We have all seen this CIQ information in SFR thread and repeated all over the internet on various forums and blog sites.
What I am asking in this thread is for any specific information about CIQ that Dev's who have worked with it are willing to provide from their personal experience with investigating and removing it. I am also asking Dev's and Forum Members who have come across other articles, threads in other forums, etc, to please provide information with links.
I am seeking facts, file names, files, information on CIQ in the framework, specifically what files CIQ hooks into, etc. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
I received a response yesterday (June 15, 2011) from a group that has disassembled IQAgent & CarrierIQ.
in response to questions about CIQ's capabilities.
During a telephone call with Sprint and in a follow up email Sprint responded to requests for information on Carrier IQ, who was responsible for the installation on Sprint's hardware and asked to directly address concerns over its potentially invasive nature.
In the same conversation and follow up email Sprint stated;
Update July 5, 2011
Sprint still refuses to address the concerns over Carrier IQ's potentially invasive nature. When directly questioned on if CIQ as it is installed on Sprint hardware is capable of the level of invasive data collection as previously reported by Steve Toplez, Sprint responds with complete silence.
I have since requested contact and an official response from both Sprint's compliance department and General Counsel. Once again, the silence is deafening.
Code:
What Is Carrier IQ? Why Should We Care?
3/31/2011: Hello, Slashdotters!
Put simply - and bluntly - Carrier IQ is a software package buried deep within Android by Samsung at the behest of Sprint. It has been in active use since the time of the Moment, if not before. The company that develops it, also known as Carrier IQ, bills it as "Mobile Service Intelligence". In their own words,
[T]he combination of the MSIP and IQ Insight lets you move seamlessly from broad trend data across many users, through comparative groups down to diagnostic data from individual devices. Now, not only can you identify trends, you have the power to drill down to specific instances, giving you the insight your specialists need to make a difference.
On its own, that description can vary from harmless, to worrying, depending on how you look at it. It's not until one drills deep down into the system and ferrets out every piece of the software that one truly knows what it contains. As some of you might remember, ACS took the first steps toward disabling the Carrier IQ software with the release of SyndicateROM and Xtreme Kernel 1.0. That, however, didn't even scratch the surface.
Carrier IQ's native libraries are plainly visible - libiq_client.so and libiq_service.so in /system/lib. During every boot, this service is launched - you can see it in Settings > Applications > Running Services as "IQAgent Service". These native libraries are called by non-native (Android application) libraries located in ext.jar (the client) and framework.jar (the service). Removal of these (rather obviously-named) libraries alone, be it the .so files or the libraries in framework or ext, will, obviously, break boot. So I - k0nane - had to dig deeper. To make a long story short, reference to the IQ Service and IQ Client were littered across the deepest portions of the framework, and some of the most basic functions of the Android system as we know it.
Carrier IQ as a platform is designed to collect "metrics" at any scale. What I found it to hook into is far beyond the scope of anything a carrier needs - or should want - to be collecting. Carrier IQ sits in the middle of, and "checks" the data of, SMS and MMS messages. It listens for and receives every battery change notifications. It hooks into every web page you view, and every XML file your device reads. It receives every press of the touch screen. It 'sees' what you type on the physical keyboard. It reads every number you press in the dialer. It can track which applications you use, what 'type' they are, how often, and for how long. It hooks into data sent and received.
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Code:
Provided by chris41g
to be effectively removed you only need to remove it from 4 files. it is referenced elsewhere scattered throughout... but the four main files are
DialerTabActivity.apk
ext.jar
framework.jar
services.jar
then in the kernels initramfs, you have to disable the service in the init.rc
Provided by mkasick
Here's all the files that reference "CIQ", "carrieriq", or "libiq" with instances unrelated to Carrier IQ removed:
/ (initramfs):
- init: /dev/ttyCIQ0 UART, presumably to communicate with radio.
- init.rc: Start iqmsd service if property:service.iq.active=1.
- lib/modules/dpram.ko: Implements ttyCIQ UARTs.
/system:
- app/DialerTabActivity.odex
- app/FactoryTest.odex
- bin/iqmsd
- framework/ext.odex
- framework/framework.odex
- framework/sec_feature.odex
- framework/services.odex
- lib/libiq_client.so
- lib/libiq_service.so
Of these, bin/iqmsd is a purpose-unknown daemon, and libiq_client.so & libiq_service.so the client & service native code. The client & service managed code is implemented in framework/ext.odex & framework/framework.odex respectively.
In addition, the following framework classes reference Carrier IQ in some fashion:
framework/ext.odex:
- org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector
framework.framework.odex:
- android.inputmethodservice.InputMethodService
- android.net.http.Request
- android.webkit.{BrowserFrame,CallbackProxy,LoadLis tener,WebViewCore}
- com.android.internal.telephony.SMSDispatcher
framework.services.odex:
- com.android.server.BatteryService
- com.android.server.WindowManagerService
- com.android.server.am.UsageStatsService
Finally, libiq_service.so is used exclusively by framework/framework.odex (com.carrieriq.iqagent.client.NativeClient), and libiq_client.so is used by:
- bin/iqmsd
- framework/ext.odex (com.carrieriq.iqagent.service.IQService)
- lib/libopencore_player.soI received a response yesterday (June 15, 2011) from a group that has disassembled IQAgent & CarrierIQ.
in response to questions about CIQ's capabilities.
Now while the above statement is about the Optimus, I was able to confirm through another source that IQAgent & CarrierIQ collection and transmission capabilities are set the same across all Sprint Android offerings.
During a telephone call with Sprint and in a follow up email Sprint responded to requests for information on Carrier IQ, who was responsible for the installation on Sprint's hardware and asked to directly address concerns over its potentially invasive nature.
Off the record, Google has denied this referencing that the Nexus S did not have CIQ installed on it because they would not let carriers install such software on their native Android devices.
In the same conversation and follow up email Sprint stated;
The representative was questioned on Sprint's use of the word "can" but could not elaborate on under what circumstances removal of CIQ would not void the warranty.
Update July 5, 2011
Sprint still refuses to address the concerns over Carrier IQ's potentially invasive nature. When directly questioned on if CIQ as it is installed on Sprint hardware is capable of the level of invasive data collection as previously reported by Steve Toplez, Sprint responds with complete silence.
I have since requested contact and an official response from both Sprint's compliance department and General Counsel. Once again, the silence is deafening.
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