UMTS user identity confidentiality: An end-to-end solution

In all mobile communication scenario, it is envisaged that user identity remains confidential. Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) is no exception to this. Every Mobile Station (MS) in UMTS is assigned a unique International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI). If this IMSI is compromised, so will be the user identity. There is restriction on transmission of this IMSI over radio link. Unfortunately, circumstances when such transmission happens can be created by an adversary, thereby compromising anonymity of users. In this paper, we build on our End-to-End User Identity Confidentiality (E2EUIC) solution [1], an extension to 3GPP-AKA that not only takes care of identity confidentiality vulnerability over the wireless link, but goes one step ahead to ensure the same over the wired network as well.