LTE security flaw can be abused to take out subscriptions at your expense
A security vulnerability in LTE can be exploited to sign up for subscriptions or paid website services at someone else's expense, new research suggests.
According to researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum, the flaw exists in the 4G mobile communication standard and permits smartphone user impersonation, which could allow attackers to "start a subscription at the expense of others or publish secret company documents under someone else's identity."
The research, titled "IMP4GT: IMPersonation Attacks in 4G NeTworks," is the work of David Rupprecht, Katharina Kohls, Thorsten Holz, and Christina Pöpper. The IMP4GT attack impacts "all devices that communicate with LTE," which includes "virtually all" smartphones, tablets, and some Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
