CQI Attack Development

[Higgigamer19]

Bandwidth Hogging Attack Using Manipulated CQI Values

Implementation (UE Side):

• Override CQI: Implement code to consistently send high CQI values.
  • Monitoring Impact:
• Measure Throughput: Track throughput and bandwidth allocated to the UE.
• Assess Network Impact: Evaluate effects on other users and overall network performance.

Mitigation Components in srsRAN gNB under test:

• Proportional Fair Scheduling (PFS):
  • Balance Allocation: Distributes resources considering channel quality and historical throughput.
  • Limit Impact: Adjusts allocation based on actual performance to mitigate exaggerated CQI effects.
• CQI Reporting and Filtering:
  • Thresholds: Applies thresholds to filter out unrealistic CQI values.
  • Configuration: Configurable to detect and handle abnormal CQI reports.
• Quality of Service (QoS) Management:
  • Prioritization: Enforces QoS policies to ensure service needs are met and mitigates bandwidth hogging.
  • Resource Allocation: Allocates resources based on QoS requirements.
• Resource Allocation Limits:
  • Maximum Limits: Configures resource limits to prevent excessive bandwidth use by any single UE.
  • Rate Limiting: Implements rate limiting for fair resource distribution.

Metrics to Assess the Attack:

• Bandwidth Utilization:
  • Throughput Measurement: Quantify throughput allocated to the modified UE.
  • Bandwidth Consumption: Track percentage of total network bandwidth used by the UE.
• Network Performance:
  • Impact on Other Users: Monitor changes in service quality (throughput, latency) for other UEs.
  • Error Rates: Observe increases in error rates or retransmissions due to congestion.
• Network Load:
  • Resource Allocation Metrics: Measure resource usage by the attacking UE versus others.
  • System Performance: Assess impact on network CPU and memory usage due to increased load.

Notes

• Development Branch: cqi_attack_development

[cueltschey]

There are actually some default config options provided by srsRAN that may eliminate the need for developing this: --phy.cqi_max -> defines maximum CQI value --phy.cqi_fixed -> defines a fixed CQI value

I ran them both with value 100 and saw no real results @Higgigamer19 what do you think about this?