Cell Phones - The Remote Track Hack

A GPS weakness could allow hackers to remotely track smartphone users, or even completely take over mobile devices, University of Luxembourg researcher Ralf-Phillip Weinmann reported last night at Black Hat.

Instead of directly using GPS satellites, most mobile devices receive much faster assisted GPS (A-GPS) signals from cellular networks to determine approximate location. However, Weinmann discovered that these A-GPS messages are transmitted over a non-secure internet link, and could be switched for messages from an attacker. Weinmann demonstrated this vulnerability on several Android devices... (more)