Unveiling the Ghosts of Mobile Networks: When Will Old Bugs Die?
Dr. Altaf Shaik
44CON 2025 · Day 2 · Main Track
Mobile network security bugs do not die when they are patched—they resurface in newer generations, migrate to related products, or persist unaddressed in deployed infrastructure for years. In this 44C
AI review
Shaik spent a decade documenting that mobile network security bugs are structurally immortal — A5/1 still live in 2025, 5G-to-2G downgrade still works, SSH on carrier infrastructure reachable from subscriber IPs in 7 of 12 tested networks — and the root causes he names are organizational and political, not technical.