SafeUM
Home Blog Services Download Help About Recharge

Axarhöfði 14, 110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015
SafeUM
Blog
Services
Download
Help
About
Recharge
Menu
Archive
TOP Security!
16 Nov 2015

Researchers demonstrate way to intercept calls made by Samsung phones

Don't hang up on your call just yet but some Samsung Galaxy Phones -- the S6, S6 Edge and Note 4, in particular -- have a demonstrated vulnerability that connects them to fake cellular base stations.

Own a Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge or Note 4? A determined, knowledgeable hacker could intercept your voice calls to listen in or even record conversations. A pair of researchers demonstrated exactly that scenario this week at the Mobile Pwn2Own competition in Tokyo.

The issue appears to be with Samsung's baseband chip in the handsets, which allow for this type of exploit. Don't hang up just yet on your phone calls if you have one these Galaxy devices though; it's not likely that anyone is tuned in and Samsung has been made aware of the issue. Daniel Komaromy and Nico Golde, the pair who demonstrated the hack on and out-of-the-box and freshly updated handset, have turned over their findings to Samsung and kept the details out of the public's eye.

To intercept calls, the pair set up an OpenBTS base station that nearby phones think is a legitimate cellular tower. That base station then can remotely tinker with a phone's baseband software -- the bits that manage cellular radio connections -- without the user even knowing. The end result is that phone calls are routed first through unofficial base station where the call is redirected to a SIP proxy server and then passed through official cellular networks. Essentially, it's a cellular man-in-the-middle attack and callers have no idea it's happening.

It's not yet clear if the team can replicate the hack on other phones that use baseband chips from other providers, but I'm skeptical of that. It sounds more to me like an issue specific to Samsung's chipset; I'd expect a baseband firmware update from the company in the near future now that it has information on the security hole.

Tags:
Samsung information leaks
Source:
ZDNet
2100
Other NEWS
3 Jul 2020 safeum news imgage An encrypted messaging service has been infiltrated by police
4 May 2020 safeum news imgage Two-Factor Authentication ​What Is It and Why You Should Use It
12 Dec 2019 safeum news imgage Encryption is under threat - this is how it affects you
4 Nov 2019 safeum news imgage Should Big Decisions Be Based on Data or Your Intuition?
7 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage VPNFilter malware infecting 500,000 devices is worse than we thought
4 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Hackers target Booking.com in criminal bid to steal hundreds of thousands from customers
1 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Operator of World's Top Internet Hub Sues German Spy Agency
30 May 2018 safeum news imgage US says North Korea behind malware attacks
29 May 2018 safeum news imgage Facebook and Google targeted as first GDPR complaints filed
25 May 2018 safeum news imgage A new reason to not buy these cheap Android devices
24 May 2018 safeum news imgage Flaws in smart pet devices, apps could come back to bite owners
23 May 2018 safeum news imgage Google sued for 'clandestine tracking' of 4.4m UK iPhone users' browsing data
21 May 2018 safeum news imgage LocationSmart reportedly leaked phone location data onto the web
18 May 2018 safeum news imgage The SEC created its own scammy ICO to teach investors a lesson
17 May 2018 safeum news imgage Thieves suck millions out of Mexican banks in transfer heist
All news
SafeUM
Confidential Terms of Use Our technologies Company
Follow us
Download
SafeUM © Safe Universal Messenger

Axarhöfði 14,
110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015