Long Term Evolution

and
its security infrastructure

Fataneh Safavieh
Mobile security Seminar,Bit,07.02.2011
 Outline

Introduction: some history &background

What is LTE?
LTE-SAE Security: some highlights
Home(e)Node B Security

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 Introduction:
some history & background

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 Mobile Evolution
 Improvements in mobile communication
technology during the last two decades
 The Mobile Broadband is as important as Internt

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http://www.nsma.org/conf2008/Presentation/2-1045-Miyahara-LTE_Overview_NMSA%2021March08_final.pdf
 User Expectations
 Highly desire of broadband acces everywhere
1. Home, Office
2. Train, Aeroplane, Canteen, during the Breake
 Ubiquity (anywhere, anytime)
 Higher voice quality
 Higher speed
 Lower prices
 Multitude of services

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http://www.nsma.org/conf2008/Presentation/2-1045-Miyahara-LTE_Overview_NMSA%2021March08_final.pdf
 3GPP

 The 3rd generation partnership project

 A global partnership of six SDOs:

1. Europe ETSI
2. USA ATIS
3. China CCSA
4. Japan ARIB & TTC
5. Korea TTA

LTE The UMTS Long Term Evolution - Sesia, Toufik, Baker 6

What is LTE?

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 What is LTE?
 The latest standard in the mobile network
technology tree
 A project of 3GPP & mainly built on 3GPP
cellular systems´ family
 May be referred as E-UTRA & E-UTRAN
 Has advanced new radio interface
 Circuit switched networksall-IP networks
 Broadband connectivity on the move
 100Mbps(DL), 50Mbps(UL), ~10 ms Latency
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UMTS and LTE architecture

Extract from ”Towards Global Mobile Broadband” 9

A White Paper from the UMTS Forum
 LTE key features
 High Spectral Efficiency more customers, less
costs
 Co-existence with other standards
 Flexible radio planning (cell size of 5km30/100km)
 Reduced Latency less RTT, multi-player gaming,
audio/video conferencing
 Reduced costs for operators (OPEX & CAPEX)
 Increased data rates via enhanced air interface
(OFDMA,SC-FDMA,MIMO)
 All-IP environment SAE or EPC
key advantages of SAE 10
LTE-SAE Security:
some highlights

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Security in the LTE-SAE Network

Security features in the network (from TS 33.401- Fig.4-1) 12

 Security features in the LTE-SAE
Network
Five security feature groups defined in TS 33.401

 (I): Network access security

 provides users with secure access to services
 protects against attacks on the access interface
 (II): Network domain security
 enables nodes to exchange signaling- & user- data securely
 protects against attacks on the wire line network
 (III): User domain security
 Provides secure access to mobile stations
 (IV): Application domain security
 enables applications in the user & provider domains to exchnage messages
securely
 (V): Visibility and configurability of security
 allows the users to learn whether a security feature is in operation
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 Authentication & key agreement

 HSS generates authentication data and provides it to

MME
 Challenge-response authentication and key agreement
procedure between MME and UE
4th ETSI Security Workshop - Sophia-Antipolis , 13-14 January 2009 15
 Confidentiality & integrity of
signaling

 RRC signaling between UE and E-UTRAN

 NAS signaling between UE and MME
 S1 interface signaling
 protection is not UE-specific
 optional to use

4th ETSI Security Workshop - Sophia- Antipolis,13-14 January 2009 16

 User plane confidentiality

 S1-U protection is not UE-specific

 (Enhanced) network domain security mechanisms (based on IPsec)
 Optional to use
 Integrity is not protected for various reasons, e.g.:
 performance
 limited protection for application layer

4th ETSI Security Workshop - Sophia- Antipolis, 13-14 January 2009 17

Cryptographic network separation

Key hierarchy (TS 33.401 - Figure 6.2-1) 18

 Cryptographic network separation
 Authentication vectors are specific to the serving network
AV’s usable in UTRAN/GERAN cannot be used in
EPS
 AV’s usable for UTRAN/GERAN access cannot be used
for EUTRAN access
 Solution by a “separation bit”
 Rel-99 USIM is still sufficient for EPS access
ME has to check the “separation bit” (when
accessing E-UTRAN)

4th ETSI Security Workshop - Sophia-Antipolis , 13-14 January 2009

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Home (e) Node B Security

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 System architecture of H(e)NB

Operator’s
UE HNB insecure SeGW core
link network

E-UTRAN air interface between UE and HeNB

HeNB accesses operator’s core network via a Security Gateway
The backhaul between HeNB and SeGW may be insecure
Operator’s core network performs mutual authentication with HeNB
via SeGW
Security tunnel between HeNB and SeGW to protect information
transmitted in backhaul link

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Figure from draft TR 33.820
 Common threats to H(e)NB
1. Physical tampering with H(e)NB
2. Fraudulent software update / configuration
changes
3. Denial of service attacks against core network
4. Eavesdropping of the other user’s UTRAN or
E-UTRAN user data
5. User cloning the H(e)NB authentication Token

From TR 33.820

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 Security requirements to H(e)NB
1. Unprotected data should never leave a secure domain inside
H(e)NB
2. Software updates and configuration changes for the H(e)NB shall
be cryptographically signed (by operator or H(e)NB supplier) and
verified configuration changes shall be authorized by H(e)NB
operator or supplier
3. Unauthenticated traffic shall be filtered out on the links between
the core network and the H(e)NB
4. New users should be required to explicitly confirm their
acceptance before being joined to an H(e)NB
5. H(e)NB authentication credentials shall be stored inside a secure
domain i.e. from which outsider cannot retrieve or clone the
credentials

From TR 33.820 24
References and Resources

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 References and Resources
 A Long Term Evolution Downlink inspired channel
simulator using the SUI 3Channel Model, Thesis of
Sanjay Kumar Sarkar, August 2009
 LTE The UMTS Long Term Evolution-
Sesia, Toufik, Baker (WILEY Publication) 2009
 http://www.nsma.org/conf2008/Presentation/2-1045-
MiyaharaLTE_Overview_NMSA%2021March08_final.pdf
 Towards Global Mobile Broadband” A White Paper
from the UMTS Forum, February 2008
 TS 33.401

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 References and Resources

 4th ETSI Security Workshop- Sophia-Antipolis ,

13-14 January 2009
 TR 33.820
 A Survey of Security Threats on 4G Networks,
Yongsuk Park and Taejoon Park
 Security in the LTE-SAE Network,
www.agilent.com/find/lte
 www.3gpp.org
 www.radio-electronics.com
 http://sites.google.com/site/lteencyclopedia
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 Thank
You
For
Your
Attention!
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