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The protocol should have required enough authentication to make it impossible to manufacture these devices without also having a blessed, revocable key from the
by ohazi 8y ago
The protocol should have required enough authentication to make it impossible to manufacture these devices without also having a blessed, revocable key from the carrier you're snooping on.
The FCC could have easily had their police exemption without also providing access to your average HAM, any reasonably competent hobbyist, and the security services of every other nation on the planet.
Security on cellular networks is even more of a joke than on consumer-grade wifi... it's basically a pinky promise not to look at stuff you're not supposed to look at. No fucking wonder there's a mountain of stingray clones in DC. Are they planning to fix this on 5g networks? Because there's no reason to be so concerned over backdoors in Chinese cellular modems as long as we're happily letting them in through the front door.
- tajen 8y agoDoes that mean network quality will significantly go down if we shut down the stingrays? I mean when you have 5 nation states deploying a network of stingrays in DC, all trying to compete on being the relay nodes, that does add quite a lot of bandwidth.
- StudentStuff 8y agoStingrays don't add bandwidth in normal operation, as they act as a repeater. Most will have the bandwidth halving effect incurred by single transceiver mesh nodes or relay stations: http://www.strixsystems.com/products/datasheets/strixwhitepaper_multihop.pdf http://www.strixsystems.com/products/datasheets/strixwhitepa...
- AndrewKemendo 8y agoEven repeater is not really accurate. Like you say, in normal operation these systems are not working in collaboration with a wireless provider for the data passthrough/handoff. In my experience running these, it's more like the user briefly connects with a service with no connectivity and IMSI/IMEI connection logging only. So in practice it would look like briefly, usually imperceptibly, losing cell service.
- dannyw 8y agoAren’t Stingrays basically fixed with LTE?
- tyfon 8y agoIf your phone connects to a Stringray device, it will force it back to older protocols afaik. Also: https://www.zdnet.com/article/stingray-security-flaw-cell-networks-phone-tracking-surveillance/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/stingray-security-flaw-cell-ne...