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# traceroute 75.206.123.22

traceroute to 75.206.123.22 (75.206.123.22), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets

1 66.174.112.129 (66.174.112.129) 143.097 ms 75.959 ms 70.312 ms

2 66.174.112.127 (66.174.112.127) 62.164 ms 85.510 ms 69.916 ms

...

So what we need to do now is set up a new default route that will take all traffic out through the 192.168.1.x network's primary router (in this case, 192.168.1.1). To do this, you will use the "route" command:

# route add default gw 192.168.1.1 dev tap0

Note that, unlike the desktop Linux equivalent, the Android "route" command requires you give it an interface name.

Re-running the traceroute command from before, we can see that the path packets are taking through the phone has changed:

# traceroute 75.206.123.22

traceroute to 75.206.123.22 (75.206.123.22), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets

1 192.168.1.50 (192.168.1.50) 300.831 ms 365.326 ms 265.656 ms

2 66.174.112.127 (66.174.112.127) 257.843 ms 257.507 ms 265.930 ms

...

The first hop is now the tap0 interface, so we can see that data is traveling through the 192.168.1.x network to get to the Internet, rather than directly out 3G. The keen eye will also note the increased travel time, as data now has to run through the VPN before it gets out to the Internet. Though it is worth noting that the travel times shown here are rather high because my phone had poor signal when I ran this particular test, in ideal conditions, performance over the VPN is not much different than 3G alone.

With the victim's data now traveling through the attacker's personal network, there is no limit to what he can do. A server on the network could provide the victim’s spoofed DNS entries and forged login pages, or sslstrip could be used to hijack HTTPS connections and get their plain-text content. A combination of these techniques could be used to present the victim with a convincing looking "Critical Update" page that instructs the user to "Download and install the following important system update..." before allowing them to continue on to the Internet at large.

Conclusion

For those of us interested in technical exploration, Android offers nearly unlimited possibilities. Not only can an Android device be used to explore and examine the world around us, we are even given the freedom to explore and modify Android itself by virtue of its open nature. While the installation and use of security related tools on a mobile device is certainly nothing new, older devices primarily used close source proprietary operating systems the user had no control over. Even in the few previous mobile devices that actually shipped with an open source OS, you were still limited by the relative rarity of supported devices and the small userbase. The fact that you can walk into the store of essentially every cellular carrier in the U.S. and purchase a handset that runs an open source OS with development tools baked right in is completely without precedent.

Of course, the same opportunity is available for criminals, and if Android continues its meteoric rise in popularity as analysts predict, it won't be long until they start getting on the Android bandwagon too. Whether it is to develop malicious applications or remote exploits (at the time of this writing, proof of concepts exist in both cases), criminals will attempt to exploit Android's open nature for their own gains.

For hackers, Android represents not only an excellent platform for personal use and an ideal worthy of our support, but also a future battleground. As smartphones approach the ubiquity that was once reserved for wristwatches, mobile security research and development will be key in protecting users’ data and privacy. The hacker ethics of exploration, experimentation, and dissemination of knowledge can aid in Android's evolution just as they once helped shape the telephone itself.

* * *

How I Escaped Google (and other web based services)

by mrcaffeine - mrcaffeine@network0.org | 1118 words

Let me preface this article by saying