German researchers have functions in the signalling system no.7 protocol, or ss7, discovered that mobile traffic is also the use of strong encryption on a large scale is to be intercepted. Ss7 is used by almost all the telco’s are used for communication.
The ss7 protocol, an ITU standard, is used for, among other things, the setting up and tearing down of calls, sms traffic, and to settle the roaming charges between providers. According to the German researchers Tobias Engel and Karsten Nohl is the protocol, however, also very vulnerable and can be by, for example, secret services and hackers are misused in a large-scale conversations to listen to, owners of a mobile phone track and sms-traffic to intercept, writes The Washington Post.
The German researchers, who independently researched the ss7 protocol, two methods have been developed. In the first method, the call forwarding functionality of a mobile phone via a command from the ss7 abused. By a conversation, first by switching to a private unit and then to the mobile phones of a target and attackers can all in – and outgoing calls from that person to keep track from any location.
In a second method to use the attackers a radio antenna to mobile signals and sms-messages from the ether to be intercepted. This data, which is encrypted, can be stored locally. By using the ss7 protocol to a temporary decryption key to ask the provider the data can then be decrypted. According to Nohl, this system can largely be automated, and is the large-scale roll-out.
Nohl and Engel argue that ss7 is so leak is that a provider although the data strong encryption and other security features can take, but because the company with other telco’s must be able to communicate via the protocol, they are vulnerable and will be.
More details about the methodology used will be the two researchers during the upcoming hackersconferentie Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg to disclose. The GSMA Association wants until that time, did not elaborate on the findings. Earlier, The Washington Post already that there is a lot of money is earned with systems that also via the any time interrogation-ss7-command authorities, to establish the location of owners of a mobile phone to determine.