04 July 2007

Nokia:
Our Mobile Phones Can be Hacked, But Not Easily

Folks over at Cio.com have the interesting article about hacking Nokia phones that starts with question; Can cell phones be hacked? As that question is debated in the wake of a Tacoma, Wash., family claiming the cell phones it uses have been taken over by hackers, Nokia is weighing in. The company says it is possible -- but very difficult -- to hack into and manipulate cell phones based on the S60 Symbian platform it developed.

Nokia, which develops the Symbian phone platform used in its own brand of phones as well as some from Samsung, LG Electronics and Lenovo, says it's possible attackers could break into S60-based phones. But according to Daniel Shugrue, marketing manager of the S60 software platform, it would take a very sophisticated attacker to accomplish this.

"Is it technically possible? Yes, I'd agree that it is," says Shugrue, adding that he basically shares the opinions expressed by IBM, McAfee and Symantec that cell phones can be hacked and manipulated by an attacker, though it's not easy to do and examples of actual cell-phone attacks are rare.

Shugrue says Nokia had not received reports directly of its cell phones being taken off by hackers.

I indeed agree that Nokia phones can be hacked but the main question is what do they mean when they say: “attackers could break into S60-based phones”, what they count as hacking attempt!? Firmware tweaking and modding only!? Or maybe tweaking system files to get most from the device or unlocking maybe?

I know that some people thinks that there is no two ways, hacking is bad and that’s it, but I personally tend to disagree with that statement.

Hacking indeed can be a bad thing (illegally breaking into systems for example), but for me hacking is just desire to fully understand something, and I truly want to learn as much as I can about my phone, learn how it works and how to get most, is it really that bad!?

Anyway, speaking of S60 phones I am pretty sure that hacking is possible, especially on 2nd edition phones and you can find numerous guides here hot to tweak system files to improve the functionality of the S60 phones, its even possible on 3rd edition although situation isn’t that brilliant as on the 2nd edition.

Unfortunately situation with 3rd edition isn’t that brilliant, 3rd edition of S60 phones is very well protected, the new platform security system, which is based on the idea that nobody gets access to those data caged directories. It was already discussed here numerous times, especially over at our forum section, so I’ll not repeat again, but I’ll say that it is quite annoying issue; it is like having Windows without having access to system or program files directory!?

Actually it drops down our so called 'smart phones' to the 'dummy' s40 level and make it impossible to get the most out of our favourite devices by modding and tweaking them to meet our needs.

Anyway, I have to admit that the so called power users are minority in the really huge S60 family and the Nokia mainly takes care about the majority and from that point of view new security measures and all stuff related to data caged directories looks as a really cool and nice security measure that protects users from harmful viruses and malware.

Again, I completely understand Nokia security politic but as the so called power user I have to say that I’m deeply disappointed with these new measures same as the whole Symbian Freak community, at least they should leave to us an option to choose between full security and full access.

I just hope that it will be “fixed” somehow soon or later, otherwise I really doubt in further leading position of Symbian OS among the power user population. After all we spend lot of money for our lovely phones and it is our right to even smash it on the floor and jump over it until the beast dies, so please at least give us an option to take the control over our files.

Speaking of unlocking, Nokia did a great job with their BB5 line which was unbreakable for a years, great work, great protection but it also has been hacked, although not completely and even mighty Mr. Dejan hasn’t final solution and his method work doesn’t with all Nokia BB5 phones.

So, to sum on, Symbian is smart OS and therefore hacking is possible for smart people, although 3rd edition requires lot of hard to work to find a way, but still it is possible and it is not that bad at all, I am not talking about the cracking applications or unlocking locked phones, I'm just talking about the tweaking system file to improve the functionality, change the interface with desire to get the rid of some annoying solutions or to get more form the bought hardware.