CAPEC-608: Cryptanalysis of Cellular Encryption
The use of cryptanalytic techniques to derive cryptographic keys or otherwise effectively defeat cellular encryption to reveal traffic content. Some cellular encryption algorithms such as A5/1 and A5/2 (specified for GSM use) are known to be vulnerable to such attacks and commercial tools are available to execute these attacks and decrypt mobile phone conversations in real-time. Newer encryption algorithms in use by UMTS and LTE are stronger and currently believed to be less vulnerable to these types of attacks. Note, however, that an attacker with a Cellular Rogue Base Station can force the use of weak cellular encryption even by newer mobile devices.
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Overview
CAPEC-608 (Cryptanalysis of Cellular Encryption) is a detailed-level attack pattern catalogued by MITRE in the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC). It describes a recurring method attackers use to exploit software weaknesses.
What the attacker needs
Prerequisites
- None
Skills required
- Medium skill: Adversaries can rent commercial supercomputer time globally to conduct cryptanalysis on encrypted data captured from mobile devices. Foreign governments have their own cryptanalysis technology and capabilities. Commercial cellular standards for encryption (GSM and CDMA) are also subject to adversary cryptanalysis.
Consequences
What a successful CAPEC-608 attack can achieve.
Other
Affects: Confidentiality
Reveals IMSI and IMEI for tracking of retransmission device and enables further follow-on attacks by revealing black network control messages. (e.g., revealing IP addresses of enterprise servers for VOIP connectivity)
How to mitigate it
Defenses that reduce the risk of CAPEC-608.
- Use of hardened baseband firmware on retransmission device to detect and prevent the use of weak cellular encryption.
- Monitor cellular RF interface to detect the usage of weaker-than-expected cellular encryption.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about CAPEC-608.
- What is CAPEC-608?
- The use of cryptanalytic techniques to derive cryptographic keys or otherwise effectively defeat cellular encryption to reveal traffic content. Some cellular encryption algorithms such as A5/1 and A5/2 (specified for GSM use) are known to be vulnerable to such attacks and commercial tools are available to execute these attacks and decrypt mobile phone conversations in real-time. Newer encryption algorithms in use by UMTS and LTE are stronger and currently believed to be less vulnerable to these types of attacks. Note, however, that an attacker with a Cellular Rogue Base Station can force the use of weak cellular encryption even by newer mobile devices.
- How do you prevent CAPEC-608?
- Use of hardened baseband firmware on retransmission device to detect and prevent the use of weak cellular encryption.
- What weaknesses does CAPEC-608 target?
- CAPEC-608 exploits 1 CWE weakness, including CWE-327 (Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm).
- How severe is CAPEC-608?
- MITRE rates CAPEC-608 as High severity.
References
Attack-pattern data is sourced from the MITRE CAPEC catalog (v3.9). Weakness associations link to the corresponding CWE entries on RadicalNotion.AI.
Defend against CAPEC-608
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