Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector
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CellularPrivacy
Support for dual SIM phones
I have a Phablet with dual SIMs. One 2G, one 3G, according to the manufacturers specs. Default for all services is set to second, 3G-enabled, SIM ("Comviq 2") as seen in the screenshot. The application only detects / displays information about the first SIM.
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Good evening @Kiwawa. Our app apparently does not support Dual-SIM phones and we do not know when or if it ever will. @E3V3A will shed some light on this, hopefully. Security notice: You should obfuscate LAC/CID from your above screenshot (replace it with a new one). Thanks for using our app.
Hi and thanks for the note. I don't mind giving away my approx. location, but removed the screenshots anyway. Perhaps you can disregard this bug report then, or turn it into an improvement suggestion? Happy to help...
Perhaps you can disregard this bug report then, or turn it into an improvement suggestion?
Re-labeled this Issue and will wait for the others to respond. If we ever support Dual SIM phones, it will not be right away since we clearly lack contributors and need to focus on fixing existing bugs and continue to add the core functions of our app. Feel invited to spread the word to Android developers!
Just as a note, this DOES seem to overlap a little with #457, as some of the work that'll be done there can likely be expanded toward this issue, I think. ☺
I must disagree with SecUpwN's removal of the BUG tag. Dual-SIM (even triple-SIM!) phones are very real and not working on real hardware is a bad thing. The additional data could be interesting since if one SIM sees an extra "cell tower" while the other doesn't might be a hint that the extra "tower" is in fact a stingray.
I'd like to help and be looking into how the Android APIs work, but I've already got too many things on my plate (may happen in the future, but not yet).
I must disagree with SecUpwN's removal of the BUG tag.
Disagree all you want, @ehem, but this is not a "bug", it is an enhancement if we ever add it.
Dual-SIM (even triple-SIM!) phones are very real and not working on real hardware is a bad thing.
Our app is working on these phones, it just does not show and dissect the data of the other SIMs. We simply have more important Issues to solve at this moment, we'd be happy to have more developers working on our app to even achieve our basic app goals first. So please be patient, would you?
The additional data could be interesting since if one SIM sees an extra "cell tower" while the other doesn't might be a hint that the extra "tower" is in fact a stingray.
Thanks for the suggestion, but do you have any documentation that this assumption must be true?
I'd like to help and be looking into how the Android APIs work, but I've already got too many things on my plate (may happen in the future, but not yet).
My fingers are itching to be sarcastic and say "what a suprise", but sadly it really is none.
I'd like to help and be looking into how the Android APIs work, but I've already got too many things on my plate (may happen in the future, but not yet).
My fingers are itching to be sarcastic and say "what a suprise", but sadly it really is none.
I can't blame you for thinking that. I do hope to look at things further, but there are other open source projects that I'm involved with as well. Within a few days hopefully one minor *WRT distribution will be getting an updated set of kernel patches. Then I've got some Android lock screen experimentation to do, then I may be looking back at AIMSICD.
Some notes on dual-SIM devices. I believe most dual-SIM devices allow one SIM to operate in 2G/3G/4G while the other is 2G-only. The one operating in 3G/4G mode can be easily switched, but only one at a time acts in 3G/4G and this one is also used for data.
Appears on my device AIMSICD is reportting data from the first SIM and ignoring the data from the second SIM/radio. If I tell it to turn off the first SIM, the data under "SIM Information" is blank. If I completely remove the first SIM, then AIMSICD will report data from the second SIM slot (after rebooting, since removing the SIM requires powering off the device).
I can't blame you for thinking that.
Rest assured that I'm not blaming you in specific, but generally how few people actually contribute given the efforts of in how many places I continuously keep introducing our app to people, websites, etc. Please take all the time you need to finish the other things you're aiming to look at. We're very happy if you come back once in a while and actually use our app, note down improvements and craft PRs.
Regarding this Issue, I'm not quite sure how you'd map out an "ideal solution". We currently only have one main screen and I'm sure you'd like to see the data of the second and third SIM as well? Tell us.
@ehem Please stop spamming our issues. @SecUpwN Do I need to lock this issue or block the user?
Do I need to lock this issue or block the user?
@E3V3A, neither of these options. @ehem is a good guy. He understood.
@E3V3A, I do not want to step on your toes, but closing Issues without a proper explanation to the user who filed it will not bring freedom to our user base. I have specifically added the label DEV_DISCUSSION to discuss this to to find out: Are we going to support dual SIM / triple SIM phones at all? @He3556 and @banjaxbanjo, is there even the possibility that our app could ever check two or three SIMs at the same time as a measure to detect a rogue base station? Do we need to tell our users "Folks, our app is aiming to work on as many single SIM phones as possible"? Proper answers, please. Do not close!
I think we should at least support multiple SIMs in a basic behavior. We should at least use/check/track the towerdata of both SIMSs. As they can be of different providers they will see different cells.
Also the SIM details should be show in the SIM details activity. This could be done with a dropdown to choose one of them or by simply view them one under the other.
The should at least use/check/track the towerdata of both SIMSs As they can be of different providers they will see different cells.
I don't see any benefit at all for being able to do this. This OT "feature" seem totally irrelevant for the primary goal of AIMSICD. Use your SIM manager to switch your SIM or physically swap them.
The only possible benefit for this, is IF you (for example) could access the baseband and force SIM-1 to use LTE and SIM-2 to use UMTS, on the same MNC. I don't see anyone presently here, to have the skills to implement this for the foreseeable future. Which is why I closed this issue as invalid.
The primary goal of AIMSICD is to detect IMSI Catchers. Why should we only detect them on the first SIM? What is with IMSI catchers the second SIM is connecting to?
Thank you for adding your valuable opinions, folks. I really like what has been proposed in https://github.com/SecUpwN/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/issues/504#issuecomment-121856461 and am voting for the dropdown menu so that details for each SIM can be compared by the user. @DJaeger, are you able to tackle this first basic implementation? Enhancements appreciated.
@SecUpwN Seem like you're not believing what I'm saying. I repeat, I don't see anyone capable of modifying the baseband behavior here, so, drop it!
If you just wanna see the IMEI, and service provider for both, fine. But don't think for a second you're gonna be able to use both at the same time in this app.
@E3V3A, so you don't think that we should at least implement some basic checks?
We should at least use/check/track the towerdata of both SIMSs. As they can be of different providers they will see different cells.
Thinking: Heavy differences between the SIMs = possible IMSI-Catcher = some Alert?
The only possible benefit for this, is IF you (for example) could access the baseband and force SIM-1 to use LTE and SIM-2 to use UMTS, on the same MNC. I don't see anyone presently here, to have the skills to implement this for the foreseeable future. Which is why I closed this issue as invalid.
While I've got no idea whether this can be controlled by AIMSICD, precisely this is entirely possible with my phone. The 3G/4G protocols can only be used on one SIM at a time, the other SIM can only be using the 2G protocol. The SIM which the 2G/3G/4G hardware is talking to can be forced to only use the 3G/4G protocols. While I doubt AIMSICD could force both SIMs to use the same MNC, AIMSICD can check whether both SIMs are talking to the same MNC and which protocol version they're using at which point we've met the requirements for the above.
I was originally thinking more along the lines of what @DJaeger was thinking. Merely monitoring both SIMs may provide more data.
If entities are only targetting one SIM, suspicious behavior may be more readily detected on the other SIM. Heavy differences between SIMs from one carrier may be suspicious (though this may not be detectable). Two SIMs from distinct carriers converging on the same tower, particularly if "native" towers are visible may also be suspicious.
Why should it be suspicious if a phone with SIMs from one carrier are connected to different cells? Is it not possible on moving, that one has already connected to the next cell, while one is still connected to the previous and will change a little bit later?
If both SIMs are from different carriers and see the same cell this is realy suspicious. But is this possible, as they should have different MNCs? Doesn't Android already prevent this?
What is the problem with "may provide more data." ? This is the part I mean, what we should do.
If both SIMs are from different carriers and see the same cell this is realy suspicious. But is this possible, as they should have different MNCs? Doesn't Android already prevent this? What is the problem with "may provide more data." ?
@E3V3A and @He3556, please help to answer the quoted questions. Thank you.
From what I understand from discussions in other projects, Android before 5.1 has no standard way to deal with multi-sim phones; it is put in by the builders of those phones. So to support this in those phones requires a vendor-specific solution, and there are a lot of obscure vendors buidling multi-sim phones so supporting them would be a lot of work.
Dual sim phones are standard de-facto in Russia now. Is it possible to add at least sim-switching ? How I could support fixing this issue? Bounty source https://www.bountysource.com or something like that ?
