Secret Backdoor in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China, Analysts Say
Secret Backdoor in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China,
Analysts Say
By MATT APUZZO and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT NOV. 15, 2016
Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled
software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to
and what they write in text messages.
WASHINGTON — For about $50, you can get a smartphone with
a high-definition display, fast data service and, according to security
contractors, a secret feature: a backdoor that sends all your text messages to
China every 72 hours.
Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled
software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to
and what they write in text messages. The American authorities say it is not
clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or
a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence.
International customers and users of disposable or
prepaid phones are the people most affected by the software. But the scope is
unclear. The Chinese company that wrote the software, Shanghai Adups Technology
Company, says its code runs on more than 700 million phones, cars and other
smart devices. One American phone manufacturer, BLU Products, said that 120,000
of its phones had been affected and that it had updated the software to
eliminate the feature.
Kryptowire, the security firm that discovered the
vulnerability, said the Adups software transmitted the full contents of text
messages, contact lists, call logs, location information and other data to a
Chinese server. The code comes preinstalled on phones and the surveillance is
not disclosed to users, said Tom Karygiannis, a vice president of Kryptowire,
which is based in Fairfax, Va. “Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t have known
about it,” he said.
Security experts frequently discover vulnerabilities in
consumer electronics, but this case is exceptional. It was not a bug. Rather,
Adups intentionally designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer
monitor user behavior, according to a document that Adups provided to explain
the problem to BLU executives. That version of the software was not intended
for American phones, the company said.
“This is a private company that made a mistake,” said
Lily Lim, a lawyer in Palo Alto, Calif., who represents Adups.
The episode shows how companies throughout the technology
supply chain can compromise privacy, with or without the knowledge of
manufacturers or customers. It also offers a look at one way that Chinese
companies — and by extension the government — can monitor cellphone behavior.
For many years, the Chinese government has used a variety of methods to filter
and track internet use and monitor online conversations. It requires technology
companies that operate in China to follow strict rules. Ms. Lim said Adups was
not affiliated with the Chinese government.
At the heart of the issue is a special type of software,
known as firmware, that tells phones how to operate. Adups provides the code
that lets companies remotely update their firmware, an important function that
is largely unseen by users. Normally, when a phone manufacturer updates its
firmware, it tells customers what it is doing and whether it will use any
personal information. Even if that is disclosed in long legal disclosures that
customers routinely ignore, it is at least disclosed. That did not happen with
the Adups software, Kryptowire said.
According to its website, Adups provides software to two
of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world, ZTE and Huawei. Both are
based in China.
Samuel Ohev-Zion, the chief executive of the
Florida-based BLU Products, said: “It was obviously something that we were not
aware of. We moved very quickly to correct it.”
He added that Adups had assured him that all of the
information taken from BLU customers had been destroyed.
The software was written at the request of an
unidentified Chinese manufacturer that wanted the ability to store call logs,
text messages and other data, according to the Adups document. Adups said the
Chinese company used the data for customer support.
Ms. Lim said the software was intended to help the
Chinese client identify junk text messages and calls. She did not identify the
company that requested it and said she did not know how many phones were
affected. She said phone companies, not Adups, were responsible for disclosing
privacy policies to users. “Adups was just there to provide functionality that
the phone distributor asked for,” she said.
Android phones run software that is developed by Google
and distributed free for phone manufacturers to customize. A Google official
said the company had told Adups to remove the surveillance ability from phones
that run services like the Google Play store. That would not include devices in
China, where hundreds of millions of people use Android phones but where Google
does not operate because of censorship concerns.
Because Adups has not published a list of affected
phones, it is not clear how users can determine whether their phones are
vulnerable. “People who have some technical skills could,” Mr. Karygiannis, the
Kryptowire vice president, said. “But the average consumer? No.”
Ms. Lim said she did not know how customers could
determine whether they were affected.
Adups also provides what it calls “big data” services to
help companies study their customers, “to know better about them, about what
they like and what they use and there they come from and what they prefer to
provide better service,” according to its website.
Kryptowire discovered the problem through a combination
of happenstance and curiosity. A researcher there bought an inexpensive phone,
the BLU R1 HD, for a trip overseas. While setting up the phone, he noticed
unusual network activity, Mr. Karygiannis said. Over the next week, analysts
noticed that the phone was transmitting text messages to a server in Shanghai
and was registered to Adups, according to a Kryptowire report.
Kryptowire took its findings to the United States
government. It plans to make its report public as early as Tuesday.
Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the Department of
Homeland Security, said the agency “was recently made aware of the concerns
discovered by Kryptowire and is working with our public and private sector
partners to identify appropriate mitigation strategies.”
Kryptowire is a Homeland Security contractor but analyzed
the BLU phone independent of that contract.
Mr. Ohev-Zion, the BLU chief executive, said he was
confident that the problem had been resolved for his customers. “Today there is
no BLU device that is collecting that information,” he said.
Adam Goldman contributed reporting.
Comments
Post a Comment