Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DoS attacks: the case of blocking UAV communications
Abstract The modern communications landscape requires reliable, high-speed, high-throughput and secure links and sessions between user equipment instances and the data network. The 5G core implements the newly defined 3GPP network architecture enabling faster connectivity, low latency, higher bit ra...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SpringerOpen
2022-12-01
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| Series: | EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s13638-022-02204-5 |
| _version_ | 1797980394795040768 |
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| author | George Amponis Panagiotis Radoglou-Grammatikis Thomas Lagkas Wissam Mallouli Ana Cavalli Dimitris Klonidis Evangelos Markakis Panagiotis Sarigiannidis |
| author_facet | George Amponis Panagiotis Radoglou-Grammatikis Thomas Lagkas Wissam Mallouli Ana Cavalli Dimitris Klonidis Evangelos Markakis Panagiotis Sarigiannidis |
| author_sort | George Amponis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The modern communications landscape requires reliable, high-speed, high-throughput and secure links and sessions between user equipment instances and the data network. The 5G core implements the newly defined 3GPP network architecture enabling faster connectivity, low latency, higher bit rates and network reliability. The full potential of this set of networks will support a set of critical Internet of things (IoT) and industrial use cases. Nevertheless, several components and interfaces of the next-generation radio access network (NG-RAN) have proven to be vulnerable to attacks that can potentially obstruct the network’s capability to provide reliable end-to-end communication services. Various inherent security flaws and protocol-specific weaknesses have also been identified within the 5G core itself. However, little to no research has gone into testing and exposing said core-related weaknesses, contrary to those concerning the NG-RAN. In this paper, we investigate, describe, develop, implement and finally test a set of attacks on the Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) inside the 5G core. We find that, by transmitting unauthorised session control packets, we were able to disrupt established 5G tunnels without disrupting subscribers’ connectivity to the NG-RAN, thus hindering the detection of said attacks. We evaluate the identified PFCP attacks in a drone-based scenario involving 5G tunnelling between two swarms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T05:53:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cdf8c73ef3804c16b3a30675599e278e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1687-1499 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T05:53:36Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking |
| spelling | doaj.art-cdf8c73ef3804c16b3a30675599e278e2022-12-22T04:41:58ZengSpringerOpenEURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking1687-14992022-12-012022112710.1186/s13638-022-02204-5Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DoS attacks: the case of blocking UAV communicationsGeorge Amponis0Panagiotis Radoglou-Grammatikis1Thomas Lagkas2Wissam Mallouli3Ana Cavalli4Dimitris Klonidis5Evangelos Markakis6Panagiotis Sarigiannidis7K3Y Ltd.K3Y Ltd.Department of Computer Science, International Hellenic UniversityMONTIMAGEMONTIMAGEUBITECH LtdHellenic Mediterranean UniversityDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western MacedoniaAbstract The modern communications landscape requires reliable, high-speed, high-throughput and secure links and sessions between user equipment instances and the data network. The 5G core implements the newly defined 3GPP network architecture enabling faster connectivity, low latency, higher bit rates and network reliability. The full potential of this set of networks will support a set of critical Internet of things (IoT) and industrial use cases. Nevertheless, several components and interfaces of the next-generation radio access network (NG-RAN) have proven to be vulnerable to attacks that can potentially obstruct the network’s capability to provide reliable end-to-end communication services. Various inherent security flaws and protocol-specific weaknesses have also been identified within the 5G core itself. However, little to no research has gone into testing and exposing said core-related weaknesses, contrary to those concerning the NG-RAN. In this paper, we investigate, describe, develop, implement and finally test a set of attacks on the Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) inside the 5G core. We find that, by transmitting unauthorised session control packets, we were able to disrupt established 5G tunnels without disrupting subscribers’ connectivity to the NG-RAN, thus hindering the detection of said attacks. We evaluate the identified PFCP attacks in a drone-based scenario involving 5G tunnelling between two swarms.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13638-022-02204-5 |
| spellingShingle | George Amponis Panagiotis Radoglou-Grammatikis Thomas Lagkas Wissam Mallouli Ana Cavalli Dimitris Klonidis Evangelos Markakis Panagiotis Sarigiannidis Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DoS attacks: the case of blocking UAV communications EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking |
| title | Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DoS attacks: the case of blocking UAV communications |
| title_full | Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DoS attacks: the case of blocking UAV communications |
| title_fullStr | Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DoS attacks: the case of blocking UAV communications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DoS attacks: the case of blocking UAV communications |
| title_short | Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DoS attacks: the case of blocking UAV communications |
| title_sort | threatening the 5g core via pfcp dos attacks the case of blocking uav communications |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s13638-022-02204-5 |
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