‘Xiaomi can intervene with censorship on smartphones’

A remarkable outcome of a study into Xiaomi devices. This research shows that Xiaomi can intervene with censorship, but there are many more security risks.

Censorship at Xiaomi

A cybersecurity center in Lithuania has stumbled upon a remarkable feature in smartphone research. On the Xiaomi Mi 10T 5G, the center has found three security vulnerabilities. A notable security issue is that content can be censored by Xiaomi.

It concerns various apps from Xiaomi itself that regularly download a list containing terms that are blocked. According to the Lithuanian research agency, this content is blocked if, for example, a search query enters a prohibited word. It is expected that this concerns information about, for example, the independence of Taiwan, Tibet and other subjects that are sensitive in China.

According to the research, the censorship function is not directly active on devices sold in Europe (or at least Lithuania), but could be activated remotely by the manufacturer. The censorship function may be activated on the smartphones sold in China by Xiaomi.

Other risks

Another security risk has to do with data collection. According to the researchers, a user’s actions on the phone are sent to the Chinese version of Google Analytics. According to the Lithuanian NKSC, this would be redundant information. An SMS is also sent when you sign up for Xiaomi Cloud. The content of the message that is sent cannot be read by researchers, making it unclear what exactly is being sent.

In the NKSC investigation, even more devices were examined. It was striking with the Huawei P40 Lite that Huawei sometimes forwards users to an app store of a third provider for downloading. These can sometimes be antivirus apps, which actually contain malware. The OnePlus 8T has also been examined; no security risks were found in this.

As in Belgium, Chinese smartphones are labeled as risk phones in Lithuania. That is why the cybersecurity center has started the investigation.