Study: Text messages expose cell networks to attack

[question everything]

Monday, October 10, 2005

Study: Text messages expose cell networks to attack
Hackers using a spam-like technique could crash whole services in big cities, researchers say.

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
The New York Times

Malicious hackers could take down cellular networks in large cities by inundating their popular text-messaging services with the equivalent of spam, said computer security researchers.

Such an attack is possible, the researchers say, because cell phone companies provide the text message service to their networks in a way that could allow an attacker who jams the message system to disable the voice network as well.

And because the message services are accessible via the Internet, cellular networks are open to the "denial of service" attacks that occur regularly online, in which computers send so many messages or commands to a target that the rogue data blocks other machines from connecting.


(snip)

The authors concluded that all major cellular networks are vulnerable, and a single computer with a cable modem could do the job. The researchers do not believe that anyone has disrupted cell phone networks in this way, though it appears to have occurred by accident in other nations.

(snip)

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/abox/article_707257.php

[Angry Girl]

1. As if this were brand new information....

These newspapers are so clueless, this is such old "news." I hate the media more and more for the constant lying and then dragging out the truth as if it were a revelation....

How about covering something like WHY the phone companies decided that it was OK to go ahead with the present technology, despite the fact that they knew all these security flaws?

And we won't even begin to talk about what you can do to Bluetooth....

*grumble*

Nightweed's Hurricane Katrina Aid Organizations

[displacedtexan]

2. And I could theoretically pop an eyeball out with my thumb...

which means that airport security is a joke.

Of course, "such an attack is possible." Of course, "all major cellular networks are vulnerable."

This article is a major piece of fear mongering.

Don't mind me. I'm not aiming my Monday morning snarkiness at you, question everything.

I'm just sick of every "journalist" trying to stress out the entire world.

[merwin]

3. BS Article. They could probably take down the text messaging service

by cloging it up with messages. However, that would not take down the voice network. Two completely seperate entities.

SMS (Text messaging) works off of signaling and does not allocate any voice channels. I'm assuming that they mean that it could clog up the signaling, but that wouldn't be possible either since the SMSC (Central SMS server) doesn't send out all the messages at once.

[skids]

4. Sorry that doesn't help...

Having worked in the WAN/telco industry, I have absolutely zero confidence that they have built secure systems. Hell, even Cisco has to be beat over the head to take bugs and security seriously sometimes. It took them years and years before they themselves realized the importance of prioritizing signaling. And some of the bozos I've met from some other companies that will remain nameless since I may end up working there someday... sheesh. People that don't belong anywhere near a network regularly design very important components, with little or no consideration for stability or security.

Of course media articles are always tripe when it comes to tech, but even so, I definitely don't have a warm fuzzy over the state of cell networks.

[merwin]

6. The bottleneck is in the SMSC, not the signaling

The worst that could possibly happen is that the SMSC gets clogged up. The SMSC is one of the the most reliable parts of the network.

I would agree that if somehow they were able to clog the signaling, then there would be some serious problems :-)

[skids]

7. I guess it depends on what you call hacked.

If the SMSC doesn't get bogged down, then what you have is a bunch of cell phone users trying to talk around the "message arrived" beeps coming out of their phone every ten seconds. :-)

[merwin]

8. LOL, that would really annoy me.

Voice network is safe but you have a lot of pissed off customers who are getting charged $0.10 per incoming message.

[Benhurst]

5. Good. Then we could return to world without g-d cell phones.

O happy day!