UMTS security: Enhancement of identification, authentication and key agreement protocols

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System is the third generation mobile communications system. It was built on the concepts of GSM and is the starting point in the development of the fourth generation network. This paper proposes enhancements for the initial identification and for the Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) protocols that solve two known vulnerabilities of UMTS security: identity catching and secret key exposure. The solution, inspired from Al Saraireh identification protocol, realizes the encryption of the permanent identity of the subscriber and protects the messages exchanged during the Authentication and Key Agreement protocol.