From: Eli Brandt <ebrandt@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 93 20:31:51 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Encrypted Cordless phones
In-Reply-To: <930414002026_72114.1712_FHF79-1@CompuServe.COM>
Message-ID: <9304140331.AA27969@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> Both phones have all the usual advanced features like auto-redial
> and such.  Neither company's literature tells what encryption
> technology they uses.

It doesn't much matter; they're using ten- and sixteen-bit keys.  
Assuming it takes some 50 ms to tell voice from the white noise that
a failed attempt will generate, a brute-force attack on these
systems should take under a minute and an hour respectively,
worst-case.  This is hardly rock-solid security; it looks like it
rests mostly on nobody reverse-engineering their algorithm.

>  S a n d y

   Eli   ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu