Hackers Exploiting a Critical Weakness In Mobile Phones to Track Location
The interface designed for the usage of cell carriers is being exploited heavily by attackers. It allows the cell carriers to get in direct touch with the SIM cards inside subscribers' smartphones, the interface can be employed by the carriers for allowing subscribers to make use of the data stored on their SIM card to provide account balances along with other specialized services.
Hackers can secretly track the location of subscribers by exploiting the interface and giving commands to acquire the IMEI identification code of device; the Simjacker exploit further allows them to carry out actions such as making calls or sending messages.
According to the researchers at AdaptiveMobile Security, the working of the Simjacker exploit is not limited to a few devices, rather, it can be carried out on a wide range of mobile phones, irrespective of their software or hardware.
Unfolding the various aspects of the attack, Dan Guido, a mobile security expert and the CEO of security firm Trail of Bits told Ars, “This attack is platform-agnostic, affects nearly every phone, and there is little anyone except your cell carrier can do about it.”
While commenting on the issue, Karsten Nohl, the chief scientist at SRLabs, told Ars, “We could trigger the attack only on SIM cards with weak or non-existent signature algorithms, which happened to be many SIM cards at the time,”
“AdaptiveMobile seems to have found a way in which the same attack works even if signatures are properly checked, which is a big step forward in attack research.” He added.
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