Algorithm Disclosure of and Practical Attack against DECT Standard Cipher

2010-04-14 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
"The DECT Standard Cipher (DSC) is a proprietary 64-bit stream cipher
based on irregularly clocked LFSRs and a non-linear output combiner. The
cipher is meant to provide confidentiality for cordless telephony. This
paper illustrates how the DSC was reverse-engineered from a hardware
implementation using custom firmware and information on the structure of
the cipher gathered from a patent. Beyond disclosing the DSC, the paper
proposes a practical attack against DSC that recovers the secret key
from 215 keystreams on a standard PC with a success rate of 50% within
hours; somewhat faster when a CUDA graphics adapter is available."

https://dedected.org/trac/raw-attachment/wiki/DSC-Analysis/FSE2010-166.pdf

This is from FSE 2010 in February, but I hadn't seen it mentioned here
yet.

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


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Microsoft Windows Cryptographic Next Generation SDK 2.0 Released

2009-04-30 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
"The CNG SDK contains documentation, code, and tools designed to help
you develop cryptographic applications and libraries targeting the
Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows 7 Operating
Systems."

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1EF399E9-B018-49DB-A98B-0CED7CB8FF6F

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


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SHA-1 collisions now 2^52

2009-04-30 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
"Until now, the best complete differential path (to our knowledge)
has complexity 2^63

The new path presented has complexity 2^52 - a significant reduction.

Practical collisions are within resources of a well funded organisation.

We are continuing our search for differential paths where the
boomerang attack can be used with maximum effect.

Paper will appear on eprint soon."

http://ping.fm/uCVUM

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


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MD5 considered harmful today, SHA-1 considered harmful tomorrow

2009-01-09 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
On Tue, 2008-12-30 at 11:51 -0800, "Hal Finney" wrote:
> Therefore the highest priority should be for the six bad CAs to change
> their procedures, at least start using random serial numbers and move
> rapidly to SHA1. As long as this happens before Eurocrypt or whenever
> the results end up being published, the danger will have been averted.
> This, I think, is the main message that should be communicated from this
> important result.

Nearly everything I've seen regarding the proposed solutions to this
attack have involved migration to SHA-1.  SHA-1 is scheduled to be
decertified by NIST in 2010, and NIST has already recommended[1] moving
away from SHA-1 to SHA-2 (256, 512, etc.).  Collision attacks have
already been demonstrated[2] against SHA-1 back in 2005, and if history
tells us anything then things will only get worse for SHA-1 from here.
By not moving directly to at least SHA-2 (until the winner of the NIST
hash competition is known), these vendors are likely setting themselves
up for similar attacks in the (relatively) near future.

[1] http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/toolkit/secure_hashing.html
[2] http://www.cryptography.com/cnews/hash.html

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


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Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 13:22 -0400, Ken Buchanan wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 11:56 AM, Dustin D. Trammell
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > This is the same for the state-wide Texas tag, TxTag[1].  If your tag
> > doesn't register, or you disable or remove it, the toll system can still
> > accurately bill you based on your license plate and vehicle
> > registration.  If you're not in the TxTag system at all, they simply
> > mail you a bill.
> 
> I think this is a bit different than what Michael Heyman said.  TxTag,
> IIRC, was implemented by the same company (Raytheon) that implemented
> the 407 ETR toll system in Toronto.  In the case of the 407, there is
> no image recognition done if the car has a valid transponder.  Only in
> the case of a missing or invalid transponder is the plate imagery
> used.  Supposedly the OCR has a high enough error rate that there is
> still manual verification of plates before sending a bill, and
> accordingly a $3.60 additional charge is applied per trip.
> 
> If the images are used even when the vehicle has a valid transponder
> -- as Michael Heyman suggests is happening with E-ZPass -- then it
> might be feasible to have back end defenses against cloning, though
> not without inconvenience to customers who borrow cars, buy new cars,
> or rent cars while their own is getting serviced.  Also as Matt Blaze
> pointed out this makes the transponder wholly redundant.

I can confirm that they definitely use imagery even when a valid
transponder is detected.  A couple years or so ago I had to put my
vehicle in the shop and use the wife's for a few days.  I assumed that I
could use my TxTag in her vehicle, and it would simply bill my account,
however a couple of weeks later I received a bill for the tolls, billed
to the owner of her vehicle at our address.  When I called to inquire,
they informed me that it did read the transponder, but mismatched with
the plates.  There was a grace period during which I could update the
transponder to the new vehicle and avoid the fines, but as I would be
getting my vehicle back in a few days, I opted to just order a second
transponder for her car.  They were kind enough to transfer the tolls to
the new transponder and waive the fees.

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


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Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 10:52 -0400, Matt Blaze wrote:
> On Aug 26, 2008, at 10:15, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > So, I believe, at least for E-Z Pass, the attack would have to include
> > cloning the license plate and pictures may still be available whenever
> > a victim realizes they have been charged for trips they did not take.
> 
> I believe that's correct.  In fact, the plate recognition technology  
> they
> use seems to be good enough to make the transponder itself redundant.
> I know several people with E-Z Pass who disconnected the internal
> battery of their transponder (out of concern that there might be
> hidden readers around town that track vehicles at places other than
> toll gates).   Even with dead transponders, their accounts are still
> charged accurately when they pass toll gates.  (The sign displays "EZ  
> Pass
> not read" or some such thing, but the account is debited within a day
> or two anyway).

This is the same for the state-wide Texas tag, TxTag[1].  If your tag
doesn't register, or you disable or remove it, the toll system can still
accurately bill you based on your license plate and vehicle
registration.  If you're not in the TxTag system at all, they simply
mail you a bill.

[1] http://www.txtag.org/

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


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Re: The MD6 hash function (rough notes)

2008-08-22 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
On Thu, 2008-08-21 at 10:26 -0700, "Hal Finney" wrote:
> Ron Rivest presented his (along with a dozen other people's) new hash,
> MD6, yesterday at Crypto.

The slides for this presentation are available from Ronald's website:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/Rivest-TheMD6HashFunction.ppt

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


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Re: The MD6 hash function (rough notes)

2008-08-22 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
On Thu, 2008-08-21 at 10:26 -0700, "Hal Finney" wrote:
> Ron Rivest presented his (along with a dozen other people's) new hash,
> MD6, yesterday at Crypto.

---8<---(snip)---8<---

> He also presented a number of cryptanalytic results. There is provable
> security against differential cryptanalysis, by virtue of the large number
> of rounds; also security against side channels. A SAT solver and another
> technique could only do something with about 11 rounds, versus the 100+
> rounds in the function. The tree structure is also shown to preserve
> strong properties of the compression function.
> 
> Overall it seemed very impressive. The distinctive features are the tree
> structure, very wide input blocks, and the enormous number of rounds.
> The cryptanalysis results were favorable. However Adi Shamir stood up
> and expressed concern that his new Cube attack might apply. Rivest seemed
> confident that the degree of MD6 would be several thousand, which should
> be safe from Shamir's attack, but time will tell.

I came across this paper today while searching for more information:

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/cis/theses/crutchfield-masters-thesis.pdf

It's titled 'Security Proofs for the MD6 Hash Function Mode of
Operation' by Christopher Yale Crutchfield (certified by Ronald L.
Rivest).  I thought it might be of interest to the followers of this
thread.

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


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Experimental demonstration of Shor’s algorithm with quantum entanglement

2007-09-13 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
Also from the NewScientist article that I just posted, another paper
from completely different researchers arriving at the same result:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/0705.1398

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Product Security Analyst
TippingPoint, a division of 3Com


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Demonstration of Shor’s quantum factoring algorithm using photonic qubits

2007-09-13 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
NewScientist's write-up (subscription required for full article):

http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19526216.700

You can find the full paper here:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/0705.1684

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Product Security Analyst
TippingPoint, a division of 3Com


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