CAPEC-605
Cellular Jamming
In this attack scenario, the attacker actively transmits signals to overpower and disrupt the communication between a cellular user device and a cell tower. Several existing techniques are known in the open literature for this attack for 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE cellular technology. For example, some attacks target cell towers by overwhelming them with false status messages, while others introduce high levels of noise on signaling channels.
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Explain the attack pattern CAPEC-605: Cellular Jamming: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/605.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/605?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.Opens a third-party assistant; its answer is its own, not cve.bz's. The prompt holds only this attack pattern's id and public links.
Prerequisites
Lack of anti-jam features in cellular technology (2G, 3G, 4G, LTE)
Skills required
- Low skill
This attack can be performed by low capability attackers with commercially available tools.
Consequences
| Impact | Affects | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Resource Consumption | Availability | The attacker's goal is to prevent users from accessing the cellular network. Denying connectivity to the cellular network prevents the user from being able to transmit or receive any data, which also prevents VOIP calls, however this attack poses no threat to data confidentiality. |
Mitigations
Mitigating this attack requires countermeasures employed on both the retransmission device as well as on the cell tower. Therefore, any system that relies on existing commercial cell towards will likely be vulnerable to this attack. By using a private cellular LTE network (i.e., a custom cell tower), jamming countermeasures could be developed and employed.
Related attack patterns
- Part of
- CAPEC-601 Jamming
MITRE's words, unchanged: CAPEC-605 at MITRE. CAPEC is Copyright © 2007–2026, The MITRE Corporation, used under the CAPEC terms of use: “The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) hereby grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC™) for research, development, and commercial purposes. Any copy you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you reproduce MITRE’s copyright designation and this license in any such copy.” CAPEC and the CAPEC logo are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Credits. All attack patterns.