GSM eavesdropping

[Perry E. Metzger]

On Mon, 2 Aug 2010 11:02:54 -0400 Bill Squier <groo at old-ones.com>
wrote:
> "...In his presentation at the Black Hat Conference, German GSM
> expert Karsten Nohl presented a tool he calls Kraken, which he
> claims can crack the A5/1 encryption used for cell phone calls
> within seconds."
>
> http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Quickly-decrypting-cell-phone-calls-1048850.html

This is a really important development. I'll quote a bit more of the
article so people can understand why:

   In his presentation at the Black Hat Conference, German GSM expert
   Karsten Nohl presented a tool he calls Kraken, which he claims can
   crack the A5/1 encryption used for cell phone calls within
   seconds. But first, you have to record the GSM call with a GSM
   catcher, which you can build yourself based on a Universal Software
   Programmable Radio (USRP), which costs just under $1500, and the
   open source GNURadio software.

   To crack the key, Kraken uses rainbow tables, which Nohl calculated
   with ATI graphics processors (GPUs). During a live demonstration,
   the tool cracked the key for a recorded phone call within about 30
   seconds. Nohl then decoded the file with Airprobe and converted it
   into an audio file using Toast.

   "Today, recording and cracking GSM is as easy as attacking WiFi was
   a few years ago", the security expert told The H's associates at
   heise Security.

Perry
-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry at piermont.com

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