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<title>Inferencium Network - About</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href=infnet.css>
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<div class="sidebar">
<a class="title">Inferencium Network</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<div><a href="about.html">About</a></div>
<div><a href="contact.html">Contact</a></div>
<div><a href="blog.html">Blog</a></div>
<div><a href="source.html">Source</a></div>
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</div>
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<body>
<h1>About</h1>
<br>
<h3>About Me</h3>
<p>I am Inference, a cybersecurity researcher based in United Kingdom.<br>
<br>
<p>I write about my research and experience in cybersecurity and also physical
security. Most of my postings are security-related, but I occasionally post
about other aspects of my life.</p>
<br>
<p>I am an open source advocate for the preservation and modifiability of
source code. I believe source code should be considered human knowledge as
much as past knowledge and teachings were; it is how modern humanity
survives and runs.<br>
Source code being modifiable allows it to be adapted
for use by anyone, whether to add features, harden it for increased security
and/or privacy, or provide accessibility for disabled users.<br>
I am also a modular design advocate for the ability to securely and
robustly make changes to hardware and software without the entire system
being affected.</p>
<br>
<p>If you want to contact me for any reason, you can use my
<a class="body-link" href="https://inferencium.net/contact.html">contact methods</a>.</p>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3>Hardware I Use</h3>
<h4>Smartphone</h4>
<table>
<tr>
<td class="table-title">Type</td>
<td class="table-title">Hardware</td>
<td class="table-title">Description</td>
<td class="table-title">Source model<br>
<br>
(License)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Smartphone</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="img/google-pixel_6.png" width="100px" height="100px"/><br>
<br>
Google Pixel 6</td>
<td>Google Pixel devices are the best Android devices available on
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the market for
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<a class="table-link" href="https://security.googleblog.com/2021/10/pixel-6-setting-new-standard-for-mobile.html"
>security and privacy</a>.<br>
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<br>
They allow locking the bootloader with a
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<a class="table-link" href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/avb/+/master/README.md#pixel-2-and-later"
>custom Android Verified Boot (AVB) key</a> in order to preserve security and privacy features when installing a custom
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operating system, such as
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<a class="table-link" href="https://source.android.com/docs/security/features/verifiedboot/"
>verified boot</a> which verifies that the OS has not been corrupted or tampered with, and
<a class="table-link" href="https://source.android.com/docs/security/features/verifiedboot/verified-boot#rollback-protection"
>rollback protection</a> which prevents an adversary from rolling back the OS or firmware version to a
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previous version with known security vulnerabilities.<br>
<br>
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They also include a
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<a class="table-link" href="https://developer.android.com/training/articles/keystore#HardwareSecurityModule"
>hardware security module</a> (Titan M2, improving on the previous generation
<a class="table-link" href="https://security.googleblog.com/2018/10/building-titan-better-security-through.html"
>Titan M</a>) which is extremely resistant to both remote and physical attacks due to being
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completely isolated from the rest of the system, including the operating system.
Titan M2 ensures that the device cannot be remotely compromised by requiring the
side buttons of the device to be physically pressed for some sensitive operations.
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Titan M2 also takes the role of
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<a class="table-link" href="https://source.android.com/docs/security/best-practices/hardware#strongbox-keymaster"
>Android StrongBox Keymaster</a>,
a <a class="table-link" href="https://source.android.com/docs/security/features/keystore"
>hardware-backed Keystore</a> containing sensitive user keys which are unavailable to
the OS or apps running on it without authorisation from Titan M2 itself.
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<a class="table-link" href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2018/05/insider-attack-resistance.html"
>Insider attack resistance</a> ensures that Titan M2 firmware can be flashed only if the user PIN/password
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is already known, making it impossible to backdoor the device without already knowing
these secrets.<br>
<br>
Google Pixel device kernels are compiled with
<a class="table-link" href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2018/10/control-flow-integrity-in-android-kernel.html"
>forward-edge control-flow integrity</a> and
<a class="table-link" href="https://security.googleblog.com/2019/10/protecting-against-code-reuse-in-linux_30.html"
>backward-edge control-flow integrity</a> to prevent code reuse attacks against
the kernel. MAC address randomisation is
<a class="table-link" href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/04/changes-to-device-identifiers-in.html"
>implemented well, along with minimal probe requests and randomised initial sequence numbers</a>.<br>
<br>
Google releases
<a class="table-link" href="https://source.android.com/docs/security/bulletin/pixel/"
>guaranteed monthly security updates</a>, ensuring Google Pixel devices are
up-to-date and quickly protected against security vulnerabilities.<br>
<br>
Pixel 6-series devices are a large improvement over the already very secure and private
previous generation Pixel devices. They replace ARM-based Titan M with RISC-V-based Titan M2,
reducing trust by removing ARM from the equation. Titan M2 is more resiliant to attacks than
Titan M, and is
<a class="table-link" href="https://www.tuv-nederland.nl/assets/files/cerfiticaten/2022/09/nscib-cc-22-0228971-cert-final.pdf"
>AVA_VAN.5 certified</a>, the highest level of vulnerability assessment. Google's
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in-house Tensor SoC includes Tensor Security Core, further improving device security.<br>
Pixel 6-series devices are supported for a
<a class="table-link" href="https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705#zippy=%2Cpixel-and-later"
>minimum of 5 years from launch</a>, an increase from
previous generations'
<a class="table-link" href="https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705#zippy=%2Cpixel-xl-a-a-g-and-a-g"
>support lifecycles of 3 years</a>.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<h3>Software I Use</h3>
<h4>Desktop</h4>
<table>
<tr>
<td class="table-title">Type</td>
<td class="table-title">Software</td>
<td class="table-title">Description</td>
<td class="table-title">Source model<br>
<br>
(License)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Operating system</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="img/logo-gentoo_linux.png" width="100px" height="100px"/><br>
<br>
Gentoo Linux</td>
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<td><a class="table-link" href="https://www.gentoo.org/"
>Gentoo Linux</a> is a highly modular, source-based Linux-based operating system
which allows vast customisation to tailor the operating system to suit your specific
needs. There are many advantages to such an operating system, with the most notable
being the ability to optimise the software for security, privacy, performance,
or power usage; however, there are effectively unlimited other use cases, or a
combination of multiple use cases.<br>
<br>
I have focused on security hardening and privacy hardening, placing performance below
those aspects, although my system is still very performant. Some of the hardening I
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apply includes
<a class="table-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_overflow_protection"
>stack protection</a>,
<a class="table-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integer_overflow"
>signed integer overflow wrapping</a>, and GrapheneOS'
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/hardened_malloc/"
>hardened_malloc</a> memory allocator.<br>
<br>
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You can find my personal Gentoo Linux configuration in my personal
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<a class="table-link" href="https://git.inferencium.net/inference/cfg/"
>configuration respository</a>.</td>
<td class="table-main">Open source<br>
<br>
(GPLv2-only)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Web browser</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="img/logo-chromium.png" width="100px" height="100px"/><br>
<br>
Chromium</td>
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<td><a class="table-link" href="https://chromium.org/"
>Chromium</a> is a highly secure web browser which is often ahead of other
web browsers in security aspects. It has a dedicated security team and a
very impressive
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<a class="table-link" href="https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/brag-sheet/"
>security brag sheet</a>.
Chromium's security features include a strong
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<a class="table-link" href="https://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/LinuxSandboxing"
>multi-layer sandbox</a>,
strong <a class="table-link" href="https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/site-isolation"
>site isolation</a>,
<a class="table-link" href="https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/binding-integrity"
>Binding Integrity</a> memory hardening, and
<a class="table-link" href="https://www.chromium.org/developers/testing/control-flow-integrity/"
>control-flow integrity (CFI)</a>.<br>
<br>
You can learn more about Chromium by visiting its
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<a class="table-link" href="https://www.chromium.org/Home/"
>official website</a> which provides extensive documentation.</td>
<td class="table-main">Open source<br>
<br>
(BSD 3-Clause)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h4>Smartphone</h4>
<table>
<tr>
<td>Type</td>
<td>Software</td>
<td>Description</td>
<td>Source model<br>
<br>
(License)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Operating system</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="img/logo-grapheneos.png" width="100px" height="100px"/><br>
<br>
GrapheneOS</td>
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<td><a class="table-link" href="https://grapheneos.org/"
>GrapheneOS</a> is a security-hardened, privacy-hardened, secure-by-default
Android-based operating system which implements extensive, systemic security
and privacy hardening to the Android Open Source Project used as its base
codebase. Its hardening includes closing gaps for apps to access sensitive
system information, a secure app spawning feature which avoids sharing address
space layout and other secrets AOSP's default Zygote app spawning model would
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share,
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<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/kernel_gs-gs101/"
>hardened kernel</a>, hardened memory allocator
(<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/hardened_malloc/"
>hardened_malloc</a>) to protect against common memory corruption vulnerabilties,
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_bionic/"
>hardened Bionic standard C library</a>,
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_system_sepolicy/"
>stricter SELinux policies</a>, and local and remote hardware-backed attestation
(<a class="table-link" href="https://attestation.app/about/"
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>Auditor</a>) to ensure the OS has not been corrupted or tampered with.
GrapheneOS only supports
<a class="table-link" href="https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-support"
>high security and well-supported devices</a> which receive
full support from their manufacturers, including firmware updates, long support
lifecycles, secure hardware, and overall high security practices.<br>
<br>
For an extensive list of features GrapheneOS provides, visit its
<a class="table-link" href="https://grapheneos.org/features/"
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>official website</a> which provides extensive documentation.</td>
<td class="table-main">Open source<br>
<br>
(MIT)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Web browser</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="img/logo-vanadium.png" width="100px" height="100px"/><br>
<br>
Vanadium</td>
<td>Vanadium is a security-hardened, privacy-hardened Chromium-based web browser
which utilises GrapheneOS' operating system hardening to implement stronger
defenses to the already very secure Chromium web browser. Its hardening alongside
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Chromium's base security features includes
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Vanadium/blob/13/patches/0081-Implement-UI-for-JIT-site-settings.patch"
>disabling JavaScript just-in-time (JIT) compilation by default</a>,
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Vanadium/blob/13/patches/0051-stub-out-the-battery-status-API.patch"
>stubbing out the battery status API to prevent abuse of it</a>, and
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Vanadium/blob/13/patches/0084-Toggle-for-navigating-external-URL-in-incognito.patch"
>always-on Incognito mode as an option</a>.<br>
<br>
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Vanadium's source code, including its Chromium patchset, can be found in its
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<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Vanadium/"
>official repository</a>.</td>
<td class="table-main">Open source<br>
<br>
(GPLv2-only)</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Messenger</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="img/logo-molly.png" width="100px" height="100px"><br>
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<br>
Molly</td>
<td><a class="table-link" href="https://molly.im/"
>Molly</a> is a security-hardened, privacy-hardened
<a class="table-link" href="https://signal.org/"
>Signal</a> client which hardens Signal by using a variety of
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/mollyim/mollyim-android#features"
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>unique features</a>, allowing
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<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/mollyim/mollyim-android/wiki/Data-Encryption-At-Rest"
>locking the database when not in use</a>, and
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/mollyim/mollyim-android/blob/a81ff7d120adc9d427be17239107343146bad704/app/src/main/java/org/thoughtcrime/securesms/crypto/MasterSecretUtil.java#L91"
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>utilising Android StrongBox</a> to protect user keys using the device's
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hardware security module.<br>
<br>
Molly is available in
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/mollyim/mollyim-android#free-and-open-source"
>2 flavours</a>:<br>
<ul>
<li>Molly, which includes the same proprietary
Google code as Signal to support more features.</li>
<br>
<li>Molly-FOSS, which removes
the proprietary Google code to provide an entirely open source client.</li>
</ul></td>
<td class="table-main">Open source<br>
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<br>
(GPLv3)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<br>
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</body>
</html>