MitM Attacks
Man-in-the-Middle attacks on LTE networks position the attacker between the device and legitimate network infrastructure to intercept, monitor, and manipulate communications.
Technical Overview
LTE MitM attacks typically involve rogue eNodeBs that relay traffic between devices and the legitimate network while monitoring and potentially modifying data in transit. The attacker must overcome LTE security features like mutual authentication and encryption.
- •Data interception and surveillance
- •Traffic manipulation and injection
- •Credential harvesting
- •Session hijacking
- •Privacy violations
- •Rogue eNodeB with traffic relay
- •ARP spoofing in LTE backhaul
- •DNS manipulation for traffic redirection
- •TLS downgrade attacks
- •Certificate validation bypass
- 1Deploy rogue eNodeB to intercept connections
- 2Establish relay to legitimate network
- 3Intercept and analyze traffic
- 4Identify unencrypted or weakly encrypted protocols
- 5Perform protocol-specific attacks (HTTP, DNS)
- 6Inject malicious content where possible
- Use end-to-end encryption for all communications
- Implement certificate pinning in applications
- Use VPN with strong encryption
- Enable HTTPS-only mode in browsers
- Deploy network-level MitM detection
- Monitor for certificate anomalies
- →Public Wi-Fi and cellular MitM attacks
- →Corporate network surveillance
- →Government interception programs
- →Credential theft at public events
- →Banking fraud through traffic manipulation
Related Attacks
Rogue eNodeB attacks involve deploying fake LTE base stations that impersonate legitimate network infrastructure to intercept communications and perform man-in-the-middle attacks.
Despite 4G LTE's improved security, IMSI extraction attacks exploit vulnerabilities in the attach procedure to capture subscriber identities before encryption is established.
Voice over LTE (VoLTE) exploits target vulnerabilities in the IMS architecture and SIP protocol to intercept calls, perform denial of service, or manipulate call routing.