[ISN] Smartphone Hack Highlights More GSM Woes

http://www.darkreading.com/insider-threat/167801100/security/vulnerabilities/229000934/smartphone-hack-highlights-more-gsm-woes.html

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
Darkreading 
Jan 19, 2011

ARLINGTON, VA -- Black Hat DC -- A European researcher today showed how 
bugs he has discovered in the baseband chipset firmware of iPhone and 
Android smartphones could be exploited to ultimately take control of 
these devices.

Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, a researcher at the University of Luxembourg, was 
poised here to demonstrate an exploit he created that turns on the 
auto-answer feature on the affected smartphones and then uses them as 
remote listening devices. But he was unable to get his demo to run live 
successfully, in part due to poor cellular reception in the hotel where 
the conference was held.

Despite the demo glitch, security experts say the research marks a new 
generation of smartphone hacking.

"This is extremely significant," says Don Bailey, security consultant 
with iSec Partners. "Before, you could intercept calls, SMS, and in some 
cases GPRS [General Packet Radio Service]/EDGE, depending on if you had 
the requisite hardware."

[...]


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