Wow.. Okay, I think I'm going to bring myself up to speed again before
asking any more questions :P

Thank you for the detailed response!

On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 2:20 PM, Sylvain Munaut <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 3:11 PM, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Silly question but, when a new tmsi is issued by the vlr, how does the
> > handset get told what its new TMSI is (or does it never know itself?)
>
> New TMSI are only issue during "LOCATION UPDATE REQUEST" procedures
> which are at the request of the phone.
>
> > Also,
> > the handset has to be told by the (bsc/bss?) what channel it needs to use
> > for the phone call, and updates it when this channel changes right? so if
> > you caught a call just as it was initiated, does this mean you could
> track
> > which channels its hopping between by decrypting what the bss/bsc is
> telling
> > the handset to use, or does it not work like that?
>
> It doesn't work like that.
>
> When the phone receives a call:
>  - The phones monitors a broadcast channel and see there is a phone
> call waiting for it.
>  - The phone xmit a packet on RACH requesting a channel (this packet
> has _no_ information allowing to identify what phone is doing this
> request)
>  - The BTS answers on a broadcast channel with an IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT
> (or variant thereof) to go on a dedicated channel. (again, this
> assignment has _no_ information to identify which one it is, it just
> references which RACH request it responds to. So the _phone_ knows
> it's for him, but everybody else has no way to know for who it is ...)
>  - TMSI identity will be exchanged in clear on the dedicated channel
>  - All private identity and phone numbers will be ciphered on the
> dedicated channel
>
> When the phone makes a call, same thing except you skip the first step
> and the phone requests a channel directly.
>
> So when you see an IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT you don't know who it's for
> and you can follow it to discover it, but you'll loose a bunch of
> other IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT in the mean time while you're not on the
> control channel anymore.
>
> Cheers,
>
>     Sylvain
>



-- 

Cal Leeming

Operational Security & Support Team

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