Questions tagged [sms]
Short message (or messaging) service, a system that enables cellular phone users to send and receive text messages.
220
questions
1
vote
2
answers
121
views
Is an attacker living close by able to identify my name and spoof my phone number by intercepting SMS messages?
As I read here and there, it seems like SMS isn't encrypted. Let's say I live in an appartment building. If someone uses a cellular modem to intercept my SMS messages, can they determine my name from ...
- 111
0
votes
1
answer
37
views
Is SMS a secure authentication method? [duplicate]
I’ve seen many HN comments bashing on SMS being insecure. But WhatsApp and signal both use it as their primary authentication method so it can’t be that bad?
Why is it bad? What attacks are it ...
- 121
0
votes
0
answers
54
views
Would removing a SIM disable the phone number and block text scams
I have a PAYG basic Nokia mobile, not a smartphone, and have noticed on my EE A/c there is a transaction for a Text Service with a charge of 15p, appearing every so often, which is nothing to do with ...
user278393
2
votes
0
answers
70
views
Receiving phishing text messages
I get a phishing messages on SMS every now and then. I'm not sure if it's from anyone that knows me.
What information can I get about the sender of the SMS?
- 21
0
votes
1
answer
119
views
Doesn't 2FA increase the vulnerability of an account?
You create an account on an online service X with login=your email + password. Compare these 2 situations:
No 2FA enabled. The only risk is if your email is compromised: the "I lost my password&...
- 3
-1
votes
1
answer
50
views
Is a 2fa app really better than SMS 2fa with sim-pin?
A sim-pin safeguards against sim-swapping, which is the primary advantage of using an authenticator app instead of SMS, is this not so?
- 9
0
votes
2
answers
143
views
How can I use a user's own SMS service to send OTP and make mobile number verification in my Android app?
Goal: I am building a app, i want to verify user's mobile number, the way i am using is when user enters the mobile number, I send OTP to that number and ask user to enter the otp to verify the mobile ...
0
votes
2
answers
149
views
Malicious SMS and iMessage Interception
I have an interesting situation on my hands. There are people in my neighborhood that have been harassing me for some time now. It appears that these individuals can are receiving my text (sms) ...
1
vote
2
answers
134
views
report bribery: snail mail vs email vs SMS
Say I live in a western country and suspect a foriegn businessperson is trying to bribe local officials. I am provided with 3 options to report: snail mail, email and SMS. For my threat model, I am ...
- 13
43
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Why is SMS OTP not as secure as Authenticator Applications such as Microsoft Authenticator? [duplicate]
Why is SMS OTP not as secure as Authenticator Applications such as Microsoft Authenticator, etc? Is it because of snooping of mobile communications? or?
0
votes
1
answer
125
views
Multiple SMS activation codes received by error
For several days now I am receiving activation codes by SMS that look like this:
Your ToYou verification code is 8058
Some are from ToYou, that seems to be a delivery service, others are from similar ...
- 101
1
vote
0
answers
124
views
A message sent to your phone to erase another message
After giving a new credit card to a client some banks send its PIN code with an SMS. Later they send another SMS that's only purpose is to erase the SMS with the PIN from user's phone. Does this trick ...
- 29
0
votes
0
answers
83
views
Is there some way to "fully delete" received and sent SMS messages (and any other "deleted" data") on my cellphone?
I have a cheap cellphone bought about ten years ago. It has a physical SIM card. I have in-phone "deleted" all sent and received messages, but very strongly suspect that these are still ...
- 1
0
votes
3
answers
272
views
What to do after opening a potentially malicious link on smartphone?
What must one do if they opened a malicious link?
Warning: Please do not open the links below as they may be malicious. They have been deliberately mangled to prevent accidental opening
I received an ...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
28
views
Is verification code a scam? [duplicate]
When facebook sends the confirmation code, the name FACEBOOK is not displayed as the sender,, instead phone numbers of different countries. Until now, it was only on my notebook, but today I synced my ...
1
vote
1
answer
506
views
Google Voice vs SMS for two-factor authentication
I'm trying to set up two-factor authentication for all my accounts. Some of them, unfortunately, only support SMS.
In that case, which of these options would be more secure?
SMS
Google Voice (which ...
- 13
12
votes
3
answers
4k
views
If we fixed SIM jacking would SMS then become a valid way to send an MFA token to?
And if not would like specific reasons why.
I have this suspicion that, although an inferior method these days to MFA applications, believe that the security is adequate enough as most phone companies ...
- 536
0
votes
0
answers
465
views
If I receive Google verification codes that do not work, is my phone compromised? [duplicate]
I know that something similar has happened to other people before (see for instance here or here), but the situation and the question are slightly different.
I wanted to log in to my Gmail account ...
- 101
0
votes
2
answers
164
views
How much is it hard to implement a mechanism to encrypt SMSs in transit
Why service providers didn't implement something like SSL to make SMS more secure and reliable in multiple scenarios ?
I did ask a question about why SMS is used as a way of verification while it is ...
- 1,169
84
votes
7
answers
21k
views
Why is SMS used as a way of verifying a user's mobile, when it is not even encrypted in transit?
I did some research about how secure and private SMS messages are.
Providers and governments can see these SMS messages in plaintext,
but what is weird is that these messages are not encrypted in ...
- 1,169
0
votes
1
answer
112
views
Cell Phone texting [closed]
Is it possible for someone to redirect text messages to you from another’s phone? Something weird is going on…over the last few weeks I have received “wrong number”text messages from people with ...
-1
votes
3
answers
357
views
What's stronger: phone/text 2FA or authenticator app? [duplicate]
I noticed some very advanced sites don't offer 2 factor authentication via phone/text. Example Salesforce's Heroku:
Is phone/text based 2 Factor Authentication generally weaker than using an ...
- 1,214
1
vote
1
answer
398
views
Received a strange text message. What is it? [closed]
This morning I received the following text message from a Gmail account:
v3s5f3rs4f3gs3.nf5j4k8j4k3o.solar?G$1?V&?KL?O=$HO?&S?K0?$1T
A couple of my friends got it too. I have an iPhone and it ...
- 745
0
votes
0
answers
127
views
Facebook and Yahoo 2FA SMS codes from odd numbers
When logging in to Facebook/Yahoo mail, I receive my 2FA codes from random numbers. Here are some examples (I have a Romanian phone number, hence the country codes):
+40 747 691 103
+40 727 347 814
+...
- 101
4
votes
0
answers
288
views
What is "JavaGhost - Mass Twilio Checker"?
Over the past week, the account credentials for my organization's Twilio account were stolen and used to send ~10,000 fraudulent SMS messages claiming to be from a major bank.
The passwords have all ...
- 1,331
1
vote
1
answer
116
views
How to decrease the fraud level on SMS verification
To prevent fraud, we require the users to link their account to a mobile phone number. We send a code by SMS.
Fraudsters use hacked social networks to convince "friends" to send them the ...
- 193
0
votes
1
answer
171
views
2FA with blower.io SMS
I'm currently planning to deploy a project on Heroku and was wondering if it is safe to send 2FA sms messages with the blower.io heroku addon?
Also is it safe/ok to send a short lived authentication ...
- 101
0
votes
2
answers
101
views
I have a custom domain for email. Do I need to configure DNS to prevent outgoing text messages with an address from my domain? [duplicate]
I own a custom domain that I use for e-mail. The mail server is configured with a catch-all that redirects messages to any user to my inbox. For the first time this afternoon, I received a benign &...
- 207
1
vote
1
answer
112
views
Spoof texting a regiatered number to yourself and relying....having a conversation [closed]
I feel like I am going crazy. A friend was at my house and received text messages from a number from a person i know. She had a conversation with this number for basically a week. She is now saying ...
- 11
2
votes
0
answers
180
views
Received Google 2FA Code via SMS from two unknown phone numbers [duplicate]
I recently encountered a strange incident regarding the 2FA of my Google Account.
The user Dunois has described a very similar occurrence in this post: Functional Google 2FA code (via SMS) received ...
- 21
1
vote
0
answers
80
views
Can OTP (One-Time password) be used to protect data after intrusion has been detected? [closed]
I am working on Social Engineering attacks happening via SMSs. Let's assume a person receives an SMS asking him to click on a malicious link. If a virus is installed on the person's device, how can ...
- 11
1
vote
2
answers
182
views
Someone uses my service to spam people with sms. How to deal with this?
Every time when user wants to login to my service it sends one time password (OTP) to the user's phone number, then this OTP is used to confirm login.
Someone uses my service to bombard people with ...
- 111
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
How to spoof IMEI/SIM location?
Once you plug it into a phone and power it on, the IMEI number of the
phone and the SIM's serial number will be transmitted to the nearest
cell tower(s).
source
Is there a way to spoof the location ...
- 155
1
vote
1
answer
77
views
Which practices should i use while generating SMS codes for auth on my project?
Let's imagine that we have an SMS verification auth, and using random 4-digit codes,
i.e. 1234, 5925, 1342 and etc.
I'm using this random inclusive algorithm on my node.js server:
function ...
2
votes
1
answer
203
views
Is phone number verifications with SMS magic HTTP links less secure than OTP?
I want to verify phone number ownership with specially crafted and encrypted payload within an HTTP hyperlink callback through SMS as opposed to sending an SMS OTP code and writing it back in server ...
- 23
31
votes
2
answers
9k
views
If you SMS text someone, how much more information will they know about you?
If I send someone a text, how much information am I giving up? Could they add me to an app like Whatsapp and access my name and profile? Or does their number first have to be saved in my phone ...
- 413
30
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Is revealing the phone number during OTP verification process considered a vulnerability?
One of the common way of implementing 2FA is using phone number Text message or Call with OTP. As I can see, usually web services show something like:
OTP was sent to the number +*********34
Is it ...
- 403
0
votes
1
answer
209
views
I have one Friend that said he is getting texts from me but its not me
A friend of mine is getting a text asking him to click on a link to view a video. The name is my first and last name. Most people do not spell their first name as mine but there is no phone number ...
- 1
1
vote
1
answer
196
views
Recycled phone numbers [closed]
I just wanted to ask because I am in a situation now, where I have been locked out of my Instagram due to my mobile phone provider deactivating my Simcard. I have contacted Instagram support sending ...
- 11
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How is a bad actor able to disable Amazon's 2-step verification without supplying a OTP?
My wife's Amazon account was hacked yesterday. She discovered the purchases, changed her password to both gmail and Amazon, and enabled Amazon's 2-step verification (2FA) through SMS on her phone and ...
- 183
1
vote
1
answer
529
views
What are security issues about sending bank alerts via email/SMS?
Banks offer to send alerts for each transaction happening on a customers account. My bank is offering three options: SMS alerts, email alerts and push alerts into their own app. Only sms alerts are ...
- 13
1
vote
2
answers
4k
views
Why my mobile sends SMS to a random number without my permission?
My mobile sends SMS to random numbers without my permission. All messages are sent automatically. Here is an example of an SMS.
SBIUPI qUrXgeX26iEY%2B2si9JHhubIjm7R2aHoo6pWcbXBpJho%3D
All the ...
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
120
views
Blockchain 2FA by sms (wallet code) secure (hack)?
To keep a long story short, I got hacked on my PC by downloading and executing a wrong file. Programs as InterVPN, Cryptobot and HVNC (told by the hacker via google chat) were installed. My accounts (...
- 11
1
vote
0
answers
173
views
Cell phone receiving text messages between an acquaintance and his girlfriend
An acquaintance was staying with us a short time ago and I let him use my cell phone to text his girlfriend and listen to music. A week ago he acquired a cell phone of his own. Completely different ...
- 11
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Functional Google 2FA code (via SMS) received from a random (but in use) mobile phone number
tl;dr for those who are misunderstanding my post: imagine your friend who uses GMail suddenly tells you they have 2FA enabled, and logged in to their account, and that the 2FA code (SMS) they received ...
- 181
1
vote
0
answers
128
views
Phone number stolen. What to do?
It seems a friend of mine got his phone number stolen. Someone got access to his Facebook account (where they tried to post ad campaigns) and to his WhatsApp account. The Facebook security page said ...
- 11
2
votes
1
answer
307
views
What is the most unique data identifier for a phone user that cannot be repeated?
I'm currently developing an Android (and probably iOS in the future) application for my company.
I was wondering what is the most unique data identifier to authenticate the users. A data that cannot ...
- 559
1
vote
0
answers
136
views
Is there a way to find out WHO sent me a life threatening text? [closed]
Recently I received several text messages from TWO different numbers that I did not recognize. I called the numbers back, and texted them, but there was no answer, or vm. I googled them as well, and ...
- 11
3
votes
1
answer
710
views
Is eavesdropping possible over smpp?
I don't know much about the SMPP protocol, but I often hear that it is not a secure protocol.
If Alice sends a SMS to Bob, can Eve view what Alice sent to him? If yes, can you give an example on how ...
- 77
0
votes
1
answer
129
views
A recieved text message that was never sent on iPhone [duplicate]
My girlfriend asked me why I texted her at 2:30 am. But I went to bed at 2am and that message was not recorded on my phone. She had an iPhone and I have a Samsung Galaxy S9. She sent me a picture of ...
- 1