Chris Paget's DEF CON 18 talk on practical cellphone spying, showing how GSM traffic can be intercepted with a fake base station. It covers 2G interception and the weaknesses of cellular networks.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN points to it as a worrying but technically solid explanation of how cell interception works, even if the talk is old.
“Here's an old talk that references someone's deadname with good technical information”HN comment, 2022
“Here's an old talk that references someone's deadname with good technical information”
Old talk with good technical information on cellular interception.
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Worse since they're expensive and pushed by the manufacturer to the point you cannot physically plug a 3.5mm male plug into a female adapter on the newer phones -- you are forced to buy a dongle. Meanwhile the intelligence agencies of the world siphon up signals like hungry hungry hippos because SDRs are cheap and ubiquitious, when ten-ish years ago they were poorly documented, expensive, and the encryption schemes used strong enough using 4g over wifi was a very practical security decision. Here's an old talk that references someone's deadname with good technical information: this video And a more recent talk on similar subjects: link | link (Apologies to Kristin, if they see this: I had trouble locating JUST the slides, not audio or video, of the DC18 talk or I would have simply linked the slides.)
Cites itJoeAltmaierAug 2014
“And there's a much simpler, regulation-free way to do this anyway”
Shows how phone jamming or spying can be done without regulation.
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And there's a much simpler, regulation-free way to do this anyway: this video So this bill is probably just what it seems - a way to curb cellphone pilferage.
Cites itSir_CmpwnDec 2015
“I watched this DEFCON talk a while ago. Not sure if it's still relevant, but it is quite worrying.”
DEFCON talk on cellphone spying; worrying.
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this video I watched this DEFCON talk a while ago. Not sure if it's still relevant, but it is quite worrying.
Cites itmeyDec 2015
“So to intercept 2g, there is some work See”
Shows how to intercept 2G.
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I don't have the details in mind but checkout link Since digital, handsets validate the tower they are talking too, this info is stored on sim or device depending on model. So to intercept 2g, there is some work See this video
