GSM OTA SIM Cloning Attack and Cloning Resistance in EAP-SIM and USIM

Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is the most popular telecommunication protocol used in telecommunication networks. The GSM protocol has weaknesses in the security of its unique identifiers which makes possible cloning in various circumstances. This paper will show, by comparison with physical cloning attacks, how an attacker can perform SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cloning over the air by exploiting weaknesses in standard GSM communication. This paper will describe the requirements and process of over the air (OTA) cloning, including the process of obtaining the ICCID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier). In addition, this paper will show how EAP-SIM (Extensible Authentication Protocol for GSM SIM) and USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module) are more secure from cloning than GSM, and under what circumstances they remain vulnerable to cloning. As a base for comparison this paper will also describe physical cloning.