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Couldn't a stingray mimic a whitelisted tower? Much like your computer can use a different MAC address at your whim.
by 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 agoIt is theoretically possible to avoid that via cryptography but I doubt the cell phone protocols include that.
- schoen 12y ago3G 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 agoWhether 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 agoIt 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