GSM calls are now fully eavesdroppable !!
The Encryption Codes presently used for GSM communications i.e A5/1 64 Bit encryption codes have been published as a “Torrent File” by security researcher Karsten Nohl and his team of 20 colleagues in December 2009. Now this is very scary for the billions of GSM phone users around the world, as their communications over the air waves could be cracked in real time using these codes. The GSM association(on its website) has already announced a new standard A5/3, which should replace the earlier A5/1 standard.
But the upgradation to the new standard requires huge costs and am not sure how many GSM service providers in India specially the major players like Airtel,Vodafone,BSNL and MTNL have started the migration to this new standard. Have they ?? Is the government monitoring the completion of the upgradation? Iam not sure of this !!!!
For those guys interested in reading about the GSM A5 cracking and the history , i managed to gather a list of links
| Title | URL | Date |
| A Practical-Time Attack on the A5/3 Cryptosystem Used in Third Generation GSM Telephony | http://cryptome.org/a5-3-attack.pdf | 12 January 2010 |
| A5/3 and GEA3 Algorithms | http://cryptome.org/a53-gea3/a53-gea3.htm | 21 January 2007 |
| Interception of GSM Cellphones | http://cryptome.org/gsm-spy.htm | 11 April 2005 |
| GSM Interceptor | http://cryptome.org/gsm-interceptor.htm | 15 September 2003 |
| GSM Crack Paper by Barkan, Biham, Keller | http://cryptome.org/gsm-crack-bbk.pdf | 9 September 2003 |
| Weak GSM Crypto Cracked Again | http://cryptome.org/gsm-crack.htm | 5 September 2003 |
| Real Time Cryptanalysis of A5/1 on a PC | http://cryptome.org/a51-bsw.htm | 27 April 2000 |
| ETSI 3GPP Kasumi Cipher Specs | http://cryptome.org/kasumi.zip | 11 April 2000 |
| SDA Releases GSM Voice-Privacy Algorithm A5/1 | http://www.scard.org/gsm/ | 16 December 1999 |
| GSM Assures Tappable ID | http://cryptome.org/gsm121099.htm | 11 December 1999 |
| GSM A5/1 Cracked | http://cryptome.org/a51-crack.htm | 6 December 1999 |
| GSM A5/2 Published | http://cryptome.org/gsm-a512.htm | 23 October 1999 |
| GSM Security Questions | http://cryptome.org/gsm-joke.htm | 21 October 1999 |
| A5/1 Pedagogical Implementation | http://cryptome.org/jya/a51-pi.htm | 10 May 1999 |
| Critique of GSM Data Protection Directive R(95)4 | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm-r(95)4.htm | 1 November 1998 |
| GSM Intercept News | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm102898.htm | 28 October 1998 |
| GSM Trace Scandal Exposed | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm-scandal.htm | 13 July 1998 |
| Swiss Commission Against Swisscom GSM Trace | http://cryptome.org/jya/swisscom-nix.htm | 6 July 1998 |
| Cryptanalysis of Alleged A5 Stream Cipher / On Random Mappings and Random Permutations |
http://cryptome.org/jya/a5-hack.htm | 3 May 1998 |
| GSM Crack by Chaos Computer Club | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm-chaos.htm | 27 April 1998 |
| GSM MoU Association Response to Cloning | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm-mou.htm | 21 April 1998 |
| GSM Clone News | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm042098.txt | 20 April 1998 |
| Crack A5 | http://cryptome.org/jya/crack-a5.htm | 18 April 1998 |
| GSM Cloning FAQ | http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/gsm-faq.html | 14 April 1998 |
| GSM Algorithm A3A8 | http://www.scard.org/gsm/a3a8.txt | 14 April 1998 |
| GSM Purposely-Weakened Crypto Cracked | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm-weak.htm | 14 April 1998 |
| GSM Cellphones Cloned | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm-cloned.htm | 13 April 1998 |
| GSM System Security Study | http://cryptome.org/jya/gsm061088.htm | 3 March 1997 |
hi, is it possible to use OTA and download new keys to insure secure conections …
?
Ahmed Khallab
October 19, 2010 at 6:41 pm