Onus

@Snubs, for xmas i got myself a shiny and new bladeRFx40.  YAY!   Knowing your love for all things SDR, I wanted to share  with you a synopsis of my adventures with the bladeRF.  I have set up a raspberryPi with YateBTS and gps-sdr-sim: https://github.com/osqzss/gps-sdr-sim

I am now able to run my own GSM BTS or spoof a GPS satellite that tells nearby devices they are actually at the Kremlin.. fun. 

YateBTS obviously really caught my interest as i quickly discovered after buying a pack of $1 sim cards a best buy and putting them in a couple of unlocked devices, I was able to get the ATT cards to automatically connect to my BTS using MCC:310 and MNC:410 in combination to make my BTS appear to be an ATT tower.  (no worries, as i did this in a  lead box to prevent my signal from leaking to the real world, wouldn't want to go to interfere with the outside world)  I was also able to get T-mobile cards to connect by manually forcing them, but i suppose i could find the MCC and MNC for them as well and get an auto connect. 

Anyway, YATES is set up to automatically send a greeting SMS to phones that connect, of which i of course  altered to say "Emergency Alert: Someone has farted"  But it got me thinking, if someone like me with little to no real knowledge around RF was able to do this for under $500 and a 12 hour investiment, why is GSM still being used.  seems like anyone could build an IMSI catcher or stingray.   One could potentially go into a public venue with bad cell reception and start sending "greeting messages" to all the GSM phones with roaming enabled, creating a localized histeria of "wait, who farted?!?"   Now of course my curious mind is wondering how secure the Emergency Broadcast system is as well?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Broadcast

I would love to see you do a segment on this..

Onus