Threats to 5G Group-Based Authentication

The fifth generation wireless system (5G) is expected to handle an unpredictable number of heterogeneous connected devices and to guarantee at least the same level of security provided by the contemporary wireless standards, including the Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) protocol. The current AKA protocol has not been designed to efficiently support a very large number of devices. Hence, a new group-based AKA protocol is expected to be one of the security enhancement introduced in 5G. In this paper, we advance the group-based AKA threat model, reflecting previously neglected security risks. The threat model presented in the paper paves the way for the design of more secure protocols.