GSM eavesdropping
John Kemp
john at jkemp.net
Mon Aug 2 12:45:46 EDT 2010
On Aug 2, 2010, at 11:08 AM, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> 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.
Others have previously cracked A5/1, and Mr Nohl's efforts are not news: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/185552/gsm_encryption_cracked_showing_its_age.html but the main thing here appears to be the compilation of the rainbow tables.
Also, it's worth noting that the GSMA has had A5/3 GSM encryption available (http://gsmworld.com/documents/a5_3_and_gea3_specifications.pdf -- PDF) since 2008, but that the improved technology has apparently not yet seen large-scale adoption by mobile operators.
Regards,
- johnk
> --
> Perry E. Metzger perry at piermont.com
>
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