Researchers from Purdue University and the University of Iowa have come up with 10 new ways to hack 4G LTE networks. With the help of them, hackers can connect to the network under the guise of another user, forge the sender of messages and data on the location of the mobile device, as well as forcibly disconnect other people's phones from the network. Let's briefly talk about what the researchers came up with.
According to Bleeping Computer, the researchers have so far presented only a description of the problems and did not begin to talk about their details. They are waiting for troubleshooting.
What are the three main types of hacks that scientists have found?
Depending on the damaged protocol, which support 4G LTE mobile networks around the world: connecting the device to the network (Attach), disconnecting (Detach) and paging (Paging) - a protocol designed to re-receive system information by the device.To find these vulnerabilities and test how they work, the authors used a test setup built from inexpensive radios, open source LTE software, and a tool called LTEInspector, whose source code was uploaded to GitHub.
1) What can be done through attach-protocols: disable services, merge location information, cause cellular services to fail, read messages from another user, change the location in the device history.
2) What can be done through paging protocols: disable some services, disconnect the user from the network, publish fake messages with warnings about disasters and terrorist attacks, drain the battery.
3) What can be done via detach protocols: reduce the speed of the network connection to 2G / 3G.
