Security News Newer Diameter Telephony Protocol Just As Vulnerable As SS7 (used with older standards such as 3G, 2G, and earlier)

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Security researchers say the Diameter protocol used with today's 4G (LTE) telephony and data transfer standard is vulnerable to the same types of vulnerabilities as the older SS7 standard used with older telephony standards such as 3G, 2G, and earlier.

Both Diameter and SS7 (Signaling System No. 7) have the same role in a telephony network. Their purpose is to serve as an authentication and authorization system inside a network and between different telephony networks (providers).

SS7 was developed in the 1970s and has been proven insecure for almost two decades [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Because of this, starting with the rollout of 4G (LTE) networks, SS7 was replaced with the Diameter protocol, an improved inter and intra-network signaling protocol that's also slated to be used with the upcoming 5G standard.

The difference between these two is that while SS7 did not use any type of encryption for its authentication procedures, leading to the easy forgery of authentication and authorization messages, Diameter supports TLS/DTLS (for TCP or SCTP, respectively) or IPsec.

All mobile networks are vulnerable to either SS7 or Diameter flaws

The cyber-security firm says that from all the mobile networks it analyzed in the past years, since it began looking into SS7 and Diameter vulnerabilities, all mobile networks it examined are vulnerable to one or another, or both, leading to unique cases where any mobile networks it inspected ws vulnerable to some sort of network-level hacking.

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Positive Technologies warns that with the rise of Internet of Things devices, some of which rely on 4G connections when a WiFi network is not in range, such flaws are the equivalent of having an open door for hackers to target such equipment via the 4G network.

"Such frightening consequences are only the tip of the iceberg," experts wrote in their latest Diameter report. The company, which is known for providing security testing and monitoring of mobile networks, urges 4G operators to get with the times and invest into the security of their networks.

The "Diameter Vulnerabilities Exposure Report 2018" is available for download here. Positive Technologies previous analyzed the SS7 protocol in 2016 and the Diameter protocol in 2017.

In March 2018, ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) published an official advisory about SS7 and Diameter vulnerabilities in modern 4G networks.

Last week, a team of academics disclosed a set of vulnerabilities in 4G (LTE) networks at the "data layer," the one responsible for data transfer, and not the signal level where Diameter is located at.
 

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