5G technology is the next generation of communication networks that are expected to provide higher speeds and better security for smartphones and other devices compared to the fourth generation networks because it combines the latest technologies and features that make it the next generation, but it seems that the wind does not come what the ships desire.
Although 5G networks have been described as the newest, fastest and most secure, a team of security researchers at the University of Iowa and Purdue University in the United States discovered nearly ten vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities in the fifth generation networks, which enabled them to carry out some malicious attacks such as tracking and locating User phone and send fake emergency alerts to spread panic and completely disconnect the phone from the network.
With the assurances made by the institutions responsible for implementing security protocols such as 3GPP, the research team revealed the opposite, seeing that the protocol for 5G networks lacks high specifications and official standards, and that the current standard often stipulates security and privacy requirements in an abstract manner. And primitive, which makes it vulnerable to many different threats and attacks.
What attacks can be carried out
To prove their point of view, the research team created a malicious and fake radio station, and through the tool they developed, known as 5G Reasoner, they were able to carry out several successive attacks against a smartphone connected to a 5G network, where they succeeded in disconnecting from the phone by a denial of service attack (DoS). They were also able to track the actual location of the phone, but the most dangerous of these attacks were those in which they were able to control the phone’s messaging channel to transmit fake emergency alerts, and the extent of the danger of this attack lies in the possibility of creating artificial chaos in society and spreading terror and panic, like what happened before An alarm accidentally sounded from him understanding that Hawaii was being bombed by a missile by North Korea, resulting in a widespread panic on the island.
Given the nature and severity of these vulnerabilities, as well as how easily they can be penetrated and exploited, researchers have decided not to publicly disclose the exact methods and codes that enabled them to do so. They have already notified the GSMA, the international association responsible for mobile phone networks in the world. However, the association finds that these defects do not cause any problems and do not significantly affect smartphone users.
But the research team has another opinion as it believes that most of the security flaws in the current design can be easily fixed, but there are some loopholes that require even a slight change in the protocol for the fifth generation networks to fill those serious problems that threaten the security and safety of smartphone users everywhere in the world. .
Do you really think that XNUMXG networks will be secure when they are widely popularized in the world? Is it really possible to get rid of the vulnerabilities that threaten the safety of smartphone users?
Source:
10 comment