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I have 2 theories about why the EXTREME secrecy surrounding Stingray. 1. It is based on stolen credentials / crypto keys. 2. It is based on exploiting a vulne
by DannyB2 8y ago
I have 2 theories about why the EXTREME secrecy surrounding Stingray.
1. It is based on stolen credentials / crypto keys.
2. It is based on exploiting a vulnerability in the protocol.
Either way, secrecy is important. In case 1, if the secret got out, those keys / credentials could be revoked and replaced and Stingray would no longer work. In case 2, if the secret got out, every high school kid would be building a Stingray and poor people would be spying on rich and powerful people (gasp!).
In case 2, the vulnerability may be something that takes years to fix, requiring compatibility over the replacement period both to base stations and mobile equipment as old mobile sets attrition out of the system.
- williamscales 8y agoBased on a quick look at Wikipedia for GSM, it sounds like some efforts have been made towards breaking the encryption: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM I'd be willing to bet that national governments have done even more work on that problem.
- bradknowles 8y agoGiven the vulnerabilities that have been recently announced for LTE, it seems to me that your #2 is much more likely. Anyone with a Software Defined Radio and the right code could run their own Stingray. Circumstantial evidence of recent reports of massive increases in suspicious activities would seem to indicate that this is actually happening.