While open-source projects highlight the theoretical insecurities, the commercial market for "secret firmware" has flourished, driven by law enforcement's need to access locked devices. These are not just simple pieces of malware but sophisticated hardware appliances and forensic suites, tightly guarded trade secrets.
Because GSM baseband firmware was originally designed decades ago when network access was tightly controlled by a few telecom monopolies, it lacks modern security guardrails. Security researchers have uncovered several critical vectors of exploitation: 1. Over-the-Air (OTA) Exploits gsm secret firmware