A vulnerability in the UMTS and LTE authentication and key agreement protocols

  • Authors:
  • Joe-Kai Tsay;Stig F. Mjølsnes

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Telematics, Norwegian University of Sciences and Technology, NTNU, Norway;Department of Telematics, Norwegian University of Sciences and Technology, NTNU, Norway

  • Venue:
  • MMM-ACNS'12 Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Mathematical Methods, Models and Architectures for Computer Network Security: computer network security
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

We report on a deficiency in the specifications of the Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) protocols of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) as well as the specification of the GSM Subscriber Identity Authentication protocol, which are all maintained by the 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP), an international consortium of telecommunications standards bodies. The flaw, although found using the computational prover CryptoVerif, is of symbolic nature and could be exploited by both an outside and an inside attacker in order to violate entity authentication properties. An inside attacker may impersonate an honest user during a run of the protocol and apply the session key to use subsequent wireless services on behalf of the honest user.