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<!-- Inferencium - Website - About -->
<!-- Copyright 2022-2023 Jake Winters -->
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<title>Inferencium - About</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href=inf.css>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
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<a class="title">Inferencium</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><a href="key.html">Key</a></div>
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</div>
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<body>
<h1>About</h1>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<!-- Table of contents. -->
<h2 id="toc"><a href="#toc" class="h2"
>Table of Contents<a/></h2>
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<ul>
<li><a href="#about_me" class="body-link"
>About Me</a></li>
<li><a href="#licensing" class="body-link"
>Licensing</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#licensing-preferred" class="body-link"
>Preferred</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#licensing-bsd-3-clause-clear" class="body-link"
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>BSD 3-Clause Clear</a></li>
<li><a href="#licensing-mit" class="body-link"
>MIT</a></li>
<li><a href="#licensing-gpl-2.0" class="body-link"
>GPLv2</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="#licensing-other" class="body-link"
>Other</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#licensing-gpl-3.0" class="body-link"
>GPLv3</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li><a href="#recommendations" class="body-link"
>Recommendations</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#hardware" class="body-link"
>Hardware</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#hdw-smartphone" class="body-link"
>Smartphone</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="#software" class="body-link"
>Software</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#sfw-desktop" class="body-link"
>Desktop</a></li>
<li><a href="#sfw-smartphone" class="body-link"
>Smartphone</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<!-- About me. -->
<h2 id="about_me"><a href="#about_me" class="h2"
>About Me</a></h2>
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<p>I am Jake Winters, also known by my pseudonym "Inference", a cybersecurity researcher based in
United Kingdom.<br>
I am the founder, lead developer, and administrator, of Inferencium.<br>
All opinions are my own, and are not necessarily shared with projects or people I am
affiliated with.<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>
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<h2 id="licensing"><a href="#licensing" class="h2"
>Licensing</a></h2>
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<p>Inferencium cares about upstreaming and sharing code, strongly preferring licenses which
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have high license compatibility in order to permit sharing code with as many other projects
as possible; for this reason, permissive licenses are our preferred choice, while avoiding
copyleft licenses and other licenses which place restrictions on how our code may be used,
and prevent us from including important proprietary code, such as firmware, which can patch
security vulnerabilities and privacy issues. All Inferencium code is and will be
permissively licensed unless specific circumstances make it impractical or infeasible to do
so. Our goal is to share code which has the least amount of restrictions as possible, to
allow wider propagation of our code and allow more use cases and possibilities, as well as
ensuring proprietary code, whenever required, is permitted to be included.</p>
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<br>
<h3 id="licensing-bsd-3-clause-clear"><a href="#licensing-bsd-3-clause-clear" class="h3"
>BSD 3-Clause Clear</a></h3>
<code>SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause-Clear</code>
<p>Type: Permissive</p>
<br>
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<p><a href="https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause-Clear.html" class="body-link"
>BSD 3-Clause Clear</a> is a highly permissive license which allows content licensed under
it to be used in any way, whether in source or binary form, and allows sublicensing under a
different license, with the only restrictions being the original copyright notice must be
kept in order to attribute the original creator of the licensed content, and the name of the
project and/or its contributors may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from
the original project.<br>
BSD 3-Clause Clear is a derivative of <a href="https://spdx.org/licenses/
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BSD-3-Clause.html" class="body-link"
>BSD 3-Clause</a>, which adds an explicit statement clarifying that patent rights are not
granted by the license alone, and must be granted separately by the copyright and/or patent
holder(s). We prefer this license over the standard BSD 3-Clause license due to this
explicit statement which removes any possibility of debate and misunderstanding in regards
to patents applied to code using a BSD 3-Clause license.</p>
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<br>
<br>
<h2 id="recommendations"><a href="#recommendations" class="h2"
>Recommendations</a></h2>
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<br>
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<!-- Hardware I recommend as production hardware. -->
<h3 id="hardware"><a href="#hardware" class="h3"
>Hardware</a></h3>
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<br>
<h4 id="hdw-smartphone"><a href="#hdw-smartphone" class="h4"
>Smartphone</a></h4>
<div style="overflow-x:auto;">
<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 - SPDX)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Smartphone</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="asset/img/google-pixel_6.png"
width="100px" height="100px"/><br>
<br>
Google Pixel</td>
<td>Google Pixel devices are the best Android devices available on the market for
<a class="table-link" href="https://security.googleblog.com/2021/10/
pixel-6-setting-new-standard-for-mobile.html"
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>security and privacy</a>.<br>
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<br>
They allow locking the bootloader with a
<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 operating system, such as
<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 previous version with known security vulnerabilities.<br>
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<br>
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They also include a
<a class="table-link" href="https://developer.android.com/training/articles/
keystore#HardwareSecurityModule"
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>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 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. Titan M2
also takes the role of
<a class="table-link" href="https://source.android.com/docs/security/best-practices/
hardware#strongbox-keymaster"
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>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.
<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 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 and 7-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>
<br>
Pixel 6-series and 7-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>
</div>
<br>
<br>
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<!-- Software I recommend as production software. -->
<h3 id="software"><a href="#software" class="h3"
>Software</a></h3>
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<br>
<h4 id="sfw-desktop"><a href="#sfw-desktop" class="h4"
>Desktop</a></h4>
<div style="overflow-x:auto;">
<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 - SPDX)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Operating system</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="asset/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>
You can find my personal Gentoo Linux configurations 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>
(GPL-2.0-only)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Web browser</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="asset/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"
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>site isolation</a>,
<a class="table-link" href="https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/
binding-integrity"
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>Binding Integrity</a> memory hardening, and
<a class="table-link" href="https://www.chromium.org/developers/testing/
control-flow-integrity/"
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>control-flow integrity (CFI)</a>.</td>
<td class="table-main">Open source<br>
<br>
(BSD-3-Clause)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
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<br>
<h4 id="sfw-smartphone"><a href="#sfw-smartphone" class="h4"
>Smartphone</a></h4>
<div style="overflow-x:auto;">
<table>
<tr>
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<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 - SPDX)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Operating system</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="asset/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 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.<br>
<br>
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 features list</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="asset/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 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"
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>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"
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>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"
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>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>
(GPL-2.0-only)</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Messenger</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="asset/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
<a class="table-link" href="https://github.com/mollyim/mollyim-android/wiki/
Data-Encryption-At-Rest"
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>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"
>utilising Android StrongBox</a> to protect user keys using the device's hardware
security module.<br>
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<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>
(GPL-3.0-only)</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td class="table-main">Messenger</td>
<td class="table-main"><img src="asset/img/logo-conversations.png"
width="100px" height="100px"><br>
<br>
Conversations</td>
<td><a class="table-link" href="https://conversations.im/"
>Conversations</a> is a well-designed Android
<a class="table-link" href="https://xmpp.org/"
>XMPP</a> client which serves as the de facto XMPP reference client and has great
usability.</td>
<td class="table-main">Open source<br>
<br>
(GPL-3.0-only)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br>
<br>
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</body>
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</html>