Tools of the Trade - Safer Than GSM's A5 Algorithm

The Hacker's Choice (THC) has kicked off a project to design a GSM scanner/receiver. In addition, they have started a new project to crack the A5 algorithm used in GSM. This algorithm scrambles the user's voice and data traffic between the handset and the base station to provide privacy.

Check out the cool work done on this subject in the 90's as well.
Real-Time Cryptanalysis of GSM's A5/1 on a PC
A5 - The GSM Encryption Algorithm

One to the tools....

1) On May 7th, Christian Martorella released Wfuzz v1.1. Wfuzz is a Python based tool designed for bruteforcing Web Applications. The simple design of the tool gives the "attacker" the ability to customize the tool for very targeted testing. Directory Enumeration, bruteforcing user/passwords, etc. Don't tools already exist that do all of these? Yes....but the interweb is jumbo-big (would that be jumbig?) and there is always room for another tool.

1) On May 6th, Jeremy Hollander released his Python based Link Layer Discovery Protocol Fuzzer. The Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is a layer two protocol used by network devices to share information, such as their identity and capabilities, on a LAN. Grab the LLDP Fuzzer paper (PDF) for more information. Jeremy is a fellow Austinite.....

2) On May 4th, Pidgin 2.0.0 was finally released. Pidgin is a modular messaging client capable of using AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, SILC, SIP/SIMPLE, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour, Zephyr, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ all at once.

3) On May 4th, OWASP released WebScarab 20070504-1631. WebScarab is a Java-based framework for analyzing applications that communicate using the HTTP and HTTPS protocols. Basically it is a web proxy for application testing. This update fixes a XSS vuln reported back in 2006.

4) On May 3rd, PHP 5.2.2 and PHP 4.4.7 were released. These release contain fixes for several very serious bugs released during the Month of PHP Bugs (MoPB). Therefore it is important that you start to work these into your environment as soon as possible.

5) On May 3rd, TrueCrypt 4.3a was released. See the changelog for all the details.

6) On May 3rd, Cain & Abel 4.9.1 was released. Looks like mainly Vista fixes to 4.9, but check the changelog for all the details.

7) On April 27th, Aircrack-NG 0.8 was released. Aircrack-NG is a set of tools for auditing wireless networks. It's an enhanced/reborn version of aircrack.