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Defcon 21 - The Secret Life of SIM Cards

HackersOnBoard · 707.9K views · 2013-11-16 · 42:36

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Overview

A DEF CON 21 talk by Karl Koscher and Eric Butler on how SIM cards work, including Java Card applets, the SIM toolkit and the OS running on the card. It shows how much control the network and the card have independent of the phone.

On Hacker News

HN cites it as the go-to overview of what SIM cards can run and do, usually in threads about Java Card, SIM attacks or phone security.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2014–2026

Topics

Security & hackingNetworking & internet infrastructure
Search by tags
sim cardsjava carddefconmobile securitysim toolkit

What people said

comboy · 2021-12 · Recommendation

There was one really good talk about from black hat or defcon [1] but there's also this [2] which seems more thorough so I'm gonna watch it too later. I happen to have a friend who writes software for simcards so that's what really was my main source. 1. [LINK] 2. [VIDEO]

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Silasdev · 2021-11 · Recommendation

This video from defcon gives a good overview of what Java Card applets is, the limitations and what it can do: [VIDEO]

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adamnew123456 · 2021-04 · Recommendation

Seeing the ShadySIM project mentioned on that page reminded me of this DEFCON talk, which talks about some of the capabilities of the SIM OS (some of them run Java!) and what power they grant you over phones if you have control over the underlying cell network (legitimately or otherwise). [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by HackersOnBoard, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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