Spoofing Against Spoofing: Towards Caller ID Verification In Heterogeneous Telecommunication Systems

Wang, Shen and Delavar, Mashid and Azad, Muhammad Ajmal and Nabizadeh, Farshad and Smith, Steve and Hao, Feng (2023) Spoofing Against Spoofing: Towards Caller ID Verification In Heterogeneous Telecommunication Systems. ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security, 26 (4). ISSN 2471-2566

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Abstract

Caller ID spoofing is a global industry problem and often acts as a critical enabler for telephone fraud. To address this problem, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated telecom providers in the US to implement STIR/SHAKEN, an industry-driven solution based on digital signatures. STIR/SHAKEN relies on a public key infrastructure (PKI) to manage digital certificates, but scaling up this PKI for the global telecom industry is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Furthermore, it only works with IP-based systems (e.g., SIP), leaving the traditional non-IP systems (e.g., SS7) unprotected. So far the alternatives to the STIR/SHAKEN have not been sufficiently studied. In this paper, we propose a PKI-free solution, called Caller ID Verification (CIV). CIV authenticates the caller ID based on a challenge-response process instead of digital signatures, hence requiring no PKI. It supports both IP and non-IP systems. Perhaps counter-intuitively, we show that number spoofing can be leveraged, in conjunction with Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF), to efficiently implement the challenge-response process, i.e., using spoofing to fight against spoofing. We implement CIV for VoIP, cellular, and landline phones across heterogeneous networks (SS7/SIP) by only updating the software on the user’s phone. This is the first caller ID authentication solution with working prototypes for all three types of telephone systems in the current telecom architecture. Finally, we show how the implementation of CIV can be optimized by integrating it into telecom clouds as a service, which users may subscribe to.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1145/3625546
Dates:	Date Event 1 September 2023 Accepted 27 September 2023 Published Online
Subjects:	CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-01 - computer science CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-08 - others in computing
Divisions:	Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > College of Computing
Depositing User:	Muhammadajmal Azad
Date Deposited:	17 Oct 2023 11:08
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2023 11:08
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/14796

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