Unveiling Wireless Users' Locations via Modulation Classification-based Passive Attack

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Hanif, Ali, Katranji, Abdulrahman, Kouzayha, Nour, Rahman, Muhammad Mahboob Ur, Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866916632037687296
author Hanif, Ali
Katranji, Abdulrahman
Kouzayha, Nour
Rahman, Muhammad Mahboob Ur
Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.
author_facet Hanif, Ali
Katranji, Abdulrahman
Kouzayha, Nour
Rahman, Muhammad Mahboob Ur
Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.
contents The broadcast nature of the wireless medium and openness of wireless standards, e.g., 3GPP releases 16-20, invite adversaries to launch various active and passive attacks on cellular and other wireless networks. This work identifies one such loose end of wireless standards and presents a novel passive attack method enabling an eavesdropper (Eve) to localize a line of sight wireless user (Bob) who is communicating with a base station or WiFi access point (Alice). The proposed attack involves two phases. In the first phase, Eve performs modulation classification by intercepting the downlink channel between Alice and Bob. This enables Eve to utilize the publicly available modulation and coding scheme (MCS) tables to do pesudo-ranging, i.e., the Eve determines the ring within which Bob is located, which drastically reduces the search space. In the second phase, Eve sniffs the uplink channel, and employs multiple strategies to further refine Bob's location within the ring. Towards the end, we present our thoughts on how this attack can be extended to non-line-of-sight scenarios, and how this attack could act as a scaffolding to construct a malicious digital twin map.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_19341
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Unveiling Wireless Users' Locations via Modulation Classification-based Passive Attack
Hanif, Ali
Katranji, Abdulrahman
Kouzayha, Nour
Rahman, Muhammad Mahboob Ur
Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.
Information Theory
Cryptography and Security
Signal Processing
The broadcast nature of the wireless medium and openness of wireless standards, e.g., 3GPP releases 16-20, invite adversaries to launch various active and passive attacks on cellular and other wireless networks. This work identifies one such loose end of wireless standards and presents a novel passive attack method enabling an eavesdropper (Eve) to localize a line of sight wireless user (Bob) who is communicating with a base station or WiFi access point (Alice). The proposed attack involves two phases. In the first phase, Eve performs modulation classification by intercepting the downlink channel between Alice and Bob. This enables Eve to utilize the publicly available modulation and coding scheme (MCS) tables to do pesudo-ranging, i.e., the Eve determines the ring within which Bob is located, which drastically reduces the search space. In the second phase, Eve sniffs the uplink channel, and employs multiple strategies to further refine Bob's location within the ring. Towards the end, we present our thoughts on how this attack can be extended to non-line-of-sight scenarios, and how this attack could act as a scaffolding to construct a malicious digital twin map.
title Unveiling Wireless Users' Locations via Modulation Classification-based Passive Attack
topic Information Theory
Cryptography and Security
Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.19341