Retrieving mobile (cell) phone number over WAP

Question

Hi,

First of all i don't really know much, if anything, about mobile/cell phone programming, i was just wondering about this.

Is it possible for an ASP.net mobile page to retrieve a phone number using WAP? The obvious use would be authenticating users by phone number. If it is possible, i am guessing it would be pretty insecure. Is this true?

Thanks

Answer 1

I work in the mobile industry. Typically, a request made from a mobile device will include the MSISDN as one of the headers. To verify it actually belong to the user, it needs to be cross-checked against a carrier's user system using additionally provided information (for example, IP of the gateway that sent the request). To validate that the value passed in the header was not spoofed, you would need a bind to the carrier's infrastructure. Unless you're doing work directly for the carriers (as my company does) it's unlikely you'll have access to it. So, in that sense getting the MSISDN is easy as it's already present if you parse the headers Verifying it is actually 'belongs' to the user a bit more tricky.