death SMS
One would think that since smartphones work in a similar way to computers, they would be open to the same types of attacks, and they are. But just like computers, they have antivirus software and security measures to protect them from malware and hackers. Feature phones, which are a step above the old cell phones in that they run on limited software so users can play games, should, in theory, be more secure, and they are. But according to research by a team from the Telecommunications Security department at the Technische Universitaet Berlin, the SMS protocol used in basic phones can be used to transmit binary programs that contain malicious SMS messages capable of shutting down the phones.
It’s called the SMS of death because it doesn’t just turn off a phone, but since basic phones make up the majority of the mobile phone market, it has the potential to cripple communications around the world. It’s particularly dangerous because it only needs to be received for it to work; users do not have to open it.
Researchers Collin Mulliner (PhD student) and Nico Golde (undergraduate student) tested the code’s effectiveness on several different mobile phones, including LG, Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Micromax, and in each case the SMS was devastating. . . As reported by technologyreview.com, Mulliner and Golde set up a miniature cellular network, which they protected with a Faraday cage, so they could test sending the infected code to mobile phones and monitor the effect on the software.
They found that since the software differs from manufacturer to manufacturer (sometimes even from model to model), the binary would have to be tailored to attack specific phones. According to Mulliner, this isn’t as much work as it sounds because all attackers would have to do is create five different SMS tailored to the five most popular models and they could wipe out a large percentage of mobile communications.
Mulliner says that if an attack occurs, network operators are the only thing standing between mobile phone users and a communications blackout. The problem is that they would have to prepare fixes and make sure that the firmware of existing phones stays up to date.
Aurélien Francillon, a researcher in the systems security group at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, says that defending against mass attacks on basic phones will be difficult since the phones generally do not have automatic updates and patches are not available quickly enough. Francillon says that basic phones may remain vulnerable to these types of attacks for a long time to come, and that as more attention is paid to smartphones, the issues may never be addressed.
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