The Rootkit Of All Evil – CIQ

The Rootkit Of All Evil – CIQ

www.xda-developers.com

And the spy and invasion of privacy saga continues, but this time XDA Recognized Developer TrevE seems to have hit the very core of most of what is happening with devices. You may recall from a few articles back that we started talking about something called CIQ or Carrier iQ. This is, essentially, a piece of software that is embedded into most mobile devices, not just Android but Nokia, Blackberry, and likely many more. According to TrevE, the software is installed as a rootkit software in the RAM of devices where it resides. This software basically is completely hidden from view and in it v

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If you have certain Android, Nokia or Blackberry devices, it's possible that, via this CIQ-based rootkit, everything you do can be tracked and logged by your provider. This includes location, SMS, keystrokes, apps launched. The works. And it's not possible to even opt-out of it. Check the whole article for details, including a list of what these rootkits can do and what the admin interface looks like.

From a privacy standpoint, this is a nightmare. Even if it's only the operators that have this information, it doesn't take much imagination to realize that this information could easily be requested by other, more powerful entities, and more than likely, cross-jurisdiction.

www.xda-developers.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Basically TPTB have the ability to track, trace and locate/pinpoint anybody with such a device. What they do, communicate, with who, about what, when etc etc.etc

reply to post by rozetta

Thanks for this information. Luckily I just yesterday (really no joke) removed this from my iPad. Every iOS device also contains a LaunchAgend called IQAgent. I removed many of these service and as I couldn't find any usefull informations about the job of this daemon I disabled it also. iPad is working fine without this IQAgent and it's running faster also.
Now it's more or less clear whta is the job of this piece and why it is running all the time in the background

If you own an iOS device I would highly recomment to jailbreak it (the device just got lots better - my iOS4.3.3 can do lot more stuff than any default iOS 5 ) as it is really safe and you can remove all the crap placed in the background to monitor you. And it not just monitor every step/location/app you use it also makes the device slow. My iPad1 is now faster than a friends original iPad2. It's just sad that really every company tries to monitor/control us in every place.

yeah its a shame most people will never know about this either, being an avid browser of XDA i saw this and wasn't shocked really, but still it makes you wonder.

Thanks for the info about the equivalent process on iOS. I have a couple of iOS devices myself, but didn't start to look into this CIQ stuff for them yet. I haven't honestly jailbroken in a while, since last time I tried, there weren't all that many things that worked fine on iPad. I'm guessing that's changed. I'd love SBSettings back!

Originally posted by rozetta I'd love SBSettings back!

I would never again use a none JB device. I couldn't live without SBSettings and LockInfo anymore
Maybe we should create a ATS-JB Guide with all the best software compiled into a list.

Regarding the OP topic it would be interesting if it's possible to take advantage of the IQAgent (or respectice CIQ software on other devices) now that we know what it is for. Maybe in a few days/week any hacking group is capable of tracking/monitoring every other using this process? We can just hope that using this client requires low level network access only possible for the provider.

Any info on blocking/removing this from a Samsung/Android device?

Reminds me of when Intel got caught with their lil back door they built into the Pentium 3 CPU. Back then they were forced to offer an update to close it, but now that we have the good ol' patriot act in place I wonder how easy it will be to get this bug trapped....

Not many people use those phones anymore anyway, more concerning is the new Iphone that you talk to, it records and uploads everything you say to a server with a unique phone ID assigned to you. Privacy out the window entirely.

reply to post by againuntodust


Really? think of all that bandwith & storage set aside to record voice call for the drones.

I don't buy it.

Originally posted by one_small_step
reply to post by againuntodust

 

Really? think of all that bandwith & storage set aside to record voice call for the drones.

I don't buy it.

It's not a theory it's fact, plus the fact that DARPA funded Siri.

A friend of mine posed the same question. What if it's possible to redirect or man-in-the-middle the information coming out of such a service? We checked some phones here and couldn't find CIQ running, so it must be operator dependent. Hence I can't provide any more info on how to disable this on android.

I'm quite interested to see what further information comes out of this research, nonetheless.

As far as iPhone 4S and Siri goes, mobile devices lack the power or storage to perform the sort of recognition and processing logic required, which is why the service talks to a backend. Things like Shazam work the same way. You can always opt-out of such things.

Carrier-IQ Tries To Sue TrevE

TrevE is the guy wrote about this and who found this out with CIQ , Which you see in the OP's article.
What I'm posting is an update to what happen after that article went world wide.

they are demanding that he posts a public apology stating that all of his findings were essentially wrong and that he has nothing but good things to say about Carrier-IQ.

WTF.. This is EVIL stuff !

Carrier-IQ Tries To Sue TrevE

Ok, gloves are off. If what CIQ wanted was a media storm, they got one. Yes, this is not my standard article where I try to start it up with a bit of a warm up to some regular story. This is a rather serious issue and one that

A few days ago, it seems that TrevE received a Cease and Desist letter from CIQ after the maelstrom that was caused by his findings which I spoke about in my previous article. Making a long story short, the article described how the CIQ software was installed on a large chunk of devices out in the market and that it was rather difficult to take out/turn off.

Read this. This is unbelievable what Carrier IQ want him to do.

The web exploded with comments and cross posts about this in a matter of a few days. After a few days, Carrier-IQ finally caught wind of this and decided to send the following letter to TrevE, where basically they are accusing him of using and redistributing copyrighted and confidential materials without authorization (aka piracy) and also they are demanding that he posts a public apology stating that all of his findings were essentially wrong and that he has nothing but good things to say about Carrier-IQ.

These people people at Carrier IQ are truly EVIL !
This makes me want to take back the phone I just bought, heck I would rather have an 80's brink phone No phone is safe anymore and carrier IQ is make sure of that., Now they want to sue Trev for is Article. Trev is only telling the truth and letting it be known to all. And to think 3 more years of this Patriot Act. AKA Spying Act.

The people of America Really need to step up and take America back fast as possible.

Corporate Crims and Gov spys when asked!!

is this thing only been done in the US or the whole world ?

 here is another article that i found which was made last april

 link

It will be exploited as states desire be sure of that!!!

Who's to say that PC's and Macs don't have some deep hidden program running on them doing this too. I mean who's to say that deep in some file folder somewhere there's a file lurking, collecting data and every time you do a windows update and it has that 'malicious software removal tool' thing, it's removing that data and sending it off to Microsoft too?

A follow-up to this story, showing video and data being captured.

Researcher’s Video Shows Secret Software on Millions of Phones Logging Everything

But now he’s released a video actually showing the logging of text messages, encrypted web searches and, well, you name it.

Eckhart labeled the software a “rootkit,” and the Mountain View, California-based software maker threatened him with legal action and huge money damages. The Electronic Frontier Foundation came to his side last week, and the company backed off on its threats. The company told Wired last week that Carrier IQ’s wares are for “gathering information off the handset to understand the mobile-user experience, where phone calls are dropped, where signal quality is poor, why applications crash and battery life.”

The company denies its software logs keystrokes. Eckhart’s 17-minute video clearly undercuts that claim.

In a Thanksgiving post, we mentioned this software as one of nine reasons to wear a tinfoil hat.

The video shows the software logging Eckhart’s online search of “hello world.” That’s despite Eckhart using the HTTPS version of Google which is supposed to hide searches from those who would want to spy by intercepting the traffic between a user and Google.

Other than rooting the device there are few options here. What's further surprising, we'll not really for ATS members, is that even with 3g/4g service disabled, data is still captured via wifi for transmission via Carrier IQ. Nice to see that the EFF has jumped to protect this individual and his findings.

brill

Sony must be very jealous.

In all seriousness though, this is a very scary thought. I suspect some sort of demonizing of people who jailbreak these things will begin shortly, on many fronts. Too bad most people are more interested in the use of Facebook on their phones than the fact that people may be spying on them.