GPRS Security Features, Threats and Solution

GPRS Security Features

• Integrity
•  A security service that ensure data is not modified-able in an unauthorized or malicious manner.

• Confidentiality 
• The protection of data from user that is confidential to third parties.
  
• Authentication 
• Give assurance in data communication whereby a party is who or what they claim to be.
  
• Authorization 
• It is a security service that ensures that a party may only perform the actions that they’re allowed to perform.
  
• Availability 
• It means that data services are usable by the appropriate parties in the manner intended.

GPRS Security Threats

Availability

• DNS Flood
• DNS servers can be flooded with either correctly or malformed DNS queries or other traffic that deny subscribers from the ability to locate the proper GGSN to use as an external gateway.

Authentication and Authorization

• Spoofed Update PDP Context Request
• An attacker can use their own SGSN to send an Update PDP Context Request to an SGSN, while handling an existing GTP session. They will insert their own SGSN into the GTP session and hijack the data connection of the subscriber.

Integrity & Confidentiality

• Capturing a subscriber’s data session 
• GTP and the embedded T-PDUs are not encrypted, an attacker with has access between the GGSN and SGSN can potentially capture a subscriber’s data session. This is generally true of traffic on public networks and subscribers should be advised to utilize IPSec or similar protection.

GPRS Security Solution 

Limit the traffic rate on the network as to ensure attacks from the Internet cannot disrupt mobile intranet services. Also, prevent the possibility of spoofed MS to MS data by blocking incoming traffic with the source addresses which are the same as those assigned to an MS for public network access.


Reference

1. http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~kavita/GSM_Security_Papers/GPRS_Security_Threats_and_Solutions.pdf