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It appears that 2G is the vulnerability the stingrays exploit. "... exploits a vulnerability in the 2G protocol. Phones using 2G don’t authenticate cell towers
by deepnet 11y ago
It appears that 2G is the vulnerability the stingrays exploit.
"... exploits a vulnerability in the 2G protocol. Phones using 2G don’t authenticate cell towers, which means that a rogue tower can pass itself off as a legitimate cell tower. But because 3G and 4G networks have fixed this vulnerability, the stingray will jam these networks to force nearby phones to downgrade to the vulnerable 2G network to communicate." [article]
Is it possible to disable 2G ?
- mikeyouse 11y agoAlternatively, is it legal to jam 3G and 4G networks? I can't imagine the FCC takes kindly to that type of thing.. Sometimes the best solution to constrain government overreach is to turn the bureaucratic machinery loose on itself.
- deepnet 11y agoIs there any evidence of the public being put at risk by these government mandated exploits ? Privacy and Civil Liberties seem less popular arguments to oppose the 'keep the public vulnerable' policy than public safety. Speculative Fiction : "It seems the evil-doers procured the Celebrity's schedule by eavesdropping their calls with a Stingray. During the kidnapping they jammed the cell communications of the security team and trivially evaded pursuit by tracking the cells of the pursuit squad with the Stingray device. You mean by spying on our citizens we have made everyone of us unsafe ? Yes Madam President, our monopoly on the backdoors was only temporary. " It occurs to me that the police themselves use cell communications. Are they similarly vulnerable to tracking / intercepts ? If so then this is a staggeringly short sighted policy.
- 15155 11y agoConsidering deauthentication of wifi networks was found illegal, I would think not. "Jamming" also could imply willful interference (not protocol-exploiting, radio) which is very illegal.
- deepnet 11y agoI sorry I am unable to get you the medical attention you require as the police have jammed the cell signals due to a nearby protest. Short sighted policy policing puts everyone at risk.
- mrlyc 11y agoMy Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 can be set to WCDMA only.
- deepnet 11y agoMy phone as well, can it be that trivial to defeat Stingrays ?
- Synaesthesia 11y agoMaybe but all phones feature 2G and enabled by default, use it as a fallback, and most carriers in the world still have it.
- deepnet 11y agoSettings > Network Mode > WCDMA only It seems quaintly cyberpunk that the last bastion of civil liberties is a checkbox in a sub > sub > settings menu. Of course the phone menu may be a lie.
- Synaesthesia 11y agoEssentially we have no idea what goes on inside that phone and inside the operators. It's all closed source hardware and software/firmware, and the companiea are pretty much unaccountable to us and could put all kinds of secrets in there. This is why Stallman was actually right all along. When you don't have open, public computer systems, you end up beholden to these huge entities.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- pmorici 11y agoSupposedly carriers in the US are going to be shutting down their 2G networks in the near future. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G#United_States
- deepnet 11y agoPerhaps this will be (has been) delayed to continue to allow the Stingrays to exploit phones. Snowden's leaks suggest that juicy exploits are kept unfixed at the behest of the surveillance state.
- stevetrewick 11y agoWhich only helps with this particular attack vector if the carriers distribute baseband updates to prevent 2/3/4/nG handsets from speaking 2G.