Cellphone Encryption

[westernmetaphor]

Is there a TrueCrypt like software for cellphones?

 

[westernmetaphor]

I am not talking about encrypting phone calls between two phones.

I AM talking about encrypting the hard disk of a cellphone, so that when you boot up a cellphone you will need to enter a password.

 

[Modelworks]

That would be something the firmware would need to support. There are phones that have password protection on power on. Encrypting the contents of a cell phone with firmware is easily done but I am not sure of any specific phones that currently perform that task.

 

[westernmetaphor]

Yeah I already asked TrueCrypt to get on it, it would uber sweet for them to do so.

I hate having to buy cellphones with password protect on it, they are usually not very keen on the latest hardware.

 

[Mark R]

I am not talking about encrypting phone calls between two phones.

I AM talking about encrypting the hard disk of a cellphone, so that when you boot up a cellphone you will need to enter a password.

Many already do this. The iPhone has done since the 3GS - all the data in the flash memory is encrypted by a hardware encryption module. The idea is so that if someone manages to dump the flash memory from the phone it should be unreadable, without the encryption key that is burned into the phone's individual processor during manufacture, and not accessible to the OS or any other software.

The hardware processor is meant to verify the OS boot-sector (to make sure it is legit and not tampered) and lock-down if it detects a modified OS. However, apple somehow screwed up this function, as the jailbreak groups (and forensic examiners) have found out. If this function did actually work as intended, jailbreaking would be extremely difficult, and forensic examiners wouldn't be able to analyse the phone.

 

[westernmetaphor]

most people wouldn't hack the hardware, they would hack the software

a basic password protect from the front screen is def necessary

 

[Fox5]

Many already do this. The iPhone has done since the 3GS - all the data in the flash memory is encrypted by a hardware encryption module. The idea is so that if someone manages to dump the flash memory from the phone it should be unreadable, without the encryption key that is burned into the phone's individual processor during manufacture, and not accessible to the OS or any other software.

The hardware processor is meant to verify the OS boot-sector (to make sure it is legit and not tampered) and lock-down if it detects a modified OS. However, apple somehow screwed up this function, as the jailbreak groups (and forensic examiners) have found out. If this function did actually work as intended, jailbreaking would be extremely difficult, and forensic examiners wouldn't be able to analyse the phone.

How sure of this are you? Are you sure the iphone uses a hardware encryption key burned into the processor? Not generate one for this purpose? I would think it'd be expensive to give every processor a unique hardware key, versus generating one in software, or using a mass produced key.

And like you said, jailbreaking works, and there's tons of forensics tools capable of dumping data from an iphone.