Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

It simply stops and starts the service, just like you can do manually.

As root. Turn off sshd:
As root. Turn on sshd:

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

Use iptables/ip6tables to drop all incoming and outgoing connections over your wifi adapter, only allowing traffic out to your VPN/SSH tunnel server. And use that tunnel for everything.

Otherwise, don't use open wifi, use your 3G internet instead.

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

That would be very effective. It would make virtually impossible to penetrate Maemo, and to sniff in/out traffic.
That's a must-do. Thanks!

PS: I didn't want to explain it because it was offtopic, but 3G in my country doesn't work with N900 3g freq spectrum :/

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

I don't think disabling sshd would actually change anything, openssh is pretty secure

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

Any problems with dropbear ssh implementation?

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

I'm intigued by this. The N900 is not just a Linux device but an ARM Linux device with no real java support, which means a virus is a lot less likely than say, for a winxp user. However, access by others on the same network via tcp/ip etc. might be possible, mightn't it?

When normal precautions are taken (no ssh, no non-ssl IM, etc.), is the decive is totally secure?
How vunerable is the N900, when connected to an open wifi network?
Can others access it via a connection protocol?
If so, to which areas/folders?
Can anything be done to improve the operating security of the device, to reduce/prevent access to file system, any ongoing phone calls or sms coversations?

I guess the worst case scenario would be an attack from a malicious N900 user - what steps could be taken before and after, as damage limitation and notification?

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

How old is openssh within N900?

There are known exploits for older version of OpenSSH which don't require username/password knowledge.

TSL/SSL may be breached through redirections, especially if the logon page is loaded through basic http without SSL.

Don't use unencrypted login pages.

Basically, since the software running inside N900 is relatively old and therefore very well known to the attackers, you may have additional holes.

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

Don't accept any new certificates within browser, chat application or mail client.

That may not be enough, comodo has issued certificates without checking identity of servers for such as yahoo, google, etc.

It may be possible that some of these certificates are not revoked (detected) yet.

http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/ph...-others-032311

EDIT: Tribute to Comodo: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647959

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

This is a VERY interesting question. In fact, that was more or less what I intend to post but my poor english doesn't help a lot.

Re: Maemo 5 as a vulnerability / "hacking" victim
 

Given the fact that the support for N900 was relatively poor when it comes to basic functionality (many unresolved bugs), it is quite reasonable the expect the security aspects were neglected too.

In fact I can bet that SSL attack can be mounted against any of the devices such as 770, N800, N810, N900. Especially if the certificate trust store contains Comodo root certificates (Haven't check that yet!).