How to Block Stingray Devices

https://oaklandmofo.com/blog/block-stringray-devices

by johnny313 • 8 years ago

109 57 8 years ago

oaklandmofo.com

masonic3• 8 years ago

Don't all phones have this in "Settings"?

e.g. Settings-Connections-MobileNetworks-NetworkMode

Also, will my phone even bother with 2G if LTE, 4G, or 3G is available?

danielhlockard• 8 years ago

They can jam the other frequencies so that they aren't available.

Scipio_Afri• 8 years ago

You can force a phone into 2G handshaking, that's how stingrays work.

masonic3• 8 years ago

Okay, thanks for the explanation.

Meanwhile, setting my Samsung Galaxy S9 to no-2G gives me a warning message that cannot be dismissed: "This setting turns off 2G service. If 2G service is off, some app..." (the remainder can't be viewed).

coretx4• 8 years ago

I could imagine that they'll eventually receive a firmware update allowing them to have conduct more modern modes of operation. That said, given that the target network also has 2G besides 3g; it can be configured in a "compatible" mode; one that can and is being exploited in the wild. 3g only networks are not suceptible to that particular type of attack. However, a similair scenario also exists for 3g/4g networks. TL;DR Locking your baseband to the most modern technology decreases the odds for being intercepted/stung but certainly does not guarantee any safety.

mtgx• 8 years ago

Stingrays already work with 4g. And 5g has many of the same flaws, likely on purpose. We can only hope common criminals will start massively exploiting them if we want real change to happen.

jsjsoaofnfn6• 8 years ago

What flaws are there, exactly? Missing mutual authentication are the main cause for 2G's security issues. There are no trivial MitM attacks on 3G and 4G - besides denial of service that may result in downgrades. There are location and identity leaks, but that's user tracking at best. Not to compare with 2G.

What am I missing here?

qwerty456127• 8 years ago

So they stand between you and the tower and sift through the transmission first. This means they can now intercept data on that transmission. I don’t know what they can do with it, and there is no real clear information on what data they can get. They do say metadata and access the cellphones internal storage, so that is enough to want to block the Stingray.

Cellphones internal storage? Seriously?

coretx4• 8 years ago

I do not know the specifics of the Stingray, but I can tell you more similair "lawfull interception" devices exist. These devices "talk" with your Baseband; the radio in your phone that runs it's own OS. Many of these can do DMA to with the memory of your "phone" / ordinary soc. Theoretically, a exploited baseband could allow the lawfull interception device to read and write to your internal storage and more. I have not read about this happening in the wild yet.

arkadiyt2• 8 years ago

I can't speak for Google devices but per Apple's iOS security whitepaper (page 41) [1]:

"To protect the device from vulnerabilities in network processor firmware, network interfaces including Wi-Fi and baseband have limited access to application processor memory. When USB or SDIO is used to interface with the network processor, the network processor can’t initiate Direct Memory Access (DMA) transactions to the application processor. When PCIe is used, each network processor is on its own isolated PCIe bus. An IOMMU on each PCIe bus limits the network processor’s DMA access to pages of memory containing its network packets or control structures."

[1] https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide....

pjc50• 8 years ago

"Service update" SMS messages can write certain things to the SIM card and other aspects of the phone without user interaction.

(this machinery is rather hard to google for and I'm not sure if it has a better name in the official GSM documents)

assblaster• 8 years ago

That's interesting, it sounds like something that was being repeatedly sent to my Motorola flip phone in China in 2007. I had the ability to reject this SMS/MMS thankfully.

EGreg• 8 years ago

Dude doesn’t explain why stingrays are only good on 2G

Also, how to do it on iOS?

jsjsoaofnfn6• 8 years ago

2G doesn't have mutual authentication, thereby Man-in-the-Middle attacks are trivial. From 3G on, attackers cannot simply fake the real network.

baybal22• 8 years ago

Works on some mediatek based phones

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kz.galan.antis...

coretx4• 8 years ago

When sincerely concerned about stingray devices it might be a better idea to either invest in a professional detection appliance or to install applications such as AIMSICD. ( foss/free) If you only deny 2g connectivity; it provides no certainty against being stung and you won't know if you are a target.

https://github.com/CellularPrivacy/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Dete...

jsjsoaofnfn6• 8 years ago

Do you have information on professional detection equipment?

Detection apps are known to be ineffective. It's mostly because IMSI catchers comply with the standard. Your baseband will fall for that - there's not much useful information to be passed to the operating system - or even an app.

coretx4• 8 years ago

Most firms who sell lawfull interception appliances also sell the appliances required to protect, detect or mitigate against it. Usually they only sell their appliances to law enforcement, the militairy and intelligence agencies after signing a NDA. The legality is often dubious, and atleast some are nothing but a expensive user friendly box around GNU radio, osmocom and very little code of their own. ( But my knowledge could be dated. ) If you so desire mail me for a list of names, but i'd rather not post them here connected to my identity.

JoeSmithson• 8 years ago

I have struggled to come up with a way of asking this neutrally, and I believe in a right to privacy and think "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" is nonsense, but seriously... wtf are people doing that they are "sincerely concerned about stingray devices"?

pavel_lishin2• 8 years ago

The article mentions attending protests as one such "suspicious" activity.

lallysingh• 8 years ago

They live in areas with crime. And don't want to get their phones picked up in others' investigations.

acct17712• 8 years ago

Probably reading articles about the massive proliferation of private and State Stingrays...

_salmon• 8 years ago

While the idea behind the app is great, that one specifically is abandoned and should be considered non-working.

tapland• 8 years ago

If you are having trouble accessing the ##4636## menu (I had on my international S9+) this app got me into the menu: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samseen.ne...

pavel_lishin2• 8 years ago

Honestly, I'd rather take my chances of being spied on by the local police department rather than install a very suspicious looking app from the play store.

"contains ads"

lkdjjdjjjdskjd• 8 years ago

Is that relevant, if your apps only communicate with encrypted messages (https only and so on)?

r3bl• 8 years ago

Yes. For example, stingrays could still locate your phone and deny you service.

jpmattia• 8 years ago

Isn't that also true for non-stingray connections?

For an example of location from today's news: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article21901...

HackAllThings• 8 years ago

It’s worth pointing out that even the author admits that the newer Stingray II has 3G/4G support. I think this is probably related to known insecurities in the AKA protocol, as researchers have recently found [1]. It looks like call interception isn’t so straight forward anymore, but IMSI capture and approximate location capture are alive and well.

So unless you can verify that only Stingray I is deployed in the vicinity, I think it’s a stretch to say that the Stingray product “doesn’t care” about anything other than 2G.

[1] https://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-17/wednesday/us-17-Borgaonk...

jsjsoaofnfn6• 8 years ago

What might me important for some reader: shutting off 2G services means that you won't have telephone voice services, if your operator doesn't support voLTE.

grkvlt• 8 years ago

No, there's also 3G as well, remember. My phone allows 2G, 3G, 2G and 3G, 3G and 4G, or 2G and 3G and 4G network selections in its settins menu (Android 7, Sony)

squarefoot3• 8 years ago

On modern phones Stingray devices are just one of the many tools that can be used to gain access to private communications and data. Any app requiring access permissions to everything is a potential vulnerability that can be exploited by 3rd parties (not to mention closed blobs etc); in this context smartphones are all things considered much more vulnerable than old 2G ones. Not being a target of interest for the police myself, I will rather trust my old obsolete 2G only dumb phone because the chances of it being spied upon by Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook etc. and associated parties are zero, zero, zero and zero.

vkou3• 8 years ago

What exactly are the practical consequences of being spied on by GMAF, compared to law enforcement?

You'll see a targeted advertisement, in place of an untargeted one?

The problem with being spied upon by law enforcement is that it's not you who decides whether or not you're an interesting person. They do.

hedora• 8 years ago

Law enforcement agencies can (and do) purchase ad targeting profile data, and can also force warrantless searches of commercial databases, at least in the US.

They also can legally (and do) intercept things like backup replication streams of the big providers (they did this to yahoo years ago, for example).

My rule of thumb is that if any big consumer cloud service has it, then law enforcement does too.

Since the data is gathered using gray-area / illegal techniques, it will never be used in legitimate ways in court, which means it will only ever be used to further violate the rights of private citizens.

squarefoot3• 8 years ago

"What exactly are the practical consequences of being spied on by GMAF, compared to law enforcement?"

Should law enforcement order them to relinquish all data about someone wrapped in a gag order, they get all information they need without that someone even noticing.

tantalor• 8 years ago

Mods: Please fix title, "Stingray" not "Stringray"

dang• 8 years ago

Oops. That was a Paris in the the Spring. Fixed now—thanks!

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22paris+in+the+the+spring%2...

How to Block Stingray Devices

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