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Leaky Cellphone Nets Can Give Attackers Your Location
alphadogg writes "GSM cellular networks leak enough location data to give third-parties secret access to cellphone users' whereabouts, according to new University of Minnesota research. 'We have shown that there is enough information leaking from the lower layers of the GSM communication stack to enable an attacker to perform location tests on a victim's device. We have shown that those tests can be performed silently without a user being aware by aborting PSTN calls before they complete,' write the authors, from the College of Science and Engineering, in a paper titled 'Location Leaks on the GSM Air Interface' (Pdf). The researchers are working with carriers and equipment makers, including AT&T and Nokia, to address the security issues."
Don't use GSM. Most of Europe has 3G at least and some parts LTE. If you happen to travel to the USA then getting tracked by GSM is the least of your problems with all the surveillance they have there now ;-)
Isn't GSM geolocation limited to an accuracy of 500m?
Oh, I don't know. I feel fine.
Assuming that proximity to a tower carrying T-Mobile service is a prerequisite.
You feel fine with all the governments all around the world passing laws to enable Big Brother monitoring without warrants? You feel fine with media companies pushing laws to turn the internet into a streaming TV? You feel fine with companies like Monsanto polluting the world's food chain? You feel fine with corporations turning their workers into slaves with ever diminishing pay checks?
Ignorance is bliss.
There was an article in Wired magazine about doing this very thing more than 10 years ago.
Woosh
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
http://xkcd.com/610/
" GSM cellular networks leak enough location data to give third-parties secret access to cellphone users' whereabouts, according to new University of Minnesota research. "
Then it closes with,
"The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology."
The paper(.PDF) was authored by Denis Foo Kune, John Koelndorfer, Nicholas Hopper, and Yongdae Kim. Now read the PDF. Does it sound kinda funny to you(a native English speaker)? Perhaps Kune and Kim should have let Nicholas, or at least John, write the paper.
Now, I'm not trolling, I just believe that it makes the most sense for native speakers to write for their target countries. Eloquence is academic, and the western version of this paper has UMinn and the names of two caucasians on it.
I heard that you can only perform this hack by uploading a virus from a Mac to the carriers central server farm - so, the chances of it being viable are slim.
I'm trying to think of one thing someone could do to me armed with knowldege of my current location. Fly a drone missile into me? Fortunately I'm not that important. I'm sure it matters to some people, but I'm not going to lose any sleep.
verizon to the rescue! woohoo!
captcha: securing
Ignorance is bliss
Are you an angel?
1. Switch the damn thing off when you're not using it.
2. If you can't switch it "off" because the phone doesn't switch off properly, then you've only yourself to blame for buying a crap phone.
3. If you're a USAian and can't switch off because your employer is an Orwellian bastard then life sucks
4. If you're tied to social networks then GET A LIFE. Don't think your existence needs to be validated by others.
I think I've covered most usage cases there. Of course, if you are the sort of person who really does need to keep below the surveillance horizon, then you'll already be doing 1. The rest will be tracked/have their voicemails and emails hacked and their lives made a general misery. Most won't even know they're being watched!
I have to ask, did anyone who commented even read this? I spent 20 minutes reading this technical paper, i by no means claim to have understood any of it, and i looked forward to reading the comments because I figured the comments would make some sense out of all this. Yah, that didnt happen.
Yes, GSM system needs to know the cell you are using during a call.
This seems to be known issue: How come phone exchange knows with whom I am talking?
It seems a bit silly to me, really. If cell is not known, connection can not be established.
On top of it: GSM is TDMA system, so it measures distance to the terminal in cca 550m steps.
It is called Timing Advance, it is needed in order to allign all incomming frames on cell receiver.
Now... Somebody looks at Abis (protocol between cell and Base Station Controller).
You can see measurement reports: with a cell, distance, measurement reports you can guess
approximate terminal location during a call. If you have enough neighbour cells.
They overlooked two minor details:
- you do not know whom you locate
- you have to monitor all possible cells
In fact, you have to double complete operator infrastructure: not an easy task.
On top of it: more and more GSM (BSS) is using IP as transport between cell and system,
especially if collocated with HSPA+ or LTE. IPsec is used on this interfaces.
Even operators, who need this data during system tuning and debugging, have problems to get it.
Special test SIM cards, protocol probes after SGW etc are used. Normally, such tests are prepred
and executed on selected cells: getting all data history for all users is beyond reach of most operators.
It is much easier to get my location using different methods, like asking me politely ;-)
BR
s52d
the end of the world as I know it: 2009
It's bindun already.
In the physical world, there's no such thing as perfect security. Period. If you think you have it, you are lying to yourself. So with that in mind you have to design your security to deal with the greatest threat you are reasonably likely to face.
What that means is your relevance plays a great deal in to your security. A normal person doesn't need a ton of security, they aren't relevant enough in any sense to be targeted with a serious attack. A government isn't going to send an elite group of commandos to capture them, a crime lord isn't going to send a massive group of gangsters to kill them, they just aren't relevant.
On the other end of the scale, you have someone like the President of the US. He is an extremely visible and relevant person and it is conceivable that a group would spend a great deal of resources to attack him. Thus his security must be extremely high.
Like the GP, I also don't worry about someone using GSM to track my position. The fact that I don't have a GSM phone aside, I'm just not a worthwhile target. If a thief targeted my house they aren't going to get all high tech about it, they'd just case it like they have since time immemorial and would quickly learn I work a 9-5 job like most people. Also nobody is going to try and use it to track me to attack or abduct me, there'd be nothing to gain from doing so.
Real security has a lot of different considerations than digital security, a big one being "How much is the target worth?" You as a normal individual aren't worth much, and so having tons of security is silly.
How they can track me during my mall wherwabouts!
And you can bet this is not happening by mistake!!!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
In your scenario GSM would stand for Gastrointestinal Sourced Methane.
Woow, another OsmocomBB project ....
I thought there were Foursquare for that...
I know a person who received an email sent to their gmail.com email address. This email arrived at the Blackberry phone, but did not arrive in their gmail account accessed via a computer web browser. So, the big question is, how can an email addressed to a gmail.com address coming from Blackberry Corporate Headquarters get received on the phone but not on the actual gmail.com website?
On top of this, the email said that the phone could not connect to the gmail servers because the password was changed. So, how could this email be received from the gmail.com servers if the problem supposedly was that the phone could not connect to the gmail.com servers. I think this person changes their password all the time for gmail and the phone just keeps connecting to gmail anyways.
The bottom line is Blackberry is US Government bullshit and is also highly British-Bastardized. FUCK YOU, YOU SPYING STUPID PIECES OF SHIT!!!!!!~