Hackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to kill your phone's network
Today, millions of people across the globe use LTE to access high-speed 4G internet. The standard has become more of a requirement for all of us, but as it turns out, it also hosts a bunch of security flaws. Researchers have detected dozens of vulnerabilities in the 4G standard, issues that attackers can exploit to disrupt your entire mobile experience. Here are the details.
36 security flaws in LTE standard
In a recent study, researchers hailing from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Constitution (KAIST) analyzed the design and implementation of LTE over different carriers and device vendors. They discovered as many as 51 security flaws in the protocol, with 36 being completely new and posing a major security threat to millions across the globe, ZDNet reported.
How these flaws could be exploited
The researchers didn't detail the exact exploit for the vulnerabilities in question but claimed they could drastically be used to affect end-users. They said the flaws could be employed to disrupt mobile base stations, kill networks on phones, block incoming calls or send spoofed messages to people. Notably, some flaws may even allow for spying on and manipulating mobile data traffic.
Researchers employed fuzzing technique to find these issues
The research, set to be presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, was carried out with a technique called fuzzing. The method revolves around feeding data into a program and looking for abnormalities. In this case, the team developed a tool called LTEFuzz and used it to create random malicious connections to a mobile network and assess its response, flaws.
Flaws reported to concerned organizations
The researchers have reported the flaws to GSMA, the body representing mobile networks, and 3GPP, the organization behind LTE and related 4G standards. The organizations have not said when the issues might be fixed, but we expect the problems to be resolved soon, considering the risks they pose. Notably, very similar loopholes were also reported in 5G, which hasn't even being rolled out.
Meanwhile, India inches closer to 5G
The report comes just as telecom giants and gear makers continue to carry out tests to set up 5G infrastructure in India. They plan to make the next-gen network available in 2020, following spectrum auction, equipment testing, and ecosystem development by the end of this year. Notably, 5G will connect to the internet in 1 millisecond and offer 10-100 times faster speeds than 4G.
