Communications of the ACM
'sms of Death' Could Crash Many Mobile Phones
Low-end mobile phones are vulnerable to hackers using short message service (SMS) communications, according to research presented at a recent conference in Germany.
Compared to smartphones, low-end mobile phones feature limited functionality, less powerful processors, less memory capacity, and the inability to load new software without the permission of the carrier. Nonetheless, Technische Universitaet Berlin students Collin Mulliner and Nico Golde successfully attacked several low-end phones by setting up a miniature cellular network, using open source software to create a base station with which to communicate with the phones. Their malicious SMS communications affected the phones without any response from the user.
Mulliner says a specific user could be targeted, but also notes that a large number of phones could be knocked out by sending a set of five SMS messages—to the five most popular models—to every device on a specific network. Network operators could prevent such problems by updating firmware on existing phones or by filtering out potentially disruptive SMS messages traveling across their networks.
From Technology Review
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