Attacks From a New Front Door in 4G & 5G Mobile Networks

Explore the critical security vulnerabilities in 4G and 5G mobile network APIs that enable next-generation AI, MEC, and IoT applications in this 40-minute Black Hat conference talk. Delve into practical details of these APIs and learn about the security investigation conducted on hundreds of APIs from 10 commercial providers and operators, revealing widespread critical weaknesses. Discover attack models for network exposure, commercial IoT service platform security configurations, and various security issues such as guessable username and password policies, token mismanagement, and lack of rate limiting. Examine potential threats like malware propagation, internal node exposure, and script injection. Gain insights into the importance of secure API-by-design approaches and proper access control configurations to protect mobile networks from emerging threats.

Intro
General mobile network
Exposure via a provider
Drone control via network exposure
Control and configure the SIMS
How it works: Get device location
Misc functions
Attack model for network exposure
Commercial loT service platform security configurations
Platform design and forged access?
Guessable username and password policies for API authentication
Token management
Lack of rate limiting for API requests
Private identifiers used in apps domain
Verbose error messages
Firewall vs secure API-by-design
Malware propagation inside user plane
Internal node exposure
Broken authorization while sending downlink message
Access control misconfiguration
Script Injection
XSS execution
Summary of security analysis