busterarm 3 days ago

Pager networks are 100% clear text. If you're stupid enough to be using them to coordinate operations in 2024, I feel like you kind of deserve whatever happens to you.

You're telling me nobody in Hezbollah watched The Wire?

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  • wut42 3 days ago

    You can use cyphertext inside the plaintext. Seems to be what they are doing.

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    • busterarm 3 days ago

      You still have the metadata of sender and receiver. Your whole network is exposed.

      Also your message limits are 200 characters and likely highly susceptible to correlation attacks.

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      • Aerbil313 3 days ago

        Pagers are one-way, not bidirectional like cell networks. That's their whole point. Their HQ can broadcast a message and you won't find out who is the receiver, because pagers don't transmit, only listen.

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        • busterarm 3 days ago

          I never said they were two-way. I said you have the metadata of the sender and the receiver.

          The page data contains the receiver/pager address, but remember this is RF. Triangulating source of transmission on a frequency you are actively monitoring is table stakes for nation states.

          Once you flag receiver addresses there are techniques to work out who that party is, especially for a nation state sophisticated enough to intercept the supply chain in the first place. Correlating transaction data to people is tedious but doable. Even with receiver addresses only though you can work out how the network works and what cells there are and that's a ton of useful intelligence already.

          Also if the "code" being used was in any way breached it could be used to trick receivers into self-identifying.

          Israel just skipped all of that effort with "ring ring, boom" though.

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      • wut42 3 days ago

        sure. But everything over cell network is anyway more or less already exposed on the metadata front so why not go "low tech" ?

        And yeah it probably was more a "code" than cyphertext.

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fsckboy 3 days ago

I'm getting tired of everybody saying "supply chain, supply chain":

first, you have no information.

second, it's so non-specific, it's less informative than "they inserted exploding batteries into the supply chain" vs "a container that was unloaded was not actually from the source" which I would say isn't even supply chain, like if I leave a box of dog poop at your door, I haven't tampered with your "supply chain"

maybe this hack started with hearing that they were going to upgrade devices. maybe it this hack started with convincing them to upgrade. maybe Turkey did it. maybe ISIS did it, they hate hezbollah.

it doesn't make you sound more informed to say "supply chain", it makes you sound less.

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  • Maken 2 days ago

    >second, it's so non-specific, it's less informative than "they inserted exploding batteries into the supply chain" vs "a container that was unloaded was not actually from the source" which I would say isn't even supply chain, like if I leave a box of dog poop at your door, I haven't tampered with your "supply chain"

    Almost all of the global commerce happens by contained carried by ship or plane. That someone can take a container full of electronics, tamper with them, and sell them without even the manufacturer noticing has very serious implications. Your phone and your laptop were also inside of a container, and were also handled by dozens of middleman companies. have you ever opened them and check every component? Can you assert you are not carrying a timed bomb in your pocket?

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whoitwas 3 days ago

This is really sick and should result in major sanctions against Israel. USA should never give them another penny, take the nukes, and let them wither. They've become pure hate. This is a standard that can't be allowed and Israel must be punished.

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