Thousands of Android devices come with unkillable backdoor preinstalled

[nobodyspecial]

https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/10/thousands-of-android-devices-come-with-unkillable-backdoor-preinstalled/amp/

[touhid619]

https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/10/thousands-of-android-devices-come-with-unkillable-backdoor-preinstalled/amp/

I think the best option would be Amazon Firestick from now on.

[Emporium]

These back doors should really no surprise to anyone buying cheap chinese no-name boxes. Has been there for YEARS!!!!


I think the best option would be Amazon Firestick from now on.

Pay a little more and get Buzzed if they are for your primary boxes :) Better UI, and no hoops to jump through just to get apps installed.

For cheap boxes, I recently had a friend bring me back (from the US) a cheap Walmart Onn Android TV box Honestly VERY surprised at the performance of the little box. Pretty impressive for a little USD$19.99 box.

[Highwayman]

makes me wonder who these ppl are who write these articles.
doesnt matter how much you spend on a box plug it in to your smart tv
or a toaster your watching pirated tv i wouldnt worry about someone from a third world
spying on you and China isnt the only ones lol worry about your isp!worry more about the recording you do
on the box!this is why i havent paid for a sub i posted the info the formular collects
your ip home address telephone but even using hacker player apps some will collect
the subs and post them on blogs /websites with adds to make money. you wanna be safe
dont do anything illegal!

[Highwayman]

These back doors should really no surprise to anyone buying cheap chinese no-name boxes. Has been there for YEARS!!!!



Pay a little more and get Buzzed if they are for your primary boxes :) Better UI, and no hoops to jump through just to get apps installed.

For cheap boxes, I recently had a friend bring me back (from the US) a cheap Walmart Onn Android TV box Honestly VERY surprised at the performance of the little box. Pretty impressive for a little USD$19.99 box.

yup my neighbor bought me one bout 2 years ago it is open source you can do quite a bit with it
i haven't checked on it i heard you can jail break it now its on youtube.

[really_troubled]

makes me wonder who these ppl are who write these articles.
doesnt matter how much you spend on a box plug it in to your smart tv
or a toaster your watching pirated tv i wouldnt worry about someone from a third world
spying on you and China isnt the only ones lol worry about your isp!worry more about the recording you do
on the box!this is why i havent paid for a sub i posted the info the formular collects
your ip home address telephone but even using hacker player apps some will collect
the subs and post them on blogs /websites with adds to make money. you wanna be safe
dont do anything illegal!

can't agree with you on this one ... what's being reported is not that the box is spying on you, it's being used as part of a botnet ...

the C2 server was shutdown, for now, but that doesn't mean the box isn't still checking to see if the server comes back online

[Highwayman]

can't agree with you on this one ... what's being reported is not that the box is spying on you, it's being used as part of a botnet ...

the C2 server was shutdown, for now, but that doesn't mean the box isn't still checking to see if the server comes back online

oh no really i agree what i was talkin about was the formuler and the info it reveals i call it spying lol
but one could write a mountain of info on what boxes do.

one other thing boxes not made in china you bet have chinese parts lol

[The Noof]

oh no really i agree what i was talkin about was the formuler and the info it reveals i call it spying lol
but one could write a mountain of info on what boxes do.

one other thing boxes not made in china you bet have chinese parts lol

But is the firmware coded to them....

[Highwayman]

But is the firmware coded to them....

i could be wrong but i dont think it would matter

[Emporium]

yup my neighbor bought me one bout 2 years ago it is open source you can do quite a bit with it
i haven't checked on it i heard you can jail break it now its on youtube.

Well in theory, you should be able to easily power/plug it in via your PC and you could do an "adb install" to side load something like Solid Explorer, and then after that you can side load anything from your local network.

I was too lazy to do that (and just doing basic testing, so I just:

connected it with one of my throw-away google accounts.
Connected with Google account, I installed a basic file manager, and Solid file explorer.
Used Solid File explorer to to copy my modded Solid Explorer apk from my NAS (SMB share) to the onboard storage.
Then uninstalled the Google Play installed version of Solid Explorer.
Used the basic File file manager to install the Modded version of Solid file explorer (that was on the onboard storage). So now the version installed is not tied to my google account.
Then I uninstalled the basic File Manager.
Then proceeded to Delete my Google account from the "accounts" screen, leaving nothing tied to my google account.
Everything else I installed, using the Modded version of Solid Explorer, directly from the SMB share on my NAS.

[The Noof]

i could be wrong but i dont think it would matter

Not much happens with smd's unless their embedded with firmware or instructed by software.

[Highwayman]

Not much happens with smd's unless their embedded with firmware or instructed by software.

but how do you know whats in those smd's the firmware/software is from the box maker

[The Noof]

but how do you know whats in those smd's the firmware/software is from the box maker

Precisely...the "box makers" don't make the smd's.

[touhid619]

These back doors should really no surprise to anyone buying cheap chinese no-name boxes. Has been there for YEARS!!!!



Pay a little more and get Buzzed if they are for your primary boxes :) Better UI, and no hoops to jump through just to get apps installed.

For cheap boxes, I recently had a friend bring me back (from the US) a cheap Walmart Onn Android TV box Honestly VERY surprised at the performance of the little box. Pretty impressive for a little USD$19.99 box.

How about Amazon Firestick with Tivimate app . I think that will be really cool. have anyone done this ?

[nobodyspecial]

How about Amazon Firestick with Tivimate app . I think that will be really cool. have anyone done this ?

Wrong thread to be asking this question

[dishuser]

all devices that can receive ota updates send out info

[zayden]

Precisely...the "box makers" don't make the smd's.

I thought I heard at one point they discovered the ethernet and/or wifi chipset was infected with malware such at that it wouldn't matter who wrote the firmware since the gateway was already infected.

[jets]

I just use the Buzz box but at one point I did buy two of the suspect boxes. I forget where but I read you can adb into those devices and remove the spyware manually. If I find the link I will post, I will look tonight (at work).

I just googled and there are tons of YouTube videos how to remove (I hate YouTube videos).

[jets]

Here is a good link that gives good removal procedure to the T95 boxes.


https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/01/preinstalled-malware-infested-t95-tv-box-from-amazon