LinuxInsider Talkback

Re: Open Source in GSM Could Breed Mobile Mayhem
Posted by: Richard Adhikari 2011-01-18 05:45:09

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Mobile malware may grow as a security threat this year, but security researcher Ralf-Philipp Weinmann says there's a worse threat lurking around -- the GSM baseband system. The threat from hacking GSM baseband systems has been largely ignored, Weinmann reportedly told the audience at a presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Washington, D.C., Monday. The advent of open source code for base station programming now lets hackers create their own base stations that will let them take over all smartphones within range in a scenario Weinmann calls the "baseband apocalypse."

Now it makes sense
Posted by: sanderd17 2011-01-18 05:58:36 In reply to: Richard Adhikari

A few days ago, I saw here http://digitallife.nl/internet/18404--open-android-is-onveiliger-dan-iphone-.html (Dutch text) that a safety advisor said that Android has more chance to get viruses because it's FOSS and hackers can see the source-code.

This seemed complete nonsense to me as there are a lot of FOSS projects that are safer than the proprietary counterpart.

But after reading this, I assume that it's just a wrong translation. It's not Android that is more vulnerable because it's FOSS. But because of FOSS GSMs, there is a bigger chance that a hacker can hack a network.

I don't say that Android is necessarily safer than iOS or RIM phones, but I say that the difference between those phones doesn't come from the difference between FOSS and closed software.