SMS vulnerability

SMS vulnerability could enable hackers to track users' locations. Researchers have issued a warning against a new vulnerability in text messaging that may allow hackers to trace users' locations. As of now, the vulnerability has been observed mainly in Android operating systems.

The vulnerability lies in the automated delivery notification feature of SMS. The research group, explains that this flaw allows hackers to track a user's location using a machine- learning program and data from the SMS system. By obtaining the victim's phone number and normal network access, hackers can monitor the victim's location worldwide.

Just by knowing the phone number of the user victim, and having normal network access, you can locate that victim. The research further notes that despite some improvements in SMS security over the years, this flaw persists due to the timing of delivery notifications, which enables attackers to automatically triangulate the victim's location when a text is sent.

The report further details that, the vulnerability lies in the automated delivery notification feature of SMS. When a user receives a text message, their phone automatically sends a delivery receipt with a timestamp indicating their location. Though this feature wasn't initially problematic, but hackers can now employ machine learning to create an algorithm capable of detecting these timestamps and detecting the user's location.

The study further reveals that to use machine learning to find a location, hackers will only need the target victim's phone number and have regular network access. By sending multiple text messages to the victim's phone, the hacker can then monitor the timing of the automated delivery replies and collect location data fingerprints, irrespective of whether the communications are encrypted.

To reveal the vulnerability with the fingerprint stamp in SMS, the researchers used a machine-learning model to feed and test the data, which resulted in revealing the real-time location of the targeted individual.

The report further warns that, the hackers can track a user's location using SMS by exploiting the automated delivery notification feature and employing machine learning to predict their location based on the timestamps received from the victim's phon.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA