotely controlled, that backdoor provides remote access to the phone's data, even in the case where the modem is isolated and cannot access the storage directly. This is yet another example of what unacceptable behavior proprietary software permits! Our free replacement for that non-free program does not implement this backdoor. If the modem asks to read or write files, Replicant does not cooperate with it.

The blog post contains pointers to more information including a technical description of the back-door found in Samsung Galaxy devices and a list of known affected Samsung Galaxy devices. The FSF lists more ways proprietary software is often malware."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Corporations are NOT people ('one') my friend. (Score 1) 258

by riverat1 (#46479401) Attached to: Oil From the Exxon Valdez Spill Still Lingers On Alaska Beaches

But it becomes illegal, if it's $1 million of a corporation's money. The people whose interests the corporation represents just had their First Amendment rights taken away.

That's just bullshit. Those individuals can make their own expenditures in support of their First Amendment rights which are no less than the First Amendment rights that anyone not associated with a corporation has. If the corporation has rights then they are in addition to the rights their associates have on their own. I haven't always supported the positions of the corporation I'm associated with and it offends me that they can imply that I do through their expenditures.

You seem to think that money is equivalent to free speech but in reality it is merely an amplifier of free speech. Most corporations (especially the large ones) have resources far in excess of of most individuals. That stacks the deck in favor of corporations and wealthy individuals enough and I'm tired of my voice being drowned out by them.

Comment: Re:Maybe it's just Little Country Syndrome? (Score 3, Insightful) 187

Say they are doing their best to reassure the domestic population that they are in competent control of the disaster, but they're in over their heads...

Not quite.

MAS is owned by the Malaysian Government holdings company (either wholly or majority, I cant remember which) and the airline has recently had another period of unprofitably. This is less about assuring the Malaysian people of anything and more about trying to do damage control to the rest of the world. Sadly they're doing it in SE Asian style which is more about maintaining face than fixing issues.

In addition to this, MAS is getting a lot of competition from Malaysia's low cost airline Air Asia and anything else that could eat into the MAS's revenue is detrimental to the Malaysian Govt so they're dialling the damage control up to 11.

Comment: Re:Makers and takers (Score 1) 666

by Jane Q. Public (#46478517) Attached to: 70% of U.S. Government Spending Is Writing Checks To Individuals
Okay. Well, I apologize as well if I misunderstood you.

I agree that "equivalent" is ambiguous but that's the nature of the beast. One of the big quibbles I have with the U.S. government is how they decide what is an "equivalent" good when they calculate CPI. The whole exercise is arguably subjective; still, the methods the government uses are hardly reasonable, and lie outside what I would even call subjective. I think "dishonest" is a far more accurate description.

But the same problem arises in cases like that chart I linked to earlier in this thread. How does one compare, say, a horse & cart from 1650 with a Ford from 2014? Well, McCusker's answer was that you can't, really. You can, however, compare them in the best ways you can, including the cost of what they do. In other words, you might compare the relative cost (i.e., the cost as a percentage of your annual income) of a trip to New York from Baltimore. Other things can be treated more equally, such as the cost and maintenance of the whole "vehicle" (vehicle plus horse), and fuel (horse feed).

Comment: Re:Don't they have to fly that thing around? (Score 2) 248

by Trepidity (#46478195) Attached to: What If the Next Presidential Limo Was a Tesla?

"The Beast" exists mostly because of Kennedy and various other attempts on American presidents

That's true, but there's some middle ground between riding completely open-air in a convertible, and riding around in a quasi-tank. All you need to stop JFK-style attacks is an enclosed vehicle that can stop bullets, like the Popemobile.
