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Remotely Compromising Android and iOS via a bug in Broadcom's WI-FI Chipsets

(blog.exodusintel.com)
387 points pedro84 | 5 comments | 26 Jul 17 19:51 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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shock ◴[26 Jul 17 20:14 UTC] No.14859838[source]▶
This is kind of scary :(. How does one ensure that they aren't vulnerable to this bug?
replies(7): >>14859911 #>>14859922 #>>14859950 #>>14860039 #>>14860460 #>>14860969 #>>14861222 #
excalibur ◴[26 Jul 17 20:23 UTC] No.14859922[source]▶
Don't use any devices with a Broadcom Wi-Fi chipset.
replies(1): >>14860292 #
1. merb ◴[26 Jul 17 20:58 UTC] No.14860292[source]▶
which basically means don't use any wifi. I think at least 60% of all wi-fi chipsets are broadcom ones.
replies(2): >>14861267 #>>14861362 #
2. cpncrunch ◴[26 Jul 17 23:21 UTC] No.14861267[source]▶
And who's to say another chipset won't have a similar issue?
3. gruez ◴[26 Jul 17 23:34 UTC] No.14861362[source]▶
that seems pretty doable. on phones there's qualcomm chipsets, and on desktops/laptops there's atheros, intel, and realtek (of the vendors i know of).
replies(2): >>14861774 #>>14863387 #
4. simonh ◴[27 Jul 17 00:57 UTC] No.14861774[source]▶
So your considered recommendation is for 60% of recently bought device owners globally to all replace their phones, tablets and laptops with devices containing Qualcomm chips, immediately.

And this is preferable to a software fix.

5. merb ◴[27 Jul 17 07:45 UTC] No.14863387[source]▶
well on servers/laptops i was always happy to have a intel chip. I once bought a usb stick with intel, which was a complete chunk of garbadge. Well the BCM chips were "mostly" stable, so I didn't had too much problems with them, some chips had problems under linux, but besides that they were ok.