On 31/07/10 14.09, sakin wrote:
> It is known that Kc is determined by A8 algorithm when A3 is executed.
> Normally, it is during authentication and when network issues "RUN GSM
> ALGORITHM" command. I don't know the frequency of Kc change in a normal
> network operation.
>   
Mmmm interesting, but regarding the well known plain text in a GSM
transmission i am also thinking about the audio speech encoded in AMR.
The GSM networks can use GSM codec and AMR codec, even if most modern
phones and networks run AMR codec that's extremely more efficient.

AMR codec is said to have a 1 byte header.
AMR run at various bitrate 4.75, 5.15, 5.90, 6.70, 7.40, 7.95, 10.2 or
12.2 kbit/s and each bitrate provide different sized output blocks of
95, 103, 118, 134, 148, 159, 204, and 244 bits.

In the 1 byte header it's written which is the encoding bitrate of the
specific AMR 20ms encoded audio sample.
In particular the top 4 bits tell the bitrate (CMR) while the lower bits
are reserved and not used (all 0 or all 1).

*CMR*     * MODE*        *FRAME SIZE( in bytes )*
0        AMR 4.75            13
1        AMR 5.15            14
2        AMR 5.9             16
3        AMR 6.7             18
4        AMR 7.4             20
5        AMR 7.95            21
6        AMR 10.2            27
7        AMR 12.2            32


So in theory, but i can be missing something, we can use the AMR header
as known plaintext of every call:
- the 1 byte header describe the sampling bitrate
- we can identify the sampling bitrate by looking at the size of the AMR
20ms sample

Could it be possible, or does the particular way the GSM transmission
occur prevent from such kind of plaintext retrieval by guessing the AMR
header content by looking at the speech packet size?

Fabio

AMR Reference:
http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/AMR_format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec
_______________________________________________
A51 mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.lists.reflextor.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/a51

Reply via email to