Comments on: GSM is insecure https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2011/01/03/gsm-is-insecure/ All about electronics and circuit design Tue, 21 Apr 2026 11:40:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.14 By: David https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2011/01/03/gsm-is-insecure/comment-page-1/#comment-1809089 Tue, 25 Jul 2023 12:40:55 +0000 http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=3986#comment-1809089 Thanks for your post. I’ve been thinking about writing a very comparable post over the last couple of weeks, I’ll probably keep it short and sweet and link to this instead if thats cool. Thanks. newport showflat

]]> By: David https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2011/01/03/gsm-is-insecure/comment-page-1/#comment-1809077 Tue, 25 Jul 2023 10:31:22 +0000 http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=3986#comment-1809077 Your site is truly cool and this is an extraordinary moving article. Blossoms showflat

]]> By: Tomi Engdahl https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2011/01/03/gsm-is-insecure/comment-page-1/#comment-656405 Sun, 06 Jul 2014 14:05:01 +0000 http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=3986#comment-656405 A GSM Base Station With Software Defined Radio
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/05/a-gsm-base-station-with-software-defined-radio/

It’s a GSM base station made with a BeagleBone Black and a not too expensive software defined radio board.

the total cost of the hardware somewhere around $750.

The software side of the build is mostly handled by OpenBTS, the open source project for the software part of a cell station.

]]> By: Tomi Engdahl https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2011/01/03/gsm-is-insecure/comment-page-1/#comment-35467 Sat, 18 Jan 2014 20:16:25 +0000 http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=3986#comment-35467 Norwegian professor emeritus of Jan Arild Audestad reveals that the GSM network in the birth of it the original intention was to use 128-bit encryption.

The British authorities pressured to use the 48-bit encryption.

As a compromise the GSM network resulted in using 64-bit encryption, in which the last ten bits are zeros. In practice, therefore, the encryption of 54-bit.

64-bit A5/1 encryption was broken by 2009, when the German Karsten Nohl hacker partners announced this on and put the necessary codes for online distribution. 128-bit A5/3-versio was introduced in 2007 and it is still considered safe.

One comment says that some networks in certain countries used even weaker the A5 / 0 option “no encryption”.

Sources:
http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/gsmverkon+kehittajat+paljastavat+brittien+tiedustelupalvelu+painosti+kayttamaan+heikompaa+salausta+jo+1980luvulla/a959220
http://www.nrk.no/norge/presset-til-a-svekke-mobilsikkerhet-1.11460787

]]> By: Tomi Engdahl https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2011/01/03/gsm-is-insecure/comment-page-1/#comment-14427 Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:17:47 +0000 http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=3986#comment-14427 Researchers Demo New GSM Attacks at Chaos Communications Congress
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/12/29/178215/researchers-demo-new-gsm-attacks-at-chaos-communications-congress

“A new attack on the GSM mobile communications protocol has been demonstrated by Karsten Nohl and Luca Melette of Security Research Labs, based off their previously published attacks around vulnerabilities in the GSM A5/1 encryption protocol. This new attack, which Nohl indicates already in use by criminals, allows an attacker to simulate a GSM mobile and use it to make calls and send text messages. Nohl also discussed protective measures users should take against these attacks, and others in use by intelligence communities around the world.”

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