Abstract
Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) is a standard for connecting cordless telephones to a fixed telecommunications network over a short range. The cryptographic algorithms used in DECT are not publicly available. In this paper we reveal one of the two algorithms used by DECT, the DECT Standard Authentication Algorithm (DSAA). We give a very detailed security analysis of the DSAA including some very effective attacks on the building blocks used for DSAA as well as a common implementation error that can practically lead to a total break of DECT security. We also present a low cost attack on the DECT protocol, which allows an attacker to impersonate a base station and therefore listen to and reroute all phone calls made by a handset.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barkan, E., Biham, E., Keller, N.: Instant ciphertext-only cryptanalysis of GSM encrypted communication. In: Boneh, D. (ed.) CRYPTO 2003. LNCS, vol. 2729, pp. 600–616. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Biham, E., Shamir, A.: Differential cryptanalysis of DES-like cryptosystems. In: Menezes, A., Vanstone, S.A. (eds.) CRYPTO 1990. LNCS, vol. 537, pp. 2–21. Springer, Heidelberg (1991)
Ettus, M.: USRP user’s and developer’s guide. Ettus Research LLC (February 2005)
European Telecommunications Standards Institute. ETSI EN 300 444 V1.4.2 (2003- 02): Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT); Generic Access Profile (February 2003)
European Telecommunications Standards Institute. ETSI EN 300 175-7 V2.1.1: Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT); Common Interface (CI); Part 7: Security Features (August. 2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lucks, S., Schuler, A., Tews, E., Weinmann, RP., Wenzel, M. (2009). Attacks on the DECT Authentication Mechanisms. In: Fischlin, M. (eds) Topics in Cryptology – CT-RSA 2009. CT-RSA 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5473. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00862-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00862-7_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-00861-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-00862-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)