Cryptanalysis of the DECT Standard Cipher

Karsten Nohl; Erik  Tews; Ralf-Philipp Weinmann

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13858-4_1

Cryptanalysis of the DECT Standard Cipher

Karsten Nohl
, Erik Tews
, Ralf-Philipp Weinmann

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

4 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The DECT Standard Cipher (DSC) is a proprietary 64-bit stream cipher based on irregularly clocked LFSRs and a non-linear output combiner. The cipher is meant to provide confidentiality for cordless telephony. This paper illustrates how the DSC was reverse-engineered from a hardware implementation using custom firmware and information on the structure of the cipher gathered from a patent. Beyond disclosing the DSC, the paper proposes a practical attack against DSC that recovers the secret key from 215 keystreams on a standard PC with a success rate of 50% within hours; somewhat faster when a CUDA graphics adapter is available.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Fast Software Encryption
Subtitle of host publication	17th International Workshop, FSE 2010, Seoul, Korea, February 7-10, 2010, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Seokhie Hong, Tetsu Iwata
Place of Publication	Berlin
Publisher	Springer
Pages	1-18
Number of pages	18
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-642-13858-4
ISBN (Print)	978-3-642-13857-7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13858-4_1
Publication status	Published - 2010
Event	17th International Workshop on Fast Software Encryption, FSE 2010 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of Duration: 7 Feb 2010 → 10 Feb 2010 Conference number: 17

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher	Springer
Volume	6147
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Workshop

Workshop	17th International Workshop on Fast Software Encryption, FSE 2010
Abbreviated title	FSE
Country/Territory	Korea, Republic of
City	Seoul
Period	7/02/10 → 10/02/10

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10.1007/978-3-642-13858-4_1

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Cite this

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title = "Cryptanalysis of the DECT Standard Cipher",

abstract = "The DECT Standard Cipher (DSC) is a proprietary 64-bit stream cipher based on irregularly clocked LFSRs and a non-linear output combiner. The cipher is meant to provide confidentiality for cordless telephony. This paper illustrates how the DSC was reverse-engineered from a hardware implementation using custom firmware and information on the structure of the cipher gathered from a patent. Beyond disclosing the DSC, the paper proposes a practical attack against DSC that recovers the secret key from 215 keystreams on a standard PC with a success rate of 50\% within hours; somewhat faster when a CUDA graphics adapter is available.",

author = "Karsten Nohl and Erik Tews and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann",

year = "2010",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-642-13858-4\_1",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-3-642-13857-7",

series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science",

publisher = "Springer",

pages = "1--18",

editor = "Seokhie Hong and Tetsu Iwata",

booktitle = "Fast Software Encryption",

address = "Germany",

note = "17th International Workshop on Fast Software Encryption, FSE 2010, FSE ; Conference date: 07-02-2010 Through 10-02-2010",

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Nohl, K, Tews, E & Weinmann, R-P 2010, Cryptanalysis of the DECT Standard Cipher. in S Hong & T Iwata (eds), Fast Software Encryption: 17th International Workshop, FSE 2010, Seoul, Korea, February 7-10, 2010, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 6147, Springer, Berlin, pp. 1-18, 17th International Workshop on Fast Software Encryption, FSE 2010, Seoul, Korea, Republic of, 7/02/10. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13858-4_1

Cryptanalysis of the DECT Standard Cipher. / Nohl, Karsten; Tews, Erik ; Weinmann, Ralf-Philipp.
Fast Software Encryption: 17th International Workshop, FSE 2010, Seoul, Korea, February 7-10, 2010, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Seokhie Hong; Tetsu Iwata. Berlin: Springer, 2010. p. 1-18 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 6147).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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AB - The DECT Standard Cipher (DSC) is a proprietary 64-bit stream cipher based on irregularly clocked LFSRs and a non-linear output combiner. The cipher is meant to provide confidentiality for cordless telephony. This paper illustrates how the DSC was reverse-engineered from a hardware implementation using custom firmware and information on the structure of the cipher gathered from a patent. Beyond disclosing the DSC, the paper proposes a practical attack against DSC that recovers the secret key from 215 keystreams on a standard PC with a success rate of 50% within hours; somewhat faster when a CUDA graphics adapter is available.

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Cryptanalysis of the DECT Standard Cipher

Abstract

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Workshop

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