details of quick ring/call/drop flood attack - phone unusable and overheated

Question

A while ago I read about an attack performed with an application that rendered the attacked phone unusable and overheated for the period of the attack. If I remember correctly the attack was based on initiating a call and quickly dropping it so that the attacked phone would not ring or display the number of the attacker but it would endup unusable and overheated. This whole thing might have been limited to a specific network type, eg. LTE, but I'm not sure if I remember this correctly.

However, I cannot find information about this attack or the app that was used to render it.

I don't plan to use it, I just want to inform myself about it and to understand why the network provider is not rate limiting or banning the attacker.

Answer 1

I don't have many articles for you, but I can confirm this also was able to happen on iPhones as well. Attackers literally called my coworker over and over as we both watched, meanwhile he got an email alert that his credit card was being used. It was a fraud distraction.

Keywords to search for: fraud distraction, phone denial of service via calling, incoming dos attack (phone model)

1. https://securelogix.com/threats/tdos-attacks/
2. https://www.cisecurity.org/insights/white-papers/cis-primer-telephony-denial-of-service-attacks
3. https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/tips/ST04-015
4. https://scambusters.org/distraction.html

To summarize how I would personally do this if I were a crrrrrriminal? I'd buy a VoIP server subscription or setup a PBX (or a few) and then use multiple providers and a scripted call routine to flood the line. It would be next to impossible to stop, as the phone company has zero interest in stopping potentially billable calls from being connected. It also could be a legitimate thing (like a radio station prize, etc).

There's a few steps left out of this for obvious reasons. ;)

Cheers