TOPIC: MOBILE PHONE CLONING
Presented By:
Ritik Nagar
ECE 3rd Year

* WHAT IS CELL PHONE CLONING?
* GSM
* CDMA
* IMEI, ESN, MIN
* HOW IS CELL PHONE CLONING DONE?
* ARE OUR CELL PHONES SECURED?
* HOW TO KNOW THAT THE CELL HAS BEEN CLONED?
* DETECTION OF A CLONED PHONE IN A NETWORK
* IMPACTS OF CELL PHONE CLONING
* HOW TO PREVENT CELL CLONING?
* CONCLUSION

Cell phone cloning is copying the identity
of one mobile telephone to another mobile
telephone.
It is the process of taking the programmed
information that is stored in a legitimate
mobile phone and illegally programming the
identical information into another mobile
phone.

The result is that the "cloned" phone can
make and receive calls and the charges for
those calls are billed to the legitimate
subscriber. The service provider network
does not have a way to differentiate
between the legitimate phone and the
"cloned" phone.

Global System for Mobile Communications.
A digital cellular phone technology based
on TDMA GSM phones use a Subscriber
Identity Module (SIM) card that contains
user account information. Any GSM phone
becomes immediately programmed after
plugging in the SIM card, thus allowing
GSM phones to be easily rented or
borrowed. Operators who provide GSM
service are Airtel, Idea etc.

Code Division Multiple Access. A method
for transmitting simultaneous signals
over a shared portion of the spectrum.
There is no Subscriber Identity Module
(SIM) card unlike in GSM. Operators who
provides CDMA service in India are
Reliance and Tata Indicom.

IMEI (International Mobile Station
Equipment Identity)
The IMEI number is used by a GSM network to
identify valid
devices and therefore can
be used for stopping a stolen phone from
accessing that network.

ESN (Electronic Serial Number)
ESN number is used to uniquely identify a mobile
phone operating on CDMA network.
MIN (Mobile Identification Number)
MIN is a number that is derived from the 10digit directory telephone number assigned to a
mobile station.

Cloning involves modifying or replacing
the EPROM in the phone with a new chip
which would allow you to configure an ESN
(Electronic serial number) via software.
You would also have to change the MIN
(Mobile Identification Number). Cloning
require access to ESN and MIN pairs.
ESN/MIN pairs can be discovered in
several ways:

*Sniffing
*Trashing
the cellular
cellular companies or cellular
resellers
*Hacking
cellular companies or cellular
resellers

Cellular
thieves can capture ESN/MINs using
devices such as cell phone ESN reader or
digital data interpreters (DDI). DDIs are
devices specially manufactured to intercept
ESN/MINs.
Numbers
can be recorded by hand, one-byone, or stored in the box and later downloaded
to a computer.
After
the ESN/MIN pair is captured, the cloner
reprograms or alters the microchip of any
wireless phone to create a clone of the
wireless phone from which the ESN/MIN pair was

Patagonia is a software available in the
market which is used to clone CDMA phones.
Using this software a cloner can modify the
ESN/MIN of any CDMA phone.
Once we have the ESN/MIN of the target cell
phone, we can clone them to another phone
using this software.

*
After we have modified the EEPROM of our
device, it can be used as a cloned device.
*
Now we can use our phone for making
fraudulent telephone calls but the bills for
the calls will go to the legitimate
subscriber.

*We
have seen that CDMA phones can easily be
cloned but when it comes to GSM ,the task is
tougher but not impossible for expert hackers.
*With
the shift to GSM digital, the phone
companies assure us that the bad old days are
over and mobile phones are secure and privacy
friendly. But this not entirely true so we
still need to be careful about this matter.

*Frequent
wrong number phone calls to your
phone, or hang-ups.
*Difficulty in placing outgoing calls.
*Difficulty in retrieving voice mail messages.
*Incoming calls constantly receiving busy
signals or wrong numbers. Unusual calls
appearing on your phone bills

*Duplicate Detection
*Velocity Trap
*Usage Profiling
*Call Counting

*The
network sees the same phone in several
places at the same time.
*Reactions
include shutting them all off so
that the real customer will contact the
operator because he lost the service he is
paying for.
*After
verification the service will be
provided only to the real subscriber.

*
It notices when the mobile phone seems to be
moving at impossible, or most unlikely speeds.
*For
example, if a call is first made in Delhi,
and five minutes later, another call is made
from the same number but this time in Mumbai
then it is obvious that there must be two
phones with the same identity on the network.
*So
service will be terminated until the real
user is verified.

*Profiles
of customers' phone usage are kept,
and when discrepancies are noticed, the
customer is contacted.
*For
example, if a customer normally makes only
local network calls but is suddenly placing
calls to foreign countries for hours of
airtime, it indicates a possible clone

*Both
the phone and the network keep track of
calls made with the phone, and should they
differ more than the usually allowed one call,
service is denied.

*Each
year, the mobile phone industry loses
millions of dollars in revenue because of the
cloned phones as their calls are billed to
other phones owned by innocent third persons.
*Many
criminals like drug dealers use cloned
cellular telephones for illegal activities.
*Terrorists
have been known to use cloned
phones to escape law enforcement efforts aimed
at tracking their whereabouts.

*User
verification using PIN(Personal
Identification Number)
*Blacklisting
*Traffic
of stolen phones
analysis
*Electrically
checking the ESN/MIN

To avoid such abuse to telecommunication system
it is absolutely necessary to check out the
weakness and vulnerability of existing telecom
systems.
If it is planned to invest in new telecom
equipment, a security plan should be made and
the system should be tested before being
implemented.

*http://www.hackinthebox.org
*http://realhackerspoint.blogspot.in
*http://www.google.com
*http://www.wikipedia.com