Security Implementation in Mobile Communication Devices

Security implementation in Mobile devices INTRODUCTION Wireless communication is the process of communicating information in electromagnetic media over a distance through the free space environment, rather than through traditional wired or other physical conduits. The secure provision of mobile computing and

telecommunication services is rapidly increasing in importance as both demand and applications in order to provide a large number of advanced services to mobile users. The first generation of cellular mobile communications systems contained few if any security measures to protect the system operator and users. The second generation generally did a lot better, and contained entity authentication and confidentiality protection. Although this was a major improvement, security protection in the second generation left a lot to be desired in terms of key management and strong security algorithms. With the advent of third generation a (3G) mobile system a serious effort has been made to create consistent security architecture based on the threats and risks a 3G system faces. The goal of this study is to propose the security mechanism of wireless communication to protect against any attack using technical approach that implements the authentication and encryption process. Security of wireless communication is extremely difficult and challenging because of facing more complicated environments compared with conventional wired networks. For instance, wireless communication could be disturbed by radio wave and thunderstorms or blocked by physical objects like mountains or skyscrapers. Even
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Security implementation in Mobile devices worse, high mobility coupled with a variety of explosively increased users makes existing security policies in wireless communication inefficient or even useless, meaning that wireless communication can be easily attacked by computer viruses, worms, spy wares, and similar threats. Wireless communications is taking over more and more and makes by no means difference between different application areas. Thus authentication and encryption of data are the areas like current interest, quality and security in evident focus. We are interested in vulnerabilities that come with wireless communications and mobility and how they are related to threats and risks. The advantages of wireless communications are likely to see these technologies featured in up-coming third generation mobile systems such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and offering many new services that will revolutionize the way that society handles information. Security issues were not properly addressed in the first-generation analogue systems. With low-cost equipment, an intruder could eavesdropper user traffic or even change the identity of mobile phones to gain fraudulent service. Given this background, security measures were taken into account in the design of second- generation digital cellular systems. To prevent fraudulent use of wireless service, the Global System for Mobile (GSM) network authenticates the identity of a user through a challenge-response mechanism. The second-generation mobile communication standards

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Security implementation in Mobile devices adopt the symmetric-key cryptography between users and their home networks to establish session keys. The third generation systems such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and the international Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT 2000) take advantage of many advanced security technologies, especially public key cryptography. The core security mechanisms are confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Apart from the core security mechanism, wireless communications (as in many other networks), authentication, authorization, and access control also need to be achieved. Sometimes, availability is viewed as a quality-of-service (QoS) feature rather than a security issue. Cryptography, in some sense, is the mechanism to achieve the security goals. The topics of interest to the wireless communications are digital signature, encryption, and key management. This mechanism provides two main issues: first related to authentication and authorization in the wireless

communication is the robustness of the methods used in verifying an entity's identity. The second issue is maintaining the confidentiality of the "wire" and connection and keeping it bulletproof. In the case wireless communication, the wire is the air, so the problem of confidentiality becomes more difficult because anybody could potentially be a passive listener to the airwaves. The relevant point is that, in the wireless local area network (WLAN) space, encryption is needed if you are to trust the authentication.

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Security implementation in Mobile devices IMPLEMENTATION Wireless system privacy and security is achieved using four primary mechanisms. These mechanisms are as follows: a) Each subscriber is identified using a cryptographic security mechanism. The algorithm is highly resistant to attacks by

individuals attempting to make fraudulent phone calls. b) The subscriber's security information is stored in a secure computing platform called a Smart Card or a SIM Card. c) The wireless system operator maintains the secrecy of the cryptographic algorithms and the keys for authenticating the subscriber and providing voice privacy. The algorithms are stored in the SIM card and in the authentication center. d) The cryptographic keys are not shared with other wireless system administrations.

The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) uses three security algorithms. Authentication algorithm (A3) Ciphering Key Generation Algorithm (A8) Encryption Algorithm (A5)

Authentication Algorithm (A3)

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Security implementation in Mobile devices Authentication is needed in a cellular system to prohibit an unauthorized user from logging into the network claiming to be a mobile subscriber. If it was possible, it would be easily possible to hijack someones account and impersonate that person or simply making that person pay for the services. In fact this was possible in some earlier cellular systems. In order to solve this problem some sort of challenge needs to be issued by the network which the mobile phone or mobile station (MS) must respond to correctly. The A3 algorithm is the authentication algorithm for GSM networks, and resides on the SIM card of the mobile subscriber, and on the home location register or authentication centre (HLR/AuC) of the home network. The implementation of the A3 algorithm is network specific and depends on the network operator. The A3 algorithm is a non-recursive algorithm, meaning that the output generated from the input cannot be used to derive or guess the inputs. Thus, the output gives no indication about the input. The main purpose of this algorithm is to authenticate the identity of a mobile subscriber. The A3 algorithm generates the expected response (XRES) on the network side and the RES on the mobile side. Both the XRES and RES are a 32-bit long key and are generated from Ki and RAND.

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Security implementation in Mobile devices

Overview of authentication procedure

Ciphering Key Generation Algorithm (A8) A8 also uses RAND and Ki to generate a ciphering key (Kc) that is used for voice and data privacy. A8 is also unique to each GSM administration. The SIM contains the ciphering key generating algorithm (A8) which is used to produce the 64-bit ciphering key (Kc). The ciphering key is computed by applying the same random number (RAND) used in the authentication process to the ciphering key generating algorithm (A8) with the individual subscriber authentication key (Ki). The A8 algorithm is the ciphering key generation algorithm, as with the A3 algorithm it also resides on the SIM card and HLR/AuC. Its implementation is network specific and it is also a non-recursive algorithm. The A8 algorithm is used for generating the Kc, which is a session key and is used for encrypting voice and data traffic.
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Security implementation in Mobile devices The Kc is generated from the Ki and RAND and is 64-bits long.

Encryption Algorithm (A5) The A5 algorithm is the stream cipher used to encrypt data over-theair transmissions. The inputs to A5 are the ciphering key (Kc) and the time division multiple access (TDMA) frame counter. The frame counter is 22 bits long and each frame is approximately 4.6 ms long. The stream cipher is initialized all over again for every frame sent. The stream cipher is initialized with the session key Kc and the number of the frame being decrypted.

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Security implementation in Mobile devices The same Kc is used throughout the call but the 22-bit frame number changes during the call, thus generating a unique key stream for every frame. The A5 algorithm is the ciphering/deciphering algorithm, and resides on the mobile station of a subscriber and on the BSS. The A5 algorithm is used for protecting data sent from the mobile station, and the BSS and viceversa; this provides the privacy of data and calls. The Kc ensures that all calls are encrypted between the MS and the BSS. A5 is built from three short linear feedback shift registers (LFSR) of lengths 19, 22 and 23 bits which are denoted by R1, R2 and R3 respectively. The rightmost bit in each register is labeled as bit zero. The taps of R1 are at bit positions 13, 16, 17, 18; the taps of R2 are at bit positions 20, 21; and the taps of R3 are at bit positions 7,20,21,22.

When a register is clocked its taps are XORed together and the result is stored in the rightmost bit of the left-shifted register. The three registers are maximal length LFSR's with periods 219 -1, 222 - 1, and 223 -1 respectively.They are clocked in a stop/go fashion using the
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Security implementation in Mobile devices following majority rule: Each register has a single "clocking" tap (bit 8 for R1, bit 10 for R2, and bit 10 for for R3); each clock cycle, the majority function of the clocking taps is calculated and only those registers whose clocking taps agree with the majority bit are actually clocked. Note that at each step either two or three registers are clocked and that each register moves with probability 3/4 and stops with probability 1/4. The A5/1 algorithm is simply the modulo-2 addition of the output of 3 LFSRs, which are defined by the polynomials: (shift register A) X19 + X5 + X2 + X + 1 (shift register B) X22 + X + 1 (shift register C) X23 + X15 + X2 + X + 1 However, the algorithm is slightly complicated by controlling the clock inputs of each of the LFSRs. An LFSR is only clocked if a certain bit (the control bit) of it agrees with the majority of the control bits from each register. Let Ri denote the ith bit of shift register R (from the right, i.e. input to the shift register). Let S (the sum of the controlling bits) = A8 + B10 + C10Let M = 1 if S >= 2 (i.e. the majority of controlling bits are 1) and 0 if S<=1 (i.e. the majority of the controlling bits are 0). Thus M represents what the majority of the control bits values. Let CLKR be the clock input to register R. CLKA = (A8 XOR M)` CLKB = (B10 XOR M)`
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Security implementation in Mobile devices CLKC = (C10 XOR M)` Where ` indicates the bitwise complement. This clocking mechanism makes divide-and-conquer style attacks less feasible, but not impossible. The algorithm is seeded by the 64-bit Kc (ciphering key) and 22-bit COUNT (frame number) as follows: Each bit of the 64-bit Kc is modulo-2 added to the input (bit 0) of each shift register and then the register is clocked, regardless of the majority function, thus each register is clocked 64 times in total one for each bit of the Kc (the least significant bit of the Kc is clocked first). The same procedure is repeated for the 22-bit COUNT, i.e. each bit of the count is clocked in (least significant bit first) with the majority function disabled, thus the registers are clocked 22 times each. The algorithm is then run for 100 clock cycles in the normal manner with output discarded. The algorithm is initialized for each burst, generating 114 bits of information for each direction. Thus, 228 bits are produced (except in the case of EDGE, where 2*348 = 696 bits are produced). The algorithm is run for 114 clock cycles with the output producing the cipher stream used for BLOCK1 for encrypting the network to MS data. The algorithm is then run for 100 clock cycles in the normal manner with output discarded. The algorithm is then run again for 114 clock cycles with the output producing the cipher stream used for BLOCK2 for encrypting the MS to network data. The A5 algorithm is a standardized algorithm, but this algorithm can only be obtained with a specific license from
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Security implementation in Mobile devices the GSM Association. Although the A5 algorithm is standardized, its specification remains undisclosed.

CONCLUSION Wireless communications security is an area of crucial importance to telecommunications industry, where authentication and data

encryption are the major concern. With the demand, wireless communications also become a major source of new vulnerabilities. Related security solutions are being developed to address the new vulnerabilities. Wireless communication weaknesses are on the increase due to emergence of advanced services, because of need of proper authentication, and the large deployment of mobile technologies. This has created challenging issues in the security of wireless systems and applications operating inwireless environments. This paper issue is to seek for the development of new techniques, models and theories that help for a better protection of the mobile and wireless communication systems; assess and enhance the level of security of the current wireless communication systems, services and networks.

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Security implementation in Mobile devices REFERENCES Analysis and Implementation of Security Algorithms for Wireless Communications by Abdinasir Hassan Ali and Maslin Masrom. 2004 ieee paper. Securing peer-to-peer mobile communications using public key cryptography: New security strategy adopted by Sameer Hasan Al-Bakri, M. L. Mat Kiah, A. A. Zaidan, B. B. Zaidan and Gazi Mahabubul Alam, January, 2011. Authentication and ciphering in GSM and GPRS network. Ali DNKAN and Aktl KAVAS, September 2002. www.google.com

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