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 for handling messages in a wireless communications system, the method comprising:
receiving a reconfiguration message from a network node;
determining that the reconfiguration message contains a handover command and that security is not activated; and
responsive to the determining, performing a recovery procedure that includes preventing triggering of a handover operation.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reconfiguration message comprises an RRCSetup message.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein preventing triggering of the handover operation comprises transitioning 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 reconfiguration message is received on SRB0, and wherein the security not being activated includes the reconfiguration 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 reconfiguration message that was received without security protection; and
reporting the logged information.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein preventing triggering of a handover operation includes preventing use of any content of the reconfiguration message for a cell reconfiguration operation.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the recovery procedure includes performing a NAS recovery.
11 . A user equipment for handling messages in a wireless communications system, the user equipment 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 reconfiguration message from a network node;
determining that the reconfiguration message contains a handover command and that security is not activated; and
responsive to the determining, performing a recovery procedure that includes preventing triggering of a handover operation.
12 . The user equipment of claim 11 , wherein the reconfiguration message comprises an RRCSetup message.
13 . The user equipment of claim 11 , wherein preventing triggering of the handover operation comprises transitioning to an RRC_IDLE state.
14 . The user equipment of claim 11 , wherein the handover operation comprises a reconfiguration with sync.
15 . The user equipment of claim 11 , wherein the reconfiguration message is received on SRB0, and wherein the security not being activated includes the reconfiguration message not being cipher or integrity protected.
16 . The user equipment of claim 11 , the operations further comprising:
indicating a failure to upper layers.
17 . The user equipment of claim 16 , wherein the failure indicated to the upper layers comprises an RRC connection failure indication.
18 . The user equipment of claim 11 , the operations further comprising:
logging information based on content of the reconfiguration message that was received without security protection; and
reporting the logged information.
19 . The user equipment of claim 11 , wherein performing the recovery procedure includes performing a NAS recovery.
20 . 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 reconfiguration message from a network node;
determining that the reconfiguration message contains a handover command and that security is not activated; and
responsive to the determining, performing a recovery procedure that includes preventing triggering of a handover operation.