On Mon, 2 Aug 2010 11:02:54 -0400 Bill Squier <g...@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 pe...@piermont.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majord...@metzdowd.com
