Encrypted Cordless phones

[Eli Brandt]

> 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 at jarthur.claremont.edu