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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

The iPhone baseband processor speaks a point-to-point USB-like protocol to the AP, and does not have access to secrets stored in the AP or the secure enclave. Secure applications on the phone have to assume that the cellular network is insecure already, so the colocated baseband processor doesn't much impact the threat model.

So, no, this is not a good argument.

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Not a good argument for the tiny fraction of smartphone users who happen to use iPhones, or not a good argument at all?

The comment I replied to mentions the iPhone, but made the blanket statement "Your mobile..." plus the article I linked to addresses multiple mobile OSs.

It would be helpful to explicitly state which make and model smartphones you believe are not susceptible to baseband threats. I think Blackphone has also integrated countermeasures but information on this topic is pretty sparse.

Modern iPhones are generally significantly more secure than modern Android phones, but so long as we're talking about (a) modern mobile devices (b) provided by Apple or Google, then I'm comfortable saying that all these devices are more secure than your computer --- which, for what it's worth, is littered with all sorts of little embedded doohickeys with code you can't see.

Okay good to know. Not sure who's downvoting you because this is useful info.

Now if we can forget the comparison between smartphones and computers, it would be great to know exactly which smartphones are a good choice for users of encrypted email. I'm on Android now only because it easy enough to root and use without any Google services (I prefer to self-host and use F-Droid for apps). I don't particularly like Android but it is the 'lesser of two evils' for now.

If I can do the same with an iPhone and never have an account with Apple I would definitely be interested as the iPhone hardware seems pretty good.

Basebands have not had full hardware access for quite some time now, due to their habit of being full of exploits that can be used to unlock the device. It's not just an iPhone thing.

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