A Review of Salient Security Aspects of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS)

F. Imran
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology Islamabad, Pakistan faisalimran_84@yahoo.com
Abstract Wireless communication is known as key to global development. Wireless and mobile communication is gaining more importance in our life. Protecting information is one the aspects which we need to focus on the wireless networks. Universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) is evolution of the third generation mobile communication system. It was built on the success of global system for mobile communication (GSM). Universal mobile telecommunication systems security is also built on global system for mobile communication (GSM). The paper reviews the literature of the security aspects of the Universal mobile telecommunication system. A critical evaluation of the proposed solutions is done based on the literature review. Keywords- GSM; UMTS; Security; AKA; IMSI

M. Hussain
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology Islamabad, Pakistan mhussain@szabist-isb.edu.pk switching consists of Mobile Switching Centre (MSC), Visitors Location Register (VLR) and gateway Mobile Switching Centre (MSC). PC consists of serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and gateway GPRS support node (GGSN). This paper reviews different security aspects in UMTS architecture, problems and proposed solutions for these problems are discussed. Section two the review of literature is described; Section three describes the critical analysis based on the literature review, Section four provides conclusion and section five is future research work. In last the references are given II. LITERATURE REVIEW

I.

INTRODUCTION

The next version of the second generation is the Universal mobile telecommunication system which relatively provides more security, flexibility and higher data rate. UMTS basically evolved from global system for mobile communications (GSM). It provides data rate up to 2Mbits/s [14]. When a network is poorly implemented, lots of security vulnerabilities are there. Now there is problem with plaintext communication. To provide protection, many different security areas are addressed, e.g., network access security provides users with secure access to the mobile services, network domain security provides secure exchanges of signaling data in the core network, application domain security provides users and providers with secure exchanges of application data, etc. [13]. UMTS was developed according to the frame work formulated by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which proposed in the standards International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 Conference (IMT2000). It was the project of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) whose objective was to deliver pictures, graphics, video and other multimedia information over wireless. Its network topologies basically depend upon Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and General packet radio service (GPRS) and a global system which have both terrestrial and satellite components. The core network of the UMTS consists of circuit switching and packet switching domains. Circuit

This paper reviews the security architecture and mechanism of third generation mobile communication systems. The basic network access security mechanism is analyzed and flow description of signaling procedure for integrity protection and data confidentiality is given. In this paper the architecture of third generation universal mobile communication system is given and five UMTS related security feature are presented. This secures the network. These are network access security, network domain security, user domain security, application domain security, visibility and configurability [1]. After that data integrity is achieved between User Equipment (UE) and Radio Network Controller (RNC) through confidentiality services. In network access security temporary identification is achieved by Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) and permanent identity is by International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) but authentication and key agreement is achieved by mutual authentication. So that authentication vector used for authentication and key agreement in between UMTS Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) and Visited Location Register (VLR)/ Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN). The integrity protection of signaling message between UE and network is achieved by setting up security mode and RRC connection establishing in Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA). In local authentication a connection establishment transfers the information at initial connection establishment and then authentication, integrity protection and ciphering performed [1]. The KASUMI algorithm is the core

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algorithm used in functions f8 and f9.The Integrity protection and confidentiality are respectively achieved by f9 and f8algorithms [1]. The error control is pointed but it is not discussed in detail. The author discussed a lot about integrity and authentication but hasnt given importance to data confidentiality. In the next paper authors describe elliptic curve cryptosystem public key authentication protocol [2]. The key distribution and digital signature of the public key cryptography are main parts of mobile communication network authentication protocol but ECC/UMTS authentication protocol performs authentication, cipher key and integrity key exchange between two communication parties. The authors explained that 3GPP UMTS protocol have more signaling load and is less secure. To resolve these problems they have introduced another protocol known as ECC/UMTS protocol. But certificate in ECC/UMTS is an important application for digital signature. It has two cases! First certificate distribution and entity authentication must be performed in ECC/UMTS authentication protocol. 2nd certificate obtained from authentication and used for key exchange by Visiting Location Register (VLR) and mobile station (MS). After that the grades are given to protocols on behalf of their security improvement. If the protocol satisfies more security criteria its grade is one other wise zero. But the signaling load determines the system complexity and cost of different authentication protocols. So the higher signaling load could result in longer authentication time or more system complexity. There is no doubt that ECC/UMTS have more signaling load then 3GPP/UMTS protocol. But ECC/UMTS can improve security when VLR and MS certificates are valid [2] and its signaling load can be reduced by choosing adequate certificate life time. It is well organized paper with easy-to-understand approach. They have focused strongly the ECC/UMTS protocol and ignored 3GPP/UMTS protocol. Here it is presented that man in the middle attack on UMTS [3]. Furthermore, security mechanism with focus on authentication and key agreement in UMTS is described after that the possibilities of man in middle attack and preventions against this attack discussed. In start its presented that how UMTS is built on the base of GSM first. After that UMTS security structure is discussed. In which authentication and key agreement presented between UMTS subscriber and UMTS network as well as between UMTS subscriber and GSM base station. And in UMTS only user equipment is protected against man in the middle (MITM) attack. There is vulnerability in combined UMTS/GSM user equipment because attacker can easily attack the GSM base station by using UMTS authentication procedure. This attack consists of two phases. In phase one attacker obtains the AUTN and in phase two the attacker impersonates a valid base station to get access to the victim mobile station [3]. In UMTS case, this attack is feasible but in GSM case, its easy. We can avoid man in the middle attack by including security mod capabilities of the mobile station in the integrity protected

message. So the modification required in UMTS standards. GSM base station is more focused than UMTS. A secure handoff and integration scheme between UMTS and 802.11 WLAN networks is presented [4]. Although there are some drawbacks of these integrated networks of UMTS and 802.11 WLAN and could be hijacked during the communication session. In this paper architecture is proposed to secure network from these problems. In this Handoff from UMTS to WLAN and one time session key generation protocol [4] is discussed and there are three phases in dynamic key exchange protocol. These are access point registration phase, key generation phase, and refresh password phase. A new security key exchange scheme is introduced in which dynamic key exchange protocol (DKEP) is used to build a secure handoff. Some advantages of DKEP are also described and a popular BAN logic system GNY is used to formally verify and validate this protocol. Furthermore two protocols EAP-AKA and DKEP are also compared. Although they have concentrated more on dynamic key exchange protocol (DKEP). Author compared DKEP and EAPaka but there is no further explanation about this protocol. Identity management between the UMTS and wireless local area network (WLAN) is discussed [5] and that was proposed by IEEE standard 802.11. Basically UMTS provides flexibility and speed and WLAN provides speed up to 54Mbit/s. Identity management and security management between UMTS and WLAN is an important problem. And it takes a lot time between authentication and identity management. After that the authors have discussed different types of networks such as tight coupled, loose coupled and peer networks. In this type of heterogeneous networks security, availability and performance are the serious issues. They also give a single sign-on and mutual authentication [5]. Model in sign-on only one sign-on is used between both UMTS and WLAN and authentication between different entities between UMTS and WLAN. So while designing vertical hand over emphases should be on the performance of networks. In this paper different aspects of security are covered in detail. Authentication and integrity are discussed in more detail but availability is avoided. There is no proper solution given for any problem which has been discussed. Here it is proposed that authentication and key agreement protocol can be used to secure the transmission between different components of UMTS [6]. UMTS AKA protocol consumes more bandwidth and it takes more space for storage at serving network (SN). There is also a problem of sequence number (SQN) synchronization between SN and home network (HN). After that they proposed a new UMTS X-AKA protocol which comparatively consumes low bandwidth. It takes small space for storage and it terminates the sequence number synchronization. Then SQN is used for mutual authentication between SN and HN instead of temporary key mechanism. The authors have also compared UMTS-AKA, AP-AKA and UMTS X-AKA protocols [6]. On the behalf of authentication,

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confidentiality, integrity, bandwidth consumption, storage space overhead and synchronization UMTS X-AKA protocol is one of the best among these. Model presented in this paper is supported very well. But in this paper they compared their protocol with other three protocols but explained only one of them while others are ignored. Implementation of the UMTS security architecture was discussed, which was released by ETSI in 1999 [7]. Basically they described the security architecture of the GSM on base of which UMTS was developed. And also describes the flaws in the security of this network. Then they described the security architecture of UMTS and its two authentication protocols based upon sequence numbers and temporary keys. How in UMTS security by achieving secure authentication confidentiality and integrity over came on security flaws of GSM. Here it is stated that how security evolution took place in second generation to overcame the security flaws of first generation and then third generation to overcame on second generation [8]. Then they described architecture and services UMTS. Then they have described security attacks which are possible on UMTS protocol. The attacks include denials of service, identity catching and impersonation of network and user which are achieved through eavesdropping impersonation of user, man in the middle and compromising authentication vector in the network [8]. Then they have described the whole structure of UMTS security architecture. They have also discussed that how UMTS architecture protect itself from the denials of service, identity catching, impersonation of network and user attacks. Its an understandable approach with clear solution of problems proposed earlier in this paper and described each and every aspect clearly. The authors emphasize only on the UMTS security architecture but they dont tell us about the GSM security architecture only problems of GSM security architecture are proposed. The improvement in the security for the user on the UMTS network is discussed here [9]. It states improved user identity confidentiality (IUIC) for UMTS mobile networks to improve the anonymity of the user and to secure the user from the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) theft. First they proposed that IMSI of user can be disclosed by an attacker during authentication of the user in between Serving Network (SN) and Home Environment (HE) where IMSI is used. After that they proposed a solution through IUIC in which Anonymous ticket manager module (ATMM) and its procedure anonymous ticket exchange procedure (ATEP) [9] is used for the secure exchange of IMSI. So, in this procedure symmetric encryption is used during IMSI exchange instead of asymmetric which is too much time consuming and after that they implemented all IUIC without making other changes in UMTS security architecture.

Its a well organized paper with proper description of problem, its solution and then its implementation. However the authors dont compare both strategies. IP based multimedia services are the essential part of UMTS which provides voice telephony, messaging, multimedia conferencing and other GPRS based facilities [10]. In this paper the authors proposed that authentication and key agreement procedure of IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) consist of two pass authentication. In which both phases have the same steps due to which that protocol is inefficient. After that they discussed another Line et al.s one pass authentication [10] but its a threat for fake attack on IMS scriber, temporary cheat, mutual authentication and CK and IK loss [10]. After that they proposed a solution for these threats and give another one pass AKA. Then paper shows that the proposed IMS AKA is too much short and efficient. Its comparative performance with respect to IMS AKA and Line et al.s is too much better and performs less number of steps than competitors. The comparative message delivery cost of proposed one is less than other but as shown the number of steps of Line et al.s is less then proposed one. Here it is suggestwd that today sensor networks are gaining more importance in our life. Basically a sensor network consists of cluster in which cluster contains one sink node and a few sensors. And distance between them effects their efficiency and power consumption. In this paper a new framework is designed to move data from sink to the user at low cost and power for this they describe an interoperability frame work for sensor and UMTS [11]. Then they explained three network satellite communication, wireless LAN networks and fully equipped vehicle or airplane [11] which have high cost and have suggested that last two are complex to deploy. After that, they explained UMTS network and transmission of SMS and MMS on this network. Then they explained their own proposed network and its framework which gives the solution of the problems which come in MMS transmission in UMTS, internetwork solutions and power consumption solution. And this frame work can reduce the cost and increase the life time of sensors through intelligently choosing sink nodes. No doubt the there is new approach used in this paper and its well organized and understand able paper. And model proposed in this paper is also implemented. But there at the end author told that more work is required to properly deploy this network and to reduce the cost. In [11] authors describe about other sensor network frame works but not properly explained about these. Today 3G networks are playing main role in our life. They want to do their business and all type of other transaction by themselves at home. Thats why 3G UMTS is playing a great role in this aspect. First the authors described the whole security structure of UMTS. This consists of switching on mobile, AKA protocol and security mode setup procedure [12]. After that, they explained some types of security risks which is in UMTS security architecture and some risks due to GSM

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AND UMTS integrated structure. In which some attacks are introduced due to insecure communication through air interface and before the security mode setup. In GSM based network there are some types of threats like impersonation of network is possible and in UMTS user traceability through IMSI is possible which shows the violation of user identity/location confidentiality. So, the denial of service attack is also possible through Radio Resource III. CRITICAL EVALUATION
Author Mine Lei, Hai Bi, Zhengjin Feng 2002 Jeich Mar, member, IEEE and KO-Ming Lee 2003 Ulrike Meyer, Susanne Wetzel 2004 YenChiehOuyan, and Chung-Hua Chu 2005 Mo Li, Kumbesan Sandrasegarn and Xiaoan Huuang 2005 Chung-Ming Huang and JianWei Li 2005 Abdul Bais, Walter T.Penzhorn and Peter Palensky 2006 Behman Sattarzadeh, Mahdi Asadpour and Rasool Jalili 2007 Chung-Ming Huang and JianWei Li 2007 Summary Security architecture and mechanism of third generation mobile communication

Controller (RRC) connection reject message and flooding the Home Location Register (HLR)/ Authentication Centre (AuC) [12]. In the future work they have mentioned to do work to avoid from these vulnerabilities. No doubt that problems are explained very well in this paper and these are also understand able but they proposed only the problems but he dont explain some sort of solution for these problems. The author focused more on the UMTS but ignored the GSM security structure which is being used with UMTS.

Solutions Proposed Security architecture and mechanism of third generation mobile communication is proposed ECC/UMTS proposed. protocol is

Strong points Detailed discusion is given about

Limitations Data confidentiality discussed less is

Application of certificate on the ECC authentication protocol for point-to point communication

It is well organized paper with easy-to-understand approach.

They focused strongly the ECC/UMTS protocol and ignored 3GPP/UMTS protocol.

A man-in-middle attack on UMTS A secure interworking scheme for UMTS-WLAN

They proposed that how a man in middle attack on UMTS is possible. A new security key exchange scheme is proposed

They focused a lot on GSM base station. Its understandable and short paper in which DKEP is described more precisely

They ignored UMTS as compare to GSM. Author compared DKEP and EAP-aka but there is no further explanation about this protocol

Identity management in vertical handovers for UMTS-WLAN networks

Identity management in between UMTS and WLAN network.

Different aspects of security are covered beautifully.

There is no proper solution of each problem.

Authentication and key agreement protocol for UMTS with low bandwidth consumption Evaluation of UMTS security architecture and services

They have proposed new AKA protocol which consumes low bandwidth.

Model presented in this paper is supported very well

The presented one is compared with only one other protocol while three protocols are mentioned. Some of the problems of 3G security are mentioned. Which have no solution in this paper? They introduced three other approaches of different people but they dont further explain or compare these ones with his own

They proposed improved security architecture of UMTS and services which it provides.

Clear solution of problems proposed earlier in this paper and described each and every aspect clearly Its a well organized paper with proper description of problem its solution and then its implementation.

Improved user confidentiality for mobile networks

identity UMTS

They have proposed improved identity confidentiality mechanism.

One-pass authentication and key agreement procedure in IP multimedia subsystem for UMTS

They have proposed new AKA procedure for IP multimedia subsystem for UMTS

This paper is well organized and provides clear solution of problem and its implementation as well.

The number of steps of Line et al.s is less then proposed one.

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M.Y.Aal Salem, David Everitt and Albert Y.Zomaya 2007 Muzammil Khan, Attiq Ahmad, Ahmad Raza Cheema 2008

An interoperability framework for sensor and UMTS networks

They have proposed new frame work for sensor and UMTS networks.

Model proposed in this paper is also implemented.

The author told about other sensor network frame works but not properly explained about these. They explained UMTS security more than GSM.

Vulnerabilities of UMTS access domain security architecture

They proposed the vulnerabilities of UMTS security architecture.

Problems are explained very well in this paper.

[5]

IV.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

[6]

It is concluded from this literature review that UMTS is playing great role in our life. A lot of security improvements are made to resolve the risks but more improvement and further work is required to improve the authentication and key agreement (AKA) protocol and other security aspects. Improvement is also required to increase the data transfer rate. Also GSM network should be made secure. Both asymmetric and symmetric cryptosystems should be used to achieve security. It is a better idea to use one pass authentication to improve the speed. Future direction of this research is to improve the security in UMTS. A new protocol should be developed which consumes low space and time. And improve the user integrity and confidentiality

[7] [8]

[9]

[10]

REFERENCES
[1] [2] Mine Lei, Hai Bi, Zhengjin Feng Security Architecture and Mechanism of Third Generation Mobile Communication IEEE 2002. Jeich Mar, member, IEEE and KO-Ming Lee Application of Certificate on the ECC Authentication Protocol for Point-to Point Communication IEEE 2003. Ulrike Meyer, Susanne Wetzel A Man-in-the-Middle Attack on UMTS ACM 2004. Yen-ChiehOuyang, and Chung-Hua Chu A Secure Interworking Scheme for UMTS-WLAN IEEE in proceeding of the First

[11]

[12]

[3] [4]

[13] [14]

International Conference on Security and Privacy for Emerging Area in Communications Networks 2005. Mo Li, Kumbesan Sandrasegaran and Xiaoan Huuang Identity Management in Vertical Handovers for UMTS-WLAN Networks in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Mobile Business 2005. Chung-Ming Huang and Jian-Wei Li, Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for UMTS with Low Bandwidth Consumption in Proceedings of IEEE 19th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications 2005. Gunther Horn and Klaus Muller, Towards a UMTS Security Architecture Abdul Bais, Walter T.Penzhorn and Peter Palensky,Evaluation of UMTS Security Architecture and Services IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics 2006. Behman Sattarzadeh, Mahdi Asadpour and Rasool Jalilil, Improved User Identity Confidentiality for UMTS Mobile Networks in Proceeding of IEEE Fourth European Conference on Universal Multiservice Networks 2007. Chung-Ming Huang and Jian-Wei Li, One-Pass Authentication and key Agreement Procedure in IP Multimedia Subsystem for UMTS in IEEE 21st International Conference on Advanced Networking and Applications 2007. M.Y.Aal Salem, David Everitt and Albert Y.Zomaya, An Interoperability Framework for Sensor and UMTS Networks in Proceeding of IEEE Third Internationl Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications 2007. Muzammil Khan, Attiq Ahmad, Ahmad Raza Cheema Vulnerabilities of UMTS Access Domain Security Architecture IEEE in Ninth ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking, and Parallel/Distributed Computing 2008 3GPP TS 33.102. 3GPP: Technical Specification Group services and System Aspects, 3G Security, Security Architecture. www.umtsworld.com/technology/overview.htm

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