Vulnerabilities and Possible Attacks Against the GPRS Backbone Network

Abstract

This paper presents the security weaknesses and the possible attacks, which threaten the GPRS backbone network and the data that either reside at the network or are transferred through it. These attacks may be performed by malicious third parties, mobile users, network operators or network operator personnel, which exploit the weaknesses of the employed technology and the security measures applied to the GPRS backbone. The possible attacks against the GPRS backbone may result in the compromise of end-users security, the users over billing, the disclosure or alteration of critical information, the services unavailability, the network breakdown, etc. The analyzed attacks and their consequences increase the risks associated with the usage of GPRS, and, thus, influence its deployment that realizes the concept of the mobile Internet.