Finding You: The Network Effect of Telecommunications Vulnerabilities for Location Disclosure

These identifiers play a critical role in the process of routing and deliv- ering the malicious geolocation tracking messages from the surveillance actor’s software to the network of the target phone, and returning the information back to the actor. [...] The purpose of the IPX is to facilitate interconnection between mobile operator networks for the transport of signaling messages according to agreed interoperable service defini- tions and commercial agreements.6 Further, the IPX architecture states that only service providers that are mobile network operators can connect to the network.7 Therefore, third-parties who are not part of the mobile net. [...] In effect, the United States network processed the PSI messages which had the effect of exposing the geolocation of the phones in the United States to the surveil- lance actors in Saudi Arabia. [...] In aggregate, then, any PSI messages allowed into the network acted as a lynchpin to identify individuals’ geolocation at the time of the surveillance and the duration of the targeted persons’ travels in the United States. [...] 171 29 of the user and their device, and they come in the form of the following identifiers: y Subscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI) - The globally unique identifier that is allocated to each 5G subscription y Subscription Concealed Identifier (SUCI) - The encrypted equivalent of the SUPI that includes the Mobile Country Code (MCC) and Mobile Network Code (MNC), and the Mobile Subscription Iden.