Presentation Material

Abstract

5G raises the security bar a level above 4G. Although IMSI exposure is prevented in 5G, we found new vulnerabilities to attack devices and subscribers.

In this talk we expose a set of vulnerabilities in the 5G/4G protocols that are found in network operators equipment and also consumer devices such as phones, routers, latest IoT sensors, and even car modems. Our vulnerabilities affect several commercial applications and use cases that are active in 4G networks and are expected to take off in 5G networks.

We developed automated tools to exploit the exposed cellular information and share some of our research traces and data sets to the community. We demonstrate a new class of hijacking, bidding down and battery draining attacks using low cost hardware and software tools.

We did a rigorous testing worldwide to estimate the number of affected base stations and are surprised by the results. Finally our interactions with various vendors and standard bodies and easy fixes to prevent our attacks are discussed.

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The speaker discusses the security concerns surrounding 5G networks, particularly with regards to China and Huawei. They quote an article from the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, which states that 5G can be seen as an “emergence signaling signal intelligence platform.” This means that even with end-to-end application security, 5G still leaves traces of telemetry data, revealing information about users, devices, and applications. This poses a threat from a surveillance point of view.

During the Q&A session, two questions are raised:

1. The first question asks whether trusting hypervisors in cloud infrastructure poses any change to the risk posture when migrating business processes and data to the cloud. The speaker responds that while hypervisor technology is not new, the problem lies in deployment and trust. Mobile operators need to consider who they trust to build their infrastructure and manage access to the hypervisor.
2. The second question asks about special considerations for 5G networks, particularly with regards to vendor selection and control over core network components. The speaker suggests that multi-vendor deployment may be a good strategy, where different vendors are used for different parts of the network. This approach is supported by some governments, but it also presents technical challenges due to differences in specifications between vendors.

Overall, the discussion highlights the importance of considering security and trust issues when deploying 5G networks and cloud infrastructure.