

Lone packet cripples telco networks  - maskofsanity
http://www.scmagazine.com.au/News/318935,lone-packet-cripples-telco-networks.aspx

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bootload
_"... We accessed [an operator's] systems through their x25 network which they
never knew was running because the network vendor never disclosed it -- it was
just underlying technology ..."_

Old school. X.25 allowed Julian Assange to attack NASA with the WANK worm via
X.25

 _"... Tencati was sure he could show the WANK worm attack on NASA originated
in France. But he also knew he had to document everything, to have exact
answers to every question and counter-argument put forward by the French
secret service agents at the FBI meeting. When he developed a timeline of
attacks, he found that the GEMPAK machine showed X.25 network connection, via
another system, from a French computer around the same time as the WANK worm
attack. ..."_ ~
[http://suelette.home.xs4all.nl/underground/justin/chapter_2....](http://suelette.home.xs4all.nl/underground/justin/chapter_2.html)

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jmitcheson
I think I down-voted you by accident. I meant to upvote! Clumsy mouse
movements. Great link.

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bootload
_"... I think I down-voted you by accident. I meant to upvote! ..."_

don't worry about the karma. The book is good & I was reading it just before
this film was shown locally: _'Underground: The Julian Assange Story'_ ~
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357453/> set in Melbourne late 80's.

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jmitcheson
Yeah I'm in Australia too :). Melbourne. I saw "Underground" on TV and became
bored very easily. I read two paragraphs of the text version that you linked
and I was hooked! Makes me wish I was 20 years younger. I suppose we have our
own movements now, but the physical computer bazaar's and the culture sound
awesome.

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teagoat
I'll start by saying that I approve of security testing networks and the telco
industry could do with more of it. I agree that security can be lax sometimes.

Sure, Telco SS7 networks and the equipment within them are just like any other
in that there can be bugs that cause it to go down.

However, there are much higher barriers for entry to get an SS7 network link
(c.f. a connection to the internet) and you're not going to keep it for very
long if all you're doing is sending out SS7 messages crashing HLRs left, right
and center.

I'm assuming that the packet he's talking about is a fuzzing attack and only
affects a particular vendor's HLR and may have even been fixed by now. So if
everyone in the world used the same vendor, all used the same software version
and you had unfettered access to all of them, then yes, you could crash all of
the HLRs in the world.

And really?... "World's HLR". Well I'm glad someone is nice enough to host a
HLR for the world. And apparently crashing the "World's HLR" will stop one
country's communication. Oh noes! Which one is it?! I hope it's not mine! And
I'd be interested to see how crashing a HLR stops my landline and my internet
connection from functioning.

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acdha
The question I had is whether the femtocell claim is true - those are much
easier to get access to. I'd like to believe that they're correspondingly more
locked down but there is rather a long track record of telcos botching basic
security design.

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noselasd
The presentation linked at the bottom ,
[http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2012kul/materials/D1T1...](http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2012kul/materials/D1T1%20-%20Philippe%20Langlois%20and%20Emmanuel%20Gadaix%20-%206000%20Ways%20and%20More.pdf)
contains hints of numerous holes they've found in various networks, to among
other things get access to an SS7 network.

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Aloha
This does not surprise me at all - the telecom network is unbelievably
fragile.

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philpraxis
Not in the public's eyes...

And operators will do everything to keep it that way. Including covering up
major compromise.

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melpomene
Has it been taken down or is it because I am on a Swedish IP? "403 -
Forbidden: Access is denied. You do not have permission to view this directory
or page using the credentials that you supplied."

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gwern
It works here in the USA.

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jrockway
+++ATH

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batgaijin
Jesus christ I can't wait til there is a Y16 telco network

