On Low-Cost Privacy Exposure Attacks in LTE Mobile Communication

Abstract

Abstract The security of mobile communication is of great interest nowadays because of the wide spread and extensive use of mobile communication worldwide. Although LTE has been designed to provide better security than previous generations mobile networks, it is still vulnerable to attacks. In particular, it fails to protect the privacy of the subscribers. This paper focuses on the sensitive identities and parameters whose disclosure can directly damage the privacy of the subscribers or can be used as a basis to mount more advanced attacks. The sensitive data can be collected either by physical access to the user equipment or by attacking the radio link between the subscriber and the mobile station. We describe some low-cost possibilities to collect the data and refer to both passive and active attacks in LTE networks. Key words: LTE, Mobile Communication, Privacy, IMSI Catchers, Software Defined Radio, Mobile Applications.