[guardian-dev] An update from the GuardianROM team

Nathan of Guardian nathan at guardianproject.info
Tue Jan 7 10:52:06 EST 2014


Just to be clear, the GuardianROM is not an effort by the core Guardian
Project team, but I like what they are up to, and am happy to be
associated with their efforts. Kyle has worked on number of valuable
tools including SecDroid and the Guardian Project Installer for
CyanogenMOD, and even better he's Canadian!

That said, I think the work needs a lot more eyes on out and people
testing it, so I wanted to share their recent update and big plans!

***

http://shadowdcatconsulting.com/blog/2014/1/5/new-years-update

New Years Update
January 05, 2014
Happy New Years Everyone!

First off, I apologize for not posting updates as often as I should. I
have been really busy as of late with Guardian Rom and work. To commence
the new year we have a few updates and news to share with all of you,
but before I get to that, I have a promise to make. I will be posting at
least one (1) update everyweek from now on. To keep everyone updated on
Guardian Rom and any related projects. Stay tuned here on the blog as
well as on my personal site www.kyledavidson.ca

Updates

Progress:

Guardian Rom is near completion at this time. We mainly have to polish
up the UI so it's more friendly to non-techies and techies alike. After
this is complete we should be able to release to Our alpha channel for
some Quality control before releasing the final version.


Release Channels:

Guardian Rom will also have new release channels to allow users to
choose what build they wish to run. The Channels will be:

Stable Channel - Most stable buld. Feature Frozen - Bug & Security fixes
only for minor .X releases - New Features on Major X.0 releases. This is
the channel that the average user should use. Each major version is
supported with bug fixes for 3-months after a new version is released.
Beta Channel - May be unstable. New features arrive here for testing by
the community before being pushed out. Labeled as X.Xb (b for beta).
Should be mostly stable but user may experience some hiccups.
Alpha Channel - Completely Unstable. The Alpha Channel is also the
Nightly channel and is ONLY reccomended for Developers or exeperienced
users. This channel is bleeding edge and has all new features as they
are rolled out. Bugs are expected in this build. These builds are
labeled as X.Xa (a - For alpha).
New Features:

Secure File Deletion - We have ported over the Linux binary for shred to
android and added a GUI frontend.
Secure Recovery - We are developing a secure recovery menu for Guardian
Rom. The recovery menu will allow the user to Password/PIN protect it
and support secure delete (DOD-3 Pass/Custom).
Testing Xen Isolation - We are testing our Xen Isolation in hopes that
we can use it similar to QubesOS. This would allow a user to run apps in
isolated VMs. For example if a user wanted to user the playstore but not
allow it to have access to personal information a VM could be set up to
host the play store and it's app while keeping it isolated for all
personal data.
NOTE: Xen Isolation is in VERY Early testing and may not make it into
version 1 of Guardian Rom.

Apps:

We have been toying with the idea that Guardian Rom needs apps and an
App Store of it's own. To this end we have the following apps in the works:

GNotePad - A simple notepad for writing text files. Uses SQLCipher to
store text with an option for the user to set a password to protect the
notes.
GTask - A simple todo list app. Uses SQLCipher to store data with an
option for a user set password.
GShred - A port and GUI front end of the GNU Coreutils program Shred
which is used for securely deleting Files.
SecDroid 2.0 - A Fully re-engineered SecDroid designed to be much more
functional then the orignal secdroid. Protects your phone by disable
unneeded binaries and ADB.
GStore - A Fully FOSS store based on F-Droid. The store will host all of
our apps and allow the users to update and install new ones over a
secure channel.
GPanic - A simple Panic button & Widget. Once set up by the user,
pressing the button trigers an SOS message sent to the users emergancy
contacts and optionaly wipes the phone.
We are also comming up with more apps to include. All of these apps will
be FOSS and released in Guardian Rom and on our website for use on any
android device.


Funding:

The one issue we have encountered so far is funding. In order for us to
speed up development of Guardian Rom and hire on some more developers
(Only one developer right now!) we need some funding. For that we have
started a KickStarter Campaign. Right now it is in preview mode (as we
have yet to finish recording our video) but please take a look and let
us know what you think! All support is welcome and appreciated. If you
are a developer and are interested in helping out please contact us
[contact us link].

Other ways to support the project: PayPal Flatr BitCoin Shop


How to stay up to date:

Once the KickStarter starts we will be doing a weekly hangout every
Saturday around 11 AM PST. Also bookmark this blog or add it to your RSS
Reader. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or G+.


More information about the Guardian-dev mailing list