Weaknesses of North American wireless authentication protocol

Author

Patel, Sarvar

Author_Institution

Bellcore, USA

Volume

4

Issue

3

fYear

1997

fDate

6/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

40

Lastpage

44

Abstract

Security for cellular and PCS systems in the United States will be based on secret key schemes for authentication and encryption. The effectiveness of security for wireless, as in other applications of cryptography, will depend on the ability of the basic cryptographic algorithms to withstand attacks and on sound protocol design. We show the IS-41 authentication protocol to be unsound by pointing to multiple flaws in the protocol which allow a network impersonator to gain service without “breaking the CAVE algorithm”. These flaws effectively nullify authentication

Keywords

access protocols; cellular radio; cryptography; message authentication; personal communication networks; telecommunication signalling; telecommunication standards; CAVE algorithm; IS-41 authentication protocol; North American standard; North American wireless authentication protocol; PCS systems; USA; United States; authentication protocol flaws; cellular systems; cryptographic algorithms; cryptography; encryption; intersystem signaling; protocol design; secret key; system access protocol; wireless security; Access protocols; Authentication; Cloning; Costs; Cryptographic protocols; Databases; Personal communication networks; Public key cryptography; Telephone sets; Wireless application protocol;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Personal Communications, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1070-9916

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/98.589266

Filename

589266