Determining the type of Encryption being used on a system or frequency

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mikedaly

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I'm tring to determine the type of Encryption being used on a certain frequency. I.E. APD, DES-OFB, AES256. Is there a software program that can determine this. I have KFDTool that i used to load in some keys in to a radio. I was able to hear the radio traffic that was encrypted. I listened to all three audio samples. I feel that i can hear a difference between them. But it might be more in my head. thanks for the replies
 

GlobalNorth

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Quality encryption sounds like random signal noise. The commercially available stuff can sound like "Donald Duck" on the analog inversion end to next to nothing on the digital end.
 

prcguy

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If the encryption is layered on P25 then you can still decode the NAC and tell if its P25. AES is a common encryption format for P25. If its encrypted DMR or MOTOTRBO the total channel BW should be narrower than some other formats. Same with narrow NXDN and you could then look up popular encryption formats for those.

I've seen some web sites that have examples of different encryption sounds.
 

jonwienke

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If you're in legitimate possession of the encryption key, then you're not violating any law by attempting to use the key to decrypt transmissions.

It is also 100% legal to identify the type of encryption used, regardless of whether you are an authorized user or not.

The only illegal act would be an unauthorized user without a key attempting to defeat encryption to hear encrypted traffic without authorization.
 

mikedaly

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Who cares?

If you get off on distinguishing different kinds of noise you have a strange hobby. Once you know the answer, what do you have? Nothing a scanner hobbies cares about.
You miss the whole point of the question. Who cares why I want to know. Im just looking for an answer. Thanks for your post that was pointless
 

StoliRaz

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I don't know, because I don't want to do 2 decades in prison lol. My favorite type of encryption is "busy signal" encryption 😎
 

prcguy

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If you could hack and decrypt police communications I doubt you would ever be arrested or see a day in court. Instead you would have big $$ job offers working for encryption companies so they can figure out how not to get hacked.

If anyone really cared about the legality of decrypting something there would be buildings full of people being arrested at Ft Mead in MD. The only thing I know of that will get you in trouble is trying to hack DirecTV. You can murder someone and do less time than stealing encrypted
satellite TV.

I don't know, because I don't want to do 2 decades in prison lol. My favorite type of encryption is "busy signal" encryption 😎
 
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