Skip to main content

GSM encryption cracking service to launch by end of the month

O’Reilly Radar is reporting news of a new web service that claims to offer real time decryption of the GSM protocol.

Cracking GSM encryption has always been a computationally intensive process but thanks to a technique known as Rainbow Tables (essentially, this just means working out a lot of the hard sums in advance and storing the answers in a huge lookup table) a lot of the work has already been done.

The other ingredient is a device called a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) - unlike most receivers that can pick up, say, FM transmissions, TV or mobile phone signals the USRP can receive the lot. It is relatively simple to program the device to isolate particular signals and these are then digitised for analysis by the cracking service.

What does this mean for the security of GSM phone calls? Well, according to O’Reilly, the service should let you grab a live GSM call and begin listening in on it within 30 seconds.

The article (and the researchers behind the service) are at pains to point out that it is illegal to intercept other peoples’ calls and that you should only try this with your own phone - advice which I am sure will be followed to the letter.

Popular posts from this blog

Test New ALFA-AWUS036H v.2 (1.000mW) VS ALFA-AWUS036H v.1 (500mW)

- Recently emerged the New ALFA-AWUS036H v.2 (1.000mW), and these are the tests. TEST WITH NETSTUMBLER 1) usb da 100mW chipset railink 2) usb da 200mW chipset railink rt73 3) intel 2200 b/g con connettore esterno rp-sma 4) Alfa-AWUS036H 500mW 5) New Alfa-AWUS036H V2 da 1.000mW

Creating A Cheap Bluetooth Sniffer

Many papers and posts on internet forums have commented on the success of turning normal everyday bluetooth USB dongles ($10), into their more powerful counterparts that allow the capturing of packets from the airwaves. These more powerful USB dongles are usually sold at a much higher price ($10,000) together with the software to drive and control these devices. The problems associated with BlueTooth sniffing You cant simply just purchase the dongle with the alternate firmware. There is next to no real opensource packet capture program for the bluetooth protocol. Hardware & Limitations Chipsets: Whats the difference? The chipset of the Bluetooth USB Dongles are very important. Broadcom chipsets are cheap hardware and are deemed unsuitable devices for this paper. But unfortunalty nowadays, every manufacturer seems to prefer putting these chips in their products compared to the more reliable Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) chipset. If your lucky enough to find a dongle with a CSR chips...

ALFA-­AWUS036H & ALFA-­AWUS050NH INSTALLING/UPDATING DRIVERS RTL8187, r8187, RT2800usb on UBUNTU

NOTE: For surfing Internet with ALFA-AWUS050NH on Ubuntu Jaunty with rt2870sta driver, you must use the Kernel "2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu", without change or updates the drivers modules. NOTE: The tutorial is not related to Ubuntu karmic. Driver RTL8187/Stacks-­mac80211 (ref. ALFA-­AWUS036h) ­- These drivers, for surfing Internet, are more stable than r8187, and fully compatible with Network-Manager 0.7 installed by default on Ubuntu 9.04. Network-Manager 0.7 installed by default on Ubuntu 9.04. ­- Supports all encryption without problems. (OPEN, WEP and WPA/WPA2) ­- With Compat-Wireless, the "injection" working, but for support “Fragmentation attack” (opt. -5) you need to install one patch. - The RX sensitivity and packets injection is less, related to drivers r8187. Driver r8187/Stacks-ieee80211 (ref. ALFA-AWUS036h) - This driver is recommended for use with the Suite of Aircrack-ng, but not particularly suitable for Internet connections, as less stable and disc...