The Big E Break?

[KK4JUG]

This article is posted without comment:

Encryption Made for Police and Military Radios May Be Easily Cracked

Researchers found that an encryption algorithm likely used by law enforcement and special forces can have weaknesses that could allow an attacker to listen in.

www.wired.com

 

[KevinC]

Elvin Hayes is returning to basketball?

 

[kc2asb]

Hmmm. Tried to read it but the paywall came crashing down. Intentional backdoors into encryption algorithms? Perhaps the backdoor password is "Joshua" ?

 

[lwvmobile]

Hmmm. Tried to read it but the paywall came crashing down. Intentional backdoors into encryption algorithms? Perhaps the backdoor password is "Joshua" ?

Its just a rehash of the TEA1 weakness found a couple years ago, but without saying what, they seem to imply the same research group found another weakness in some unspecified E2EE presumably also used by TETRA. In other words, the title of the article is click bait as it suggests ALL encryption algorithms used by any police or government or military MAY be easily cracked.

 

[KK4JUG]

I made that post with the intention of going back reading the article but with the paywall, it may fall by the wayside. If it's really factual, it'll come out in other sources.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Its just a rehash of the TEA1 weakness found a couple years ago, but without saying what, they seem to imply the same research group found another weakness in some unspecified E2EE presumably also used by TETRA. In other words, the title of the article is click bait as it suggests ALL encryption algorithms used by any police or government or military MAY be easily cracked.

Nope. It's a bunch of new, exploitable vulnerabilities found in the TETRA protocol. Also, zero day vulnerabilities found in Sepura handsets. Not a rehash of the ones found 2 years ago.

They ALSO effect TEA2, 3 and 4

 

[kayn1n32008]

I made that post with the intention of going back reading the article but with the paywall, it may fall by the wayside. If it's really factual, it'll come out in other sources.

It is real, and factual, and has come out from other sources. A lot of the issue is the TEA algorithm has to be reverse engineered, because it's not been publicized.

 

[trentbob]

I am very surprised that Cond'e Nast allowed that to be published.

 

[merlin]

Somehow, I think the NSA has that covered. There is hacking software out there yhat can likely do that, but one would have to be good at hacking encryption.

 

[kc2asb]

Somehow, I think the NSA has that covered. There is hacking software out there yhat can likely do that, but one would have to be good at hacking encryption.

Would a hacker have enough computing power to break an AES 256-bit key?

 

[GlobalNorth]

Would a hacker have enough computing power to break an AES 256-bit key?

Not unless they are working for the DPRK or other State actor.

Certain corporations do, but they don't do it unless the government asks them to, such as Apple cracking their iPhone ## for a FBI terrorism case.

 

[surfacemount]

Would a hacker have enough computing power to break an AES 256-bit key?

That's a loaded question.
You are asking, could a thief break into a vault via the vault door. Sounds tedious.

What if, though, you could sneak a wire through the vault ventilator and trip the emergency latch? Doesn't matter if the door is four foot thick and eight dials if one can attack another surface.

(If there is a discoverable flaw in implementation, you wouldn't need to attack it head on)

 

[lwvmobile]

You'd be surprised what you can do with a GPU, or, a lot of GPUs, depending on the workload. You know all those data centers that do bitcoin mining, AI workloads, and so on. Just a big cluster of GPUs.

 

[merlin]

While your casual armchair hacker may spend a lifetime on the task, more modern hacking techniques use clowd and interactiveteam efforts.
So now the armchair hacker has a LOT of resources and just a piece of a hacker puzzle.

 

[merlin]

That's a loaded question.
You are asking, could a thief break into a vault via the vault door. Sounds tedious.

What if, though, you could sneak a wire through the vault ventilator and trip the emergency latch? Doesn't matter if the door is four foot thick and eight dials if one can attack another surface.

(If there is a discoverable flaw in implementation, you wouldn't need to attack it head on)

Well, if man can make it, man can break it, just give it time.

 

[kc2asb]

Well, if man can make it, man can break it, just give it time.

If AI evolves into a "super intelligence" as some have predicted, it might crack 256-bit keys for breakfast.

Some interesting information in this thread! Thanks.

 

[MTS2000des]

Any encryption algo only buys time. With quantum computing evolving the way it is, it is indeed only a matter of time before an algorithm authored two plus decades ago is compromised. Only a matter of time.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Would a hacker have enough computing power to break an AES 256-bit key?

No. Currently, there is not enough time OR energy remaining in the entire universe to brute force a PROPER, RANDOM AES256 bit key.

But as @mts2000stated, as quantum computing gets more powerful, AES256 will be broken.

Any current 'hack' of AES256 is going to be it's implementation, not the defeating the algorithm. AFIAK, the AES256 algorithm itself, has not been defeated... yet.

Further, the article the OP linked is about TEA1-4, at key spaces of 128bit or less, the TETRA protocol itself AND the software used by the Sepura TETRA terminals themselves. The article has absolutely nothing to do with AES256.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Not unless they are working for the DPRK or other State actor.

LMFAO, DPRK definitely doesn't have the resources to attack and defeat AES.

Certain corporations do, but they don't do it unless the government asks them to, such as Apple cracking their iPhone ## for a FBI terrorism case.

These corporations have the ability to defeat the encrypted they implemented on their own devices. It is more likely they have added a public/private key system, that allows them access to your data, while it's secure in transit from MiM attacks, but your data is not secure on their servers. Think Google drive, iCloud, Dropbox, Gmail, Outlook ect.

 

[kayn1n32008]

What if, though, you could sneak a wire through the vault ventilator and trip the emergency latch? Doesn't matter if the door is four foot thick and eight dials if one can attack another surface.

Excellent way to describe a side channel attack.

The AES algorithm was the result of NIST having a public competition to replace DES. AES was the winner. It's name, pre win, was Rijndael, named after the 2 Dutch cryptologists that developed it.

AES has been thoroughly examined, by independent cryptographic experts, repeatedly. AFIAK, they have not been able to successfully defeat AES, at any keyspace, SO FAR.