7 ms·

Could one use some form of cell tower white-list as a countermeasure to stingray? Or is it a purely passive attack?

by ta75757 12y ago

delinka 12y ago
Couldn't a stingray mimic a whitelisted tower? Much like your computer can use a different MAC address at your whim.
- ta75757 12y ago
  It is theoretically possible to avoid that via cryptography but I doubt the cell phone protocols include that.
  - schoen 12y ago
    3G provides some cryptographic basis for this, but you might not have a UI on your device to require 3G or to warn you about roaming (which could defend at least against early generations of IMSI catchers).
- pasbesoin 12y ago
  Whether alone (with user movement and precise clocking) or in a coordinated group effort, devices might begin to triangulate tower location and check this against historical and geographic data. It would be a bit ironic, if/when triangulation begins to "work" "in the other direction".
  - icebraining 12y ago
    It already is: Mozilla has been building apps¹ that allow users to contribute to a shared database of the locations of cellphone towers and WiFi APs. The idea is to allow GPS-less devices to find where they are, but it could certainly be used to identify new towers in places which had already been mapped. EDIT: It seems there's also opencellid.org, which actually allows you to download the full database. ¹ https://location.services.mozilla.com/apps https://location.services.mozilla.com/apps
dmix 12y ago
This is being done with IMSI Catcher detector [1] using machine learning to learn which towers you commonly connect to, then warning you when: a) a new cell tower ID has suddenly appeared at a specific lat/long when it wasn't there before b) the encryption/protocol changes or gets degraded [1] https://secupwn.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/ https://secupwn.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/
- malandrew 12y ago
  Furthermore, since these IMSI catchers are mounted on planes, can't they be detected by the fact that they are moving?

Could one use some form of cell tower white-list as a countermeasure to stingray? Or is it a purely passive attack?

by ta75757 12y ago

Could one use some form of cell tower white-list as a countermeasure to stingray? Or is it a purely passive attack?

delinka 12y ago

Couldn't a stingray mimic a whitelisted tower? Much like your computer can use a different MAC address at your whim.

ta75757 12y ago
It is theoretically possible to avoid that via cryptography but I doubt the cell phone protocols include that.
- schoen 12y ago
  3G provides some cryptographic basis for this, but you might not have a UI on your device to require 3G or to warn you about roaming (which could defend at least against early generations of IMSI catchers).
pasbesoin 12y ago
Whether alone (with user movement and precise clocking) or in a coordinated group effort, devices might begin to triangulate tower location and check this against historical and geographic data. It would be a bit ironic, if/when triangulation begins to "work" "in the other direction".
- icebraining 12y ago
  It already is: Mozilla has been building apps¹ that allow users to contribute to a shared database of the locations of cellphone towers and WiFi APs. The idea is to allow GPS-less devices to find where they are, but it could certainly be used to identify new towers in places which had already been mapped. EDIT: It seems there's also opencellid.org, which actually allows you to download the full database. ¹ https://location.services.mozilla.com/apps https://location.services.mozilla.com/apps

dmix 12y ago

This is being done with IMSI Catcher detector [1] using machine learning to learn which towers you commonly connect to, then warning you when: a) a new cell tower ID has suddenly appeared at a specific lat/long when it wasn't there before b) the encryption/protocol changes or gets degraded [1] https://secupwn.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/ https://secupwn.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/

malandrew 12y ago
Furthermore, since these IMSI catchers are mounted on planes, can't they be detected by the fact that they are moving?