AI-Powered MC Catcher Detector
X•Sensor Technologies has designed a system to automatically detect these attacks with their MC Catcher Detector. The term “MC Catcher” refers to a Mobile Communication Catcher, a tool used to intercept mobile device activity by impersonating legitimate cell towers.
MC Catcher Detector : X•Detect
Even today (2025 – 2030), GSM MC Catchers / IMSI Catchers remain a threat and may continue to be for another decade. These systems can downgrade any phone, making it vulnerable to malware and spyware injection.
X•Detect: An AI-Powerful MC Catcher Detector That Shields You From Malware and Spyware Attacks
While many assume that newer 4G and 5G networks have made 2G obsolete, this is not entirely true.
In fact, almost every mobile phone on the market today still includes 2G GSM support at the baseband level. Cellular device manufacturers continue to integrate 2G functionality for backward compatibility, emergency services access, and global roaming capabilities.
GSM lacks mutual authentication, uses weak or no encryption, and trusts network broadcasts without verification. MC Catchers exploit this outdated protocol through what’s known as a 2G downgrade attack. They force your phone to drop its 4G or 5G connection and reconnect to a rogue 2G tower instead.
Once this happens, attackers can silently intercept calls, messages, and inject malicious code, all without any visible indication on your screen.
That’s why the X•Detect MC Catcher Detector is designed.
Preventive Protection against Cell Site Simulators, the MC Catcher Detector
What sets X•Detect apart is its ability to identify threats in real time before your device connects to a malicious cell site (cell site simulator). Unlike app-based solutions that only analyze anomalies after a connection has been made, X•Detect takes a truly proactive approach. The MC Catcher Detector monitors and analyzes the entire cellular environment continuously, detecting rogue base stations before any interaction occurs.
When a suspicious activity is detected, the system alerts you immediately so you can shut down your phone or activate airplane mode, thereby halting the attack before it begins. This real-time protection is powered by cutting-edge machine learning algorithms and historical behavioral profiling, ensuring high accuracy and minimal false positives.
Technical Explanation of the MC Catcher Detector
To understand how X•Detect works, it’s helpful to explore how MC Catchers manipulate the mobile network. These devices hijack the Radio Access Technology (RAT) selection algorithm in your phone.
Your phone is programmed to prioritize signal strength and network availability, so an MC Catcher with a stronger signal appears more legitimate. It pretends to be a 4G or 5G cell, then intentionally rejects the device’s connection attempts. As a result, the phone falls back to 2G where the attacker’s rogue tower is waiting.
From here, the baseband firmware,- which handles all low-level communication, is exposed. Attackers can send malformed messages that exploit known vulnerabilities, injecting persistent malware that lives below the operating system, often invisible to traditional security tools.
X•Detect MC Catcher Detector thwarts this process, with the use of AI, by identifying and flagging this RAT manipulation early, based on multiple telemetry signals like unusual attach failures, mismatched broadcast information, and sudden signal strength anomalies.
Let’s go deeper into the technical features that make X•Detect a truly advanced MC Catcher Detector. It uses a persistent multi-RAT monitoring system that relies on Software Defined Radio (SDR) or built-in radio hardware to scan the surrounding airwaves.
This raw data is processed through an anomaly detection engine that can identify rogue towers by comparing their behavior against known safe patterns. By using a layered model that considers signal consistency, timing patterns, and protocol integrity, X•Detect ensures high precision even in complex environments.
X•Detect performs advanced GSM Layer 3 analysis before your phone connects to a tower. It parses System Information messages and looks for missing or suspicious ciphering flags, the use of A5/0 (no encryption), and the absence of authentication challenges. These are classic signs of an MC Catcher setting up for a malware injection. When detected, the system alerts you before your phone camps on the cell, preventing the rogue network from sending payloads like OTA (Over-the-Air) SMS with binary exploits.
Because once malware reaches the baseband, it becomes nearly impossible to detect or remove. These threats can record your calls, log your keystrokes, and even survive factory resets.
That is why X•Detect’s ability to detect these tactics before the baseband is touched is so crucial for your mobile security!
