Protecting IMSI from Fake Base Stations Exploitation & Impersonation Attacks in 5G & Beyond Networks
Article PDF: https://rs-ojict.pubpub.org/pub/v4kct...
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This simulation code package generates and produces the figures in the paper titles as
“Protecting IMSI from Fake Base Stations Exploitation and Spoofers Impersonation in 5G and Beyond Cellular Networks”
Fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks require authenticated and fully secured transmissions between user devices and 5G base stations (gNodeB). In the current 5G technology standard, mobile devices cannot distinguish between a real and a fake base station (BS) by following the standard 5G security protocols. This vulnerability is a dangerous security issue identified in 5G cellular networks worldwide, where hackers and spoofers can easily impersonate or hack the valuable information of mobile users. Although, 5G security protocols are enhanced to prevent these attacks. Yet, fake BSs still threaten the security of wireless communication networks. There is currently no security method available to allow users to identify who is sending the connection request response. Thus, this can allow an attacker to intercept the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) easily in the clear. Therefore, in this work, we propose a novel hack-proof framework that can perfectly secure IMSI resulting in prevention against spoofing attacks. The proposed algorithm includes user equipment (UE) and a BS that communicate in the clear to authenticate each other in a TDD fashion, each of them uses an exclusive OR (XOR) gate function between their secret keys and IMSI. The UE generates its private key equal to the length of IMSI and is transmitted only once. The BS gets its secret key from the access and mobility-management function (AMF) and uses the XOR function to associate the BS secret key with the transmitted secret code. For simulation purposes, a BPSK transmission scheme is utilized. The obtained results are similar to general noisy and multipath fading channels performances without any degradation. This indicates that the proposed protocol scheme
can effectively secure the IMSI against active and passive attackers by providing a safe network connection between UE and the BS.
Contributions of the Proposed Security Scheme:
1) The proposed framework makes the 5G mobile network more secure by establishing the secret key identifier between the UE and the legitimate BS.
2) The authentication process uses the XOR function to encode IMSI with the secret key during transmission between the UE and BS in a 5G cellular network.
3) This proposed design of generating secret keys and identifying the BS and UE as legitimate parties while ensuring the safety, privacy, confidentiality, and establishing authenticity between UE and BS assures its novelty.