Systems and methods for preventing handover caused by an insecure message from a network node
Systems, methods, and apparatus for handling messages from network nodes of a wireless communications system are disclosed. An example method performed by a terminal includes receiving a message from a network node. The terminal determines that the message contains a reconfigurationWithSync field and that security is not activated when the message is received. Responsive to the determining, the terminal prevents triggering of a handover operation.
1. A method by a terminal for handling messages from network nodes of a wireless communications system, the method comprising:
receiving a message from a network node;
determining that the message contains a reconfigurationWithSync field and that security is not activated; and
responsive to the determining, preventing triggering of a handover operation.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message comprises an RRCSetup message.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein preventing triggering of the handover operation comprises transitioning the terminal to an RRC_IDLE state.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the handover operation comprises a reconfiguration with sync.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message is received on SRB0, and wherein the security not being activated includes the message not being cipher or integrity protected.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
indicating a failure to upper layers.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the failure indicated to the upper layers comprises an RRC connection failure indication.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
logging information based on content of the message that was received without security protection; and
reporting the logged information to one of the network nodes.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to the determining, preventing use of any content of the message for any cell reconfiguration operation by the terminal.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the network nodes are configured to not include a reconfigurationWithSync field in RRCSetup messages.
11. A terminal for handling messages from network nodes of a wireless communications system, the terminal comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a message from a network node;
determining that the message contains a reconfigurationWithSync field and that security is not activated; and
responsive to the determining, preventing triggering of a handover operation.
12. The terminal of claim 11 , wherein the message comprises an RRCSetup message.
13. The terminal of claim 11 , wherein preventing triggering of the handover operation comprises transitioning the terminal to an RRC_IDLE state.
14. The terminal of claim 11 , wherein the handover operation comprises a reconfiguration with sync.
15. The terminal of claim 11 , wherein the message is received on SRB0, and wherein the security not being activated includes the message not being cipher or integrity protected.
16. The terminal of claim 11 , further comprising:
indicating a failure to upper layers.
17. The terminal of claim 11 , further comprising:
logging information based on content of the message that was received without security protection; and
reporting the logged information to one of the network nodes.
18. The terminal of claim 11 , wherein one or more of the network nodes are configured to not include a reconfigurationWithSync field in RRCSetup messages.
19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable program code that when executed by a processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a message from a network node;
determining that the message contains a reconfigurationWithSync field and that security is not activated; and
responsive to the determining, preventing triggering of a handover operation.