4G and CDMA Reportedly Hacked At DEFCON

An anonymous reader writes "At the DEFCON 19 hacking conference it seems that a full man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack was successfully launched against all 4G and CDMA transmissions in and around the venue, the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. This MITM attack enabled hackers to gain permanent kernel-level root access in some Android and PC devices using a rootkit, and non-persistent user space access in others. In both cases, whoever launched this attack on CDMA and 4G devices was able to steal data and monitor conversations. For now the only evidence that such an attack occurred is a Full Disclosure mailing list post, but in the next few hours and days, depending on the response from cellular carriers, we should know whether it's real or not."

Comments

And they said I was crazy

[ArhcAngel]

for sticking with my RAZR! BWAHAHAHAH...

Define "4G"

[russlar]

Which "4G" technology are we talking? WiMAX? LTE? AT&T&Tmobile's HSPA cranked up to 11?

Don't take electronics, maybe?

[Beardydog]

Why in god's name would anyone be willing to go to that with electronics? For god's sake, just take a pad and pencil! Even if you manage not to become part of a hilarious proof-of-concept hack to startle the audience into realizing how easy it is to X and Y someone's Z by forging an A with a malformed B, and avoid being targeted by some Russian mobster who's thrown out a dragnet for data on -other- people's new techniques ( and sure, credit card numbers and personal info, as long as were in there already, the place is still probably surrounded by black vans full of studious FBI, NSA, DHS, and CIA ( east AND west ) agents, all trying to hack, monitor, and watchlist you on completely separate orders and agendas. It's got to be just... a shitstorm. Am I wrong?

Really surprised... not.

[ewanm89]

This is DEFCON, it's like putting every army and mercenary group in the world in one room without disarming them first. There is a reason why the DEFCON wireless network is described as the most hostile network on earth, it's more hostile than the internet itself.

Re:le sigh

[DrgnDancer]

My technology plan for BlackHat:

1) Put phone on airplane mode
2) Once a day, drive to the middle of the desert to check e-mail/voice mail/text messages.
3) Put phone back on airplane mode.
4) Hope some enterprising asshole hasn't put up some crap in the middle of the desert.

Probably a little over paranoid, but not much. In reality I'd probably be a bit less paranoid than that, but I'd definitely move a few hotels down to do anything more serious than checking text messages.