KIANEWS Criminals have found a clever way to capture private information from the air
05. 01. 2023 Thursday / By: Robert Denes / The key / Exact time: BST / Print this page
The Nokia 1100 is a mobile phone launched in 2003 that still holds the world record for best-selling phones. If you add the 2003 and 2005 editions together, the Nokia 1100 has sold nearly 500 million units. In fact, it's a fun fact that a few years ago, the Nokia 8 model was included in the top 10 list of best-selling phones. In 2007, the Nokia 1100 was the best-selling mobile phone model in the world. In 2009, it was the third most common mobile phone in Finland.
Also, the phone was designed for developing countries and had a dustproof casing that could withstand wet weather and was very comfortable to use. It also had an LED flashlight, an alarm clock, a stopwatch, a calculator, 6 profiles, some basic games, a large contact memory and ringtones that were perfect for the price. Looking at eBay and other online stores, you will find that the price of the phone still ranges from 15 to 250 euros.
The RH-18 models, which were produced in the Bochum factory in Germany between 2003 and 2004, are particularly sought after. Because of a firmware bug in them, you can program them to receive text messages sent to a completely different phone number.
This vulnerability could be used, for example, to capture security codes sent in text messages from various services. This can be used to bypass two-step authentication. This is not a new phenomenon, since Tivi already wrote about it in 2009. At the time, Nokia 1100s cost up to 25,000 euros. That's gone downhill, but phones still aren't trash. Their price reduction can be partly explained by the shutdown of 2g networks.
Ilta-Sanomat wrote in 2009 that Nokia 1100 phones were used to record one-time passwords sent via SMS by German and Dutch banks. Fortunately, more and more checks are being done on applications these days.
Previously, the Ultrascan organization presented a presentation showing how programmers can re-engineer specific models of Nokia cell phones to receive SMS (Short Message Service, also known as instant messages) from other individuals, which could have real consequences for the ledger in the Netherlands and Germany. - for owners.
This is due to the fact that German and Dutch banks use SMS to allow their customers to exchange money. Simply put, Ultrascan has proven that there is a component in the Nokia 1100 that allows a very powerful hack that internet fraudsters can use to hijack SMSes delivered by banks that enable bank transfers. These European banks follow a simple verification process in which a password (mTAN or mobile transaction authentication number) is sent to account holders on a text message order form that allows them to transfer money over the phone.
Ultrascan is the first company to find that Nokia 1100 cell phones manufactured in Bochum are capable of highly effective and financially crippling SMS hacks.
