The impact of open-source testbeds on cellular security research

openLTE was the very first open-source implementation of the LTE protocol stack. This tool was critical at enabling the first cellular security research work aimed at 4G protocols, aiding researchers at uncovering and validating a number of security weaknesses. Just a couple of years later, both srsLTE, now known as srsRAN, and OpenAirInterface introduced much more mature and reliable alternative open-source tools that have fueled an excellent and exciting wave of cellular security research in LTE and 5G over the last 5 years.

This talks presents a retrospective of the cellular security research field and discusses the tremendous impact that open-source testbeds have had in discovering and addressing multiple security vulnerabilities in the communication protocols that modern mobile networks leverage.