Practical Differential Fault Attacks on the GPRS Standard Ciphers

Researchers demonstrated a practical differential fault attack (an exploit that deliberately introduces errors into a system to extract secrets) against GEA-1 and GEA-2, the stream ciphers (algorithms that encrypt data bit-by-bit) used to protect GPRS (General Packet Radio Service, a mobile data standard) communications between phones and base stations. By identifying the exact location where faults occur in the cipher, attackers can recover the 64-bit secret keys in about 16 minutes on a standard laptop. Many current phones still support these outdated ciphers, making them vulnerable.