Identity Spoofing Attacks
Impersonates legitimate Diameter nodes to gain unauthorized access or perform malicious actions.
Affected Protocols
Commands Used
Affected Interfaces
Prerequisites
- Knowledge of legitimate node identifiers
- Ability to forge Origin-Host/Origin-Realm AVPs
Impact
Unauthorized access, data theft, or service manipulation through trusted identity abuse
Detection Methods
- Validate Origin-Host and Origin-Realm consistency
- Monitor for duplicate node identities from different network locations
- Track session establishment patterns for anomalies
Mitigation Strategies
- Implement mutual TLS authentication for all Diameter connections
- Configure strict peer IP whitelisting for Diameter connections
- Apply topology hiding through DEAs to prevent direct node access
- Implement node identity verification mechanisms
Attack Scenario
Network Reconnaissance
The attacker performs reconnaissance to identify legitimate Diameter nodes, their identities, and the trust relationships between them.
Target Selection
The attacker selects a high-value node to impersonate, such as an MME, HSS, or PCRF, based on the access and privileges it would provide.
Identity Crafting
The attacker crafts Diameter messages with spoofed Origin-Host, Origin-Realm, and other identity parameters to impersonate the targeted node.
Message Injection
The attacker injects the crafted Diameter messages into the network, targeting specific nodes or services.
Privilege Exploitation
If the spoofed identity is trusted, the attacker gains unauthorized access to sensitive data, services, or network resources, potentially disrupting services or stealing information.
Real-World Examples
Examples of Identity Spoofing attacks in Diameter networks.
More real-world examples and case studies will be added soon.