A Contextual Integrity Property to Impede Privacy Violations in 5G Networks

The privacy of information transmitted between user equipment and radio nodes in 5G networks is preserved using encrypted channels. However, this single point of failure would expose the identities and, potentially, locations of network users if a vulnerability were to be discovered and exploited. This chapter presents a consensus algorithm that adds an additional layer of defense in the 5G standard. The algorithm leverages access to the 5G control network by multiple radio nodes in an administrative area to control the mobility of agents that can connect with user equipment. The algorithm is designed to decrease the likelihood of privacy violations by an international mobile subscriber identity catcher should a vulnerability be found in the 5G-AKA protocol. The algorithm is formalized using the \(\pi \) -calculus to create a contextual integrity property, and is verified using \(\pi \) -calculus equivalence relations.