Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for enthusiasts and power users of the Android operating system. It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. I'm not talking about remotely control the device. I'm talking about remotely turn on the cellphone.
The idea is impossible. To physically supply power to the phone's chip, you would have to press the power button. The only workaround would be to have an always-on device attached to the phone that could then use a motor to press the power button. Sign up to join this community.
The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 5 years ago. Active 5 years ago. Viewed 6k times. But it'll secretly stay on -- microphone listening and camera recording.
How did they get into your phone in the first place? They've seen it firsthand. Related: Google testing super-secure email. Government spies can set up their own miniature cell network tower. Your phone automatically connects to it.
Now, that tower's radio waves send a command to your phone's antennae: the baseband chip. That tells your phone to fake any shutdown and stay on. Spies could keep your phone on standby and just use the microphone -- or send pings announcing your location. John Pirc, who did cybersecurity research at the CIA, said these methods -- and others, like physically bugging devices -- let the U.
Related: Cybersecurity: How safe are you? That means the baseband processor is still running," said Pirc, now chief technology officer of the NSS Labs security research firm. This isn't easy to accomplish. It's a highly targeted attack. But if you are really concerned about the government's ability to reawaken your phone, here are some things you could do.
Recovery mode. This bypasses the phone's operating system. But even if you have control of the baseband, you still aren't into the operating system, which you would need to do in order to get really important information such as emails, contact lists, documents and more. Do the baseband processors have enough control over the operating-system processor to turn the phone on?
Accessing a phone's operating system from its baseband "requires a whole new set of exploits, which sometimes won't work," wrote Graham. He argued that it's safe to assume that most phones are safe from remote activation. The NSA may be looking for such vulnerabilities, but that doesn't mean it always has them.
Zdziarski pointed out that all smartphones have a number of strong links between the baseband and the operating system, such as the federally mandated ability to make emergency calls.
Even if a phone's access screen is locked by a PIN or password, it can still call It's possible that a means of accessing the operating system from the baseband is built right into the phone. The NSA has put "backdoors" — hidden exploits — into other products, so it's not unreasonable to assume something similar happens in a mobile phone.
Zdziarski has come across many undocumented features buried in iPhones that seem to be designed to yield the phone's data. The NSA also has an enormous budget, and it's been known to pay top dollar for zero-day previously unknown exploits on the black market. Even if [NSA] had zero cooperation [from phone companies], I can see a process like this costing tens of millions of dollars," said Zdziarski. Ultimately, all of this is speculation. Snowden might have read a document about baseband hacks that has not yet been released to the public.
Several independent hackers and researchers have published research on hacking a baseband, but so far no one has issued a proof-of-concept hack for remotely turning a phone on by going through the baseband. There is another possible explanation for the NSA's alleged ability to turn on depowered smartphones, but it is far less broad, and requires compromising a smartphone before you're able to remotely activate it.
A phone infected with malware, ideally during a brief period when spies have physical possession of the device — sometimes called an implant — could be made to turn on via remote command, or do a number of other things. So how worried should you be that the NSA is turning your phone on? The answer is, unless you're a foreign spy or a very high-value target, probably not very much.
While the NSA does do some broad surveillance on all Americans, Snowden told Williams that most high-level smartphone hacks, including turning it on remotely, hacking the microphone or camera, or stealing data stored on it, are aimed at specific individuals. I think it's being held by a drug dealer. I think it's being used by a terrorist. Email jscharr tomsguide. Jill Scharr is a creative writer and narrative designer in the videogame industry.
She previously worked as a Staff Writer for Tom's Guide, covering video games, online security, 3D printing and tech innovation. Jill Scharr. Topics Security. See all comments
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