Join the Community

22,178
Expert opinions
44,235
Total members
412
New members (last 30 days)
212
New opinions (last 30 days)
28,725
Total comments

Another GSM Algorithm Cracked

The A5/1 encryption cypher fell last week and now the A5/3 has been cracked.

Not a good week for mobile phone carriers and alarm bells should be ringing if you are planning involving the GSM association in any secure applications and perhaps you need to revisit the risk equation.

For those in the know a new type of attack was used to construct a simple distinguisher for 7 of the 8 rounds of KASUMI with exceptionally high probability. The distinguisher provides the opportunity for analyzing the single remaining round enabling derivation of the 128 bit key of the full KASUMI by using only 4 related keys, 226 data, 230 bytes of memory, and 232 time. This translatesa into a couple of hours on a standard PC.

MISTY the old crypto was in fact harder to break. The GSM crew made a backward step of a very high order. (the limitations of the type in this blog prevent me from providing more specific information).

Not the sort of progress I like to make.

The bottom line is that your mobile phone may as well be a CB radio.

External

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.

Join the Community

22,178
Expert opinions
44,235
Total members
412
New members (last 30 days)
212
New opinions (last 30 days)
28,725
Total comments

Trending

Boris Bialek

Boris Bialek Vice President and Field CTO, Industry Solutions at MongoDB

Enhancing Digital Banking Experiences with AI

Barley Laing

Barley Laing UK Managing Director at Melissa

Reducing the impact of AI-driven fraud in 2025

Now Hiring