Mobile Core Network Attack Techniques Using UE

5G Non-StandAlone (NSA) service was launched in April 2019 and 5G StandAlone (SA) service was launched in August 2020. Currently, 5G is widely used, and 5G Advanced technology is being developed and standardized to further enhance 5G capabilities. This paper presents two attack techniques targeting 5G core networks using a User Equipment (UE): Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) in GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) and Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) in GTP. Unlike existing attack techniques that utilize the control plane, the proposed attack techniques leverage the user plane, making them simple to execute without requiring any specialized tools. We present the attack methods of the proposed attack techniques and test them on four 5G networks, confirming their effectiveness on two networks for PFCP in GTP and on one network for ICMPv6 in GTP. In addition, we analyze the experimental results, exploit scenarios, and standards of 5G networks to suggest countermeasures. Considering the increasing deployment and utilization of various private 5G networks, the proposed attack techniques are expected to be effective in various 5G networks. Therefore, we encourage further testing of these attack techniques in 5G networks.