New attacks on UMTS network access

Abstract

In this paper we propose two new attacks on UMTS network. Both attacks exploit the UMTS-GSM interworking and are possible in the GSM access area of UMTS network. The first attack allows the attacker to eavesdrop on the entire traffic of the victim UMTS subscriber in the GERAN coverage of the UMTS network. The second attack is an impersonation attack i.e. the attacker impersonates a genuine UMTS subscriber to a UMTS network and fools the network to provide services at the expense of the victim subscriber in its GERAN coverage.