Phone hacking - A technical definition

[Live Wire]

Whats the deal with this? All you hear about in the news today is "phone hacking". But, after some research, I can't seem to find a real definition of what it actually is. Anyone have any information to clear up this point? Thanks.


PS - A real definition of what it is. Wiretapping, rooting, or what?

[techb]

Most of the "phone hacks" I've seen on the news is people getting in the devices and grabbing all the naked pictures off the phones. The only other reason I see it happening is for session high jacking.

[Live Wire]

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up. lol. You wouldnt happen to know how these attacks were done, other than good old XSS? or is that just about it.

[techb]

I've never done it, and only heard about it.


But here is something you might find useful, or at least a starting point.

[Kulverstukas]

iShit been always clusterfucked with malware, no surprise there. Remember that rickroll worm? hilarious.

On topic: "phone hacking" nowadays (smartphone era) refers to breaking the software side of your phone such as jailbreaking, or rooting, or flashing or whatever. When smartphones were just a dream the "phone hacking" was a synonym of "phone phreaking" which was basically hacking phone lines to get free calls, listen in on calls, do pranks stuff, it's where all those boxes (beige box, busy box, red box, orange box etc.) came out - <insert captain crunch reference here>.

So... did I define what it is for ya?

[p_2001]

phone hacking is more like unlocking bootloader, gain super user access in androids, removing restrictions on permissions and installing uncertified apps.....

symbian v3 = removing cert. restrictions
android = root access..... radio modification. ....... installing other os
ios = jailbraking (as far as I know, maybe some other shit too)

[techb]

OP said hacking, when I think gaining super user I think of rooting. I was under the assumption that OP knew about and what rooting was, so I supplied a more security related answer. Even though gaining root is a hack, I hear the term "rooting" instead of "hacking" associated with any privilege escalations. But all in all, replies supplied are all correct. It all depends on what your wanting to do.


@Kulver:


I built a beige box once, on them old ass phones in my area that people still use, it was fun while it lasted. And actually phreaking, at least the hardware side, got me into hardware even more. The anarchist cookbook was my ref, and at the time I thought it was the shite. Still, Jolly Rogers might help out in the zombie apocalypse.

[Kulverstukas]

I built a beige box once, on them old ass phones in my area that people still use <...>

Awesome do you still have it? I'd like to see how it looks!

[techb]

Awesome do you still have it? I'd like to see how it looks!

Unfortunately no, twas stripped for parts long ago. It just looked like a black square project box that you would find at radioshack.

[Wolf]

Long time ago on the nokia phones you could copy sim cad information, then put that sim in another phone. So say you wanted to spy on that one druggy who always gave you shit, steal his phone, copy the sim, and get all his texts and calls

(Note: this was not as easy as I'm making it sound)

Most of the phone hacking that I know about is actually done with blue tooth tho, especially if they dont have a password, you could go for a file transfer while they have no clue what's going on. You can get their call logs, texts, pics, everything that way. Did it with my Mac one time in Science class back in high school. Found some disturbing things...

(Note: I was given the mac, it was not a first choice. No judging against a free computer)
 

[techb]

Long time ago on the nokia phones you could copy sim cad information, then put that sim in another phone. So say you wanted to spy on that one druggy who always gave you shit, steal his phone, copy the sim, and get all his texts and calls

(Note: this was not as easy as I'm making it sound)

Most of the phone hacking that I know about is actually done with blue tooth tho, especially if they dont have a password, you could go for a file transfer while they have no clue what's going on. You can get their call logs, texts, pics, everything that way. Did it with my Mac one time in Science class back in high school. Found some disturbing things...

You still can. Things are much easier now though. Equipment.

[Wolf]

i didn't know about all the fancy tools back then and most phones are phasing out of sim cards. While still possible it was easier back then. The blue tooth hack is very current though. Especially with the tools avalible today.

[techb]

Not necessarily phone related, but on the bluetooth subject, most headsets pass codes are set to 0000 or 1234. So ease dropping on conversations is really easy.


You could use something like CarWhisperer, or roll your own program. Bluetooth is pretty easy code wise, python has a lib that could probably do it. And with SL4A in android, I don't see why not dropping the need for a computer.

[Kulverstukas]

That "blue tooth hacking" is called BlueSnarfing, or BlueJacking, both mean the same.

@techb: interesting idea. I might look into this later on remind me some time in the future...
EDIT: this might be cheaper and easier? http://dx.com/p/usb-sim-card-reader-6641?item=1

[techb]

That "blue tooth hacking" is called BlueSnarfing, or BlueJacking, both mean the same.

@techb: interesting idea. I might look into this later on remind me some time in the future...

I might play around with it myself, just need a headset. Also have other ideas with bluetooth, but that would go off topic WAY too much lol.