GSM Hacking (ECS Guest Session)

Date: 2022-03-09

Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate

Delivered By: Josh Curry and Denis Nicole

Note

This session will be taking place in the Zepler Level 3 Labs instead of our usual room in Nightingale. Furthermore, while the presentation will be streamed and recorded, you have to attend in-person to participate in the activities!.

Overview

SUCSS are proud to welcome ECS to present a session about GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) hacking. If you've never heard about GSM, chances are you've been using it without knowing - it's a type of cellular service that your phone uses in places such as here in the UK, along with most of Europe! You can read more about GSM and how it works here.

In this session, we will explore vulnerabilities in GSM and offer the chances to perform the attacks against a real mobile network. If performed successfully, you'll be able to decode messages sent over the network!

Prerequsities

As we'll be in the Zepler Level 3 Labs, you don't need to bring any hardware, nor download any software this week. As this session is adapted from old content from COMP3217, you'll want some awareness of basic cryptography, and experience working with Bash and Linux.

Warning

This session involves decoding data from a live environment. It is imperative that you adhere to the frequencies given on the day and do not attempt any attacks against other GSM channels. The use of the techniques explored in this session on real networks is an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006, and can carry penalties of jail time.