BGP Hijack (Border Gateway Protocol Hijack)

Also known as: Route Hijack, Prefix Hijack

A BGP hijack is a route-origination or path-manipulation attack in which an autonomous system announces IP prefixes it does not legitimately control, causing internet traffic to be redirected, blackholed or inspected. In telecom, BGP hijacks against IPX/GRX peering ranges, SEPP/DEA public IPs or NEF endpoints can enable interception of roaming and API traffic.

Categories: SignalingRoaming and InterconnectThreats and Attacks

BGP Hijack in context

Signaling protocols carry the control-plane messages that set up calls, register subscribers and route SMS. SS7, Diameter, GTP-C and SIP are the four dominant families, and interconnect exposure of any of them is treated by GSMA as top-tier telecom risk.

Roaming and interconnect are where two operators exchange signaling and user-plane traffic. Trust boundaries here are the primary attack surface for location tracking, SMS interception and fraud, which is why GSMA now mandates SEPP with PRINS on 5G interconnect.

To place BGP Hijack in the wider telecom-security picture, review ISUP, NetFlow / IPFIX / sFlow, HNDL, Anomaly Detection, Attack Surface Mapping and Behavioral Signaling Detection — each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

Related terms

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