IP: Digital cell phone encryption broken, snooping possible

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

It was my understanding that it was understood that this code could be 
"easily" broken and that was intentional. The fact that a PC can do it is 
the interesting part. djf


>Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 16:01:00 -0500
>To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>
>X-URL: Politech is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
>
>*******
>
>http://wired.lycos.com/news/politics/0,1283,32900,00.html
>
>                      Cell Phone Crypto Penetrated
>                      by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
>
>                      10:55 a.m. 6.Dec.1999 PST
>                      Israeli researchers have discovered
>                      design flaws that allow the descrambling
>                      of supposedly private conversations
>                      carried by hundreds of millions of wireless
>                      phones.
>
>                      Alex Biryukov and Adi Shamir describe in a
>                      paper to be published this week how a PC
>                      with 128 MB RAM and large hard drives
>                      can penetrate the security of a phone
>                      call or data transmission in less than one
>                      second.
>
>                      The flawed algorithm appears in digital
>                      GSM phones made by companies such as
>                      Motorola, Ericsson, and Siemens, and
>                      used by well over 100 million customers in
>                      Europe and the United States. Recent
>                      estimates say there are over 230 million
>                      users worldwide who account for 65
>                      percent of the digital wireless market.
>
>                      [...]
>
>
>
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