DECT wireless eavesdropping made easy

GSS

Conversations relayed through cordless household phones might be far easier to snoop upon than previously suspected. A new attack against phones based on DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication) technology - demonstrated during the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin earlier this week - might be carried out cheaply using off-the-shelf kit, together with a little know-how. A modified $30 VoIP laptop card running on a Linux portable were used to demonstrate the attack, which relies on using specially outfitted equipment to impersonate legitimate wireless base stations.

Encryption does feature as part of the DECT standard, but even when it's enabled, it might easily be bypassed in order to allow rogue devices to pose as the real thing, heise Security reports.

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