» Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:29 pm some characteristics:
- full active MitM against CDMA and 4G connections from Rio to carriers.
- MitM positioning for remote exploitation to ring0 on Android and PC.
- fall back to userspace only or non-persistent methods when
persistent rootkit unattainable.
- many attack trees and weaponized exploits. escalation from easy pwns
up to specialized techniques and tactics until success is achieved.
- simultaneous attack across CDMA and 4G connections using full power
in these LICENSED bands.
- operated continuously (except for outages
from early Saturday
until 8am Monday.
- designed with intent: mass exploitation, reconnaissance,
exfiltration, eavesdropping.
- full active MitM against CDMA and 4G connections from Rio to carriers.
- MitM positioning for remote exploitation to ring0 on Android and PC.
- fall back to userspace only or non-persistent methods when
persistent rootkit unattainable.
- many attack trees and weaponized exploits. escalation from easy pwns
up to specialized techniques and tactics until success is achieved.
- simultaneous attack across CDMA and 4G connections using full power
in these LICENSED bands.
- operated continuously (except for outages
from early Saturdayuntil 8am Monday.
- designed with intent: mass exploitation, reconnaissance,
exfiltration, eavesdropping.
It's not clear yet just how bad this is. Whether eavesdropping in on phonecalls is possible with this hasn't been made clear yet. There seems to be a non-disclosure agreement keeping the exploit details from being published at the moment, or otherwise it hasn't been released yet (it wasn't a panel).
What this potentially means is that cellphones are completely and undeniably the biggest security and privacy risk for anyone. CDMA had thus far stood up as being resiliant to all attempts to break in. The entry costs were huge and the crpto seemed good. Only time will tell if this is as bad as the GSM hack (GSM can be eavesdropped on for as little as $200 with enough effort, otherwise $2000 will get a person the equipment necessary to eavesdrop, reroute phonecalls, read text messages, drop your service, potentially gain access to your phone's contacts and other personal information, etc --- Yeah, GSM is a totally broken horse, BTW: This has been true for about 3 years now, 6 years if you had a better budget)
So maybe it's time to start considering carrier pigeons again?
At the least, please be aware that your phone conversations are easily compromised and be careful 
Oh, and of course this means nothing to Europeans: You guys are completely stuck with the totally-utterly-ridiculously broken GSM that all your phonecalls are probably being recorded already
