First Ever GSM Cellphone Exploit

by Paul Laudanski, AKA Zhen-Xjell
April 20, 2004

In an earlier news article, I had noticed that my GSM GPRS enabled cellphone was hijacked over the weekend. Last night my providers representative knew nothing about this. I was advised to call back. At about 6:30 PM EDT today I called my provider once again to discuss this issue further.

I was forwarded to an engineer with whom I was engaged in a healthy discussion. This engineer eventually went to a supervisor while I was on hold. Turns out the supervisor had *just then* received an email about the very hijack I noticed last night. The email was hot off the presses and the supervisor didn't even get to read it yet.

I was advised that my provider is now aware that the issue which I reported actually does exist. They are going to suspend downloads to their customer cellphones. A timeframe was not specified.

I immediately apprised the engineer that an article would be going up sometime tonight. The engineer stated a supervisor with authority to speak on behalf of them would call. I waited a couple hours for the phone call that never came. I suggested to the engineer that this information needs to be handled quickly to ensure public awareness of the situation and that they are working to resolve it immediately. However, that solution at the time was still unknown. I will seek legal counsel in naming the provider.

So I plead to all GSM customers to call up your provider and point them to this article. This is a HIGHLY serious issue that the engineer has confrmed exists, and the provider had at that moment notified its own front line supervisors.

Indeed, the problem is (and confimed by the GSM provider):

Phone book entries are replaced by hijackers external to your phone.

Cellphones are now open to hijacking cracks.

Is this the end of decency to our private phone books? Please note, this is a widely known GSM provider in the United States. Let the cellphone firewalls begin.
Paul

Glossary:

GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications FAQ Here
GPRS: General Packet Radio Service FAQ Here



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