submitted 4 months ago by spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca to c/linuxphones@lemmy.ml

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm not too knowledgeable about cellular equipment, but I was wondering how much of the phone based data actually gets to the SIM card.

Would it be possible, by sniffing the connection to the card, to listen to the content of calls and mobile data? Or would it be possible to get tower information in a similar format to rayhunter?

I understand there is some encryption, would getting the keys for that enable some of the previous ideas?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] ooterness@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago

The SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module) stores the cryptographic keys that identify the subscriber account and let it connect to the cellular network.

Every SIM card has a little microprocessor built-in, so those secrets never leave the SIM card. This is donr specifically to prevent the type of eavesdropping attack that you're suggesting.

More info on Wikipedia.

this post was submitted on 06 May 2026

18 points (100.0% liked)

Linux Phones

8735 readers

1 users here now

Community about running GNU/Linux on phones. Projects like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, PostmarketOS, Mobian etc. Either on former Android phones or hardware like the PinePhone.

Related communities:

Linux Phones @ lemmy.ca