Dirtbox (IMSI-catcher)

A Dirtbox (DRT box, an abbreviation of Digital Receiver Technology, the manufacturer, now owned by Boeing) is a cellular base station (cell site) simulator that generates a pilot signal exceeding the power of the nearest active cell site in order to attempt to cause devices in range to connect to it, acting as a man-in-the-middle attack that works on cellular devices designed to automatically seek to connect to the strongest available cell site and lack mutual authentication requirements. Once a device is connected to the simulator, it captures their IMSI (international mobile subscriber identity) and ESN (electronic serial numbers), and allows the operator to track the location, jam, and collect data of connected devices.