A5 Archive

  • Meganet’s Dominator I snoops on four GSM convos at once, fits in your overnight bag

    Meganet’s Dominator I snoops on four GSM convos at once, fits in your overnight bag

    Posted on May 10, 2010 | No Comments
    "Dominator I" sounds more like a monster truck than a collection of small boxes that collectively erase 20 years of relatively secure wireless phone service, doesn't it? Alas, what you're looking at here is a convenient, plug-and-play solution for exploiting the hard work the world's hacking community has put into cracking the A5/1 encryption used on GSM networks in Europe and the US over the past few years. The system consists of two nondescript white boxes, two directional antennas that you'll point in the direction of your victim, and a laptop that you can use to get a glimpse at all of the phones currently connected to your nearest cell site and record up to four active calls simultaneously -- and if you're more of the text messaging type, Dominator I's got you covered there, too, with full access to SMS. The company claims that the system was "declassified only last week" and is completely undetectable both by the operator and the end user, putting it in this rare nexus of "awesome" and "completely terrifying." It can't do the 128-bit A5/3 used in UMTS, but now that it's been cracked in a somewhat practical way, we're sure the Dominator II can't be far behind. Follow the break for Meganet's video of the system in action.

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    Meganet's Dominator I snoops on four GSM convos at once, fits in your overnight bag originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Archos 7 Android tablet specs leak out

    Archos 7 Android tablet specs leak out

    Posted on January 27, 2010 | No Comments
    Archos has tablets too, you guys. Let's not forget about Archos. Whether or not the company purposely let details of the 7-inch "ARCHOS 7 Android" tablet slip out on a product page of an online retailer in the UK (that page has now been removed), you've got to admit that the timing is interesting.

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  • G.S.M. encryption hacked

    G.S.M. encryption hacked

    Posted on December 29, 2009 | No Comments
    Karsten Nohl, a PhD from the University of Virginia, looking dreamy above, has broken A5/1, an algorithm to encrypt G.S.M. cellphone conversation. The hack follows a few steps including the use of a distributed key-gathering sytem to capture and decoding of a number of G.S.M. 64-bit encryption keys, the kind of keys that most cellular [...]

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  • GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see

    GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see

    Posted on December 29, 2009 | No Comments
    var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/security/GSM_call_encryption_code_cracked_published_for_the_world'; Did you know that the vast majority of calls carried out on the 3.5 billion GSM connections in the world today are protected by a 21-year old 64-bit encryption algorithm? You should now, given that the A5/1 privacy algorithm, devised in 1988, has been deciphered by German computer engineer Karsten Nohl and published as a torrent for fellow code cracking enthusiasts and less benevolent forces to exploit. Worryingly, Karsten and his crew of merry men obtained the binary codes by simple brute force -- they fed enough random strings of numbers in to effectively guess the password. The GSM Association -- which has had a 128-bit A5/3 key available since 2007, but found little takeup from operators -- has responded by having a whinge about Mr. Nohl's intentions and stating that operators could just modify the existing code to re-secure their networks. Right, only a modified 64-bit code is just as vulnerable to cracking as the one that just got cracked. It's important to note that simply having the code is not in itself enough to eavesdrop on a call, as the cracker would be faced with just a vast stream of digital communications -- but Karsten comes back to reassure us that intercepting software is already available in customizable open source varieties. So don't be like Tiger, keep your truly private conversations off the airwaves, at least for a while.

    GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Livescribe Plus Smartpen gets smarter

    Livescribe Plus Smartpen gets smarter

    Posted on October 19, 2009 | No Comments
    I've heard so much about the Pulse Smartpen, the little pen that records what you write along with the audio around you at the time of writing, that I've grown curious. Who out there has used this little thinger? Is it good for students? The elderly? Members of the Spanish Inquisition?

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