Signalling System No. 7

I think we're finally hitting the crunch where AI is pumping them out.

There's a nice, I think it's a Wired article showing SS7 flaws.

Now it's believing computer, but really it's nice.

I've read about this all my life.

SS7 and diameter are the protocols used for telephones.

And the SS7 is apparently so old it has no authentication at all.

otherwise ridiculously vulnerable.

Diameter, he's used in 4G and 5G, and in principle could be more secure, but in practice is often deployed without turning on the encryption or authentication.

So HLR stands for Home Location Register.

And to understand how this tool is used, you need a very basic grasp of cellular architecture, specifically something called the SS7 network.

SS7.

Yeah.

It's basically the global routing protocol that allows different telecom companies to talk to each other.

What happens next?

Yeah, so even before it leaves your phone, there's protocols called SS7.

diameter that's talking and communicating with all the person that you're wanting to send a text message to.

So there's so many different moving parts.

But as soon as you hit send, That's kicking off multiple protocols that you're able to communicate with the cell towers.

You're able to, these packets get sent.

So if I know your number and I send you a text message, there's these get requests that go out on the SS7 network to find you.

So I don't know where you are when I send this text message.

If an RCS message traverses a carrier network that hasn't fully integrated the encrypted standard, or if it falls back to SMS due to poor connectivity, the payload is transmitted in plain text.

Completely vulnerable to interception via SS7 protocol vulnerabilities or lawful interception at the carrier switch.

Right.

So we have established that the application layer is a minefield of metadata harvesting and architectural compromises.

Honest answer, I don't have a named, dated telecom system for you.

The sector gets cited generically, SS7, switch software, that whole world, but I couldn't find a specific system with a 1950s or '60s origin that's documented the way MOCA's or the IRS file is.

So the telecom leg of Daniel's question is the one we can't fully deliver on.

That's worth saying out loud.

Standard mobile calls and texts are subject to eavesdropping through what's sold as access as a service.

The SS7 and diameter signaling networks and the 5G core have tens of thousands of entry points worldwide, and a lot of them are controlled by hostile states.

That's not a hypothetical vulnerability.

That's the architecture.