California hacker promised to crack GSM code

Carsten Nol, a member of the German group hakreskoyi CCC (Chaos Computer Club), which officially is a researcher at the California firm H4rdw4re, which focuses on computer security plans to the end of the year to break the encryption algorithm in networks GSM.

Each of the phones in the GSM network is assigned a secret key by which the device is recognized system. When you call this key is used to create limited-session key, which are all encrypted conversation. It expects to break him and Nol.

For this, he wrote a program with an open architecture, which should unite the 80 computers in the network pirinhovuyu. By calculating the researcher, these resources should be enough for hacking, but because detsentralizovannosti pirinhovyh data networks, information that one day hit there would be virtually impossible to destroy.

For breaking NOLA colleagues intend to use oborud ovaniyem, which is rarely used in personal computers. At the same time, including "liquid" and announced component video Nvidia, supporting architecture CUDA (Sompute Unified Device Architecture). According to the scientist, graphics processors these cards is better suited for conventional breaking cipher A5 / 1 used in second generation networks.

Decrypted code Carsten Nol intends to publish on the Internet. Thus, he expects to get from mobile operators to rapidly transition to standard 3g, which uses a more complex system of negotiating encryption A5 / 3.

The first successful attempt to hack GSM took place back in the late nineties. There are a number of companies officially sells software and hardware solutions for the interception of cellular negotiations, but their cost is too high for ordinary users. In addition, the use and technical support for products of this kind is very welcome law enforcement, which they had neither rasprostrane market.

Tags: computers,networks,researchers