Caught my Chinese android phone trying to connect to the Chinese Government!

28srf0c

hi Folks, I bought a Ulefone Paris recently from one of those well known Chinese websites.

Installed NoRoot firewall, and this "System" app appeared, trying to get online.

After looking at the IP address and a bit of google-fu, I found that my phone is trying to connect to ......

"The China Internet Network Information Center". CNNIC, is the administrative agency responsible for Internet affairs under the Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China.

-Wikipedia

The strange thing is, when I go to check the app in the firewall, it says "Uninstalled". And I can't find any trace of it in the apps list.

Check the screenshot here with IP address:

imgur.com/hDvcgDN.png

What to do? Has anybody had this happen before?

gctest50

it could be in the hardware, no amount of firewalls or anything else on the phone itself will help then

jimgoose

Put the thing into an envelope and address it to Mousey Dung, 1 Yellow Boulevard, Peking. Enclose a brief note to the effect of "Thanks, but no thanks. Go fcuk yourself. Sincerely, Christopher B. Galvin III.".

28srf0c

I'm thinking of sending a couple of texts to my friends saying stuff like:

"Beijing attack squad ready. We will take over the city in 2 hours and kidnap the president."

"Coup d'etat planned for next Wednesday"

etc etc

Wanderer78

28srf0c wrote: »

I'm thinking of sending a couple of texts to my friends saying stuff like:

"Beijing attack squad ready. We will take over the city in 2 hours and kidnap the president."

"Coup d'etat planned for next Wednesday"

etc etc

go for it, that would be kinna funny

gctest50

28srf0c wrote: »

I'm thinking of sending a couple of texts to my friends saying stuff like:

"Beijing attack squad ready. We will take over the city in 2 hours and kidnap the president."

"Coup d'etat planned for next Wednesday"

etc etc

Wanderer78 wrote: »

go for it, that would be kinna funny

.

A woman from Shandong province was stabbed to death and a Frenchman wounded in a sword attack in a popular Beijing shopping district on Thursday afternoon.

Wanderer78

gctest50 wrote: »

.

errr emm ok!

Simi

gctest50 wrote: »

.

What the absolute ****!

long_b

In China doesn't all (non VPN) Internet traffic go through the government's filter?

Neon_Lights

Whether you like it or not most mobile services or mobiles themselves have backdoor's to the government. The trend was bucked by BlackBerry initially allowing once encrypted emails to be filtered in Saudi Arabia and India by the government to monitor the population.The NSA and the US government admitted to having backdoors to the iphone and google have admitted providing them data. I would also have a strong inkling that GCHQ have this wherewithal too.

Even bringing it up to recently the charge on cash withdrawals implemented by the government in the budget. It's pretty much a data gathering exercise to see what we spend.

Although I'm not too sure what information the Chinese government could want from you. Maybe they just want to know if you're ordering your three in one and chicken balls on a weekly basis.

gctest50

Simi wrote: »

What the absolute ****!

It's a really bad idea sending txt messages like that :

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jun/03/terrorism.world

StereoSound

Keep the firewall on or get a new phone.. I have a ZTE phone and makes me wonder now if mine has such hidden app.

Manach

Perhaps the OP might also drop a note to the Data Protection Commissioner. I'd know there are EU laws about gathering a proportionate amount of personal data and are very strict about 3rd parties sending this outside the EU: https://www.dataprotection.ie

Neon_Lights

Manach wrote: »

Perhaps the OP might also drop a note to the Data Protection Commissioner. I'd know there are EU laws about gathering a proportionate amount of personal data and are very strict about 3rd parties sending this outside the EU: https://www.dataprotection.ie

The phone came from china, i don't think the data protection commissioner would have any form of jurisdiction in this case.

gctest50

Manach wrote: »

Perhaps the OP might also drop a note to the Data Protection Commissioner. I'd know there are EU laws about gathering a proportionate amount of personal data and are very strict about 3rd parties sending this outside the EU: https://www.dataprotection.ie

I don't think China cares about some stuff

The observed air pollution is calculated to contribute to 1.6 million deaths/year in China

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0135749

gctest50

StereoSound wrote: »

Keep the firewall on or get a new phone.. I have a ZTE phone and makes me wonder now if mine has such hidden app.

There "phone" as you know it could be running inside a shell, like a virtual machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmPY9nEFPMk

firewalls on the device itself may not save you - same goes for any iffy cheap tablet computers

old but anyway, this kind of carry on :

http://www.toucan-system.com/research/


many times worse if it is done by the manufacturer of the phone
.

Manach

Neon_Lights wrote: »

The phone came from china, i don't think the data protection commissioner would have any form of jurisdiction in this case.

Very true about the Jurisdications in China. But from what I remember from reading the EU Directive awhile back suggests that data transfers that undermine Data protection are subject to the DPC. Thus while they could not do much at national level, it could be escalated and raised at the commission level to discuss with China.

As I write this, I know how very unlikely that this could occur due to the logistics but it is a nice though experiment