DeDECTive: A DECT 6.0 Cordless Phone Scanner and Voice Decoder for the HackRF
Over on GitHub and YouTube, we've seen the release of Sarah Rose's new program called DeDECTive, a DECT 6.0 scanner and voice decoder for the HackRF running on Linux systems. DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) is a digital wireless protocol typically used by modern cordless phones.
Back in 2019, Sarah (previously known as Corrosive) demonstrated how to use gr-dect2 to decode DECT in a previous video. In her latest work, she's ported gr-dect2 to C++ and written a nice GUI for the decoder. This makes running and setting up the decoder a significantly better experience. The GUI has a wideband scanner and the ability to tune for a single DECT channel for full voice decoding. There is also a CLI version that will automatically tune to the first active voice channel.
We note that many DECT cordless phones use encryption, so this software may not work with those devices. In any case, please be aware that intercepting phone calls may be illegal in many jurisdictions.
This is an incredible project! The DECT decoding looks very polished and it’s a great addition to the HackRF toolkit. I was curious if there’s any future plans to extend support to other hardware like the Adalm-Pluto (AD9363/AD9361) ? It would be amazing to see it running on that platform too. Keep up the fantastic work!
It works quite well under Kubuntu 22.04. However, encrypted speech is also being output. And this noise cannot be skipped with the n (next) key.
Thank you Sarah Rose for a wonderful program, you’re very talented. 😀
Compiled and run fine on Mint 21.03 in no time. On Ubuntu 20.04 which is a bit old, the GUI did not work because of the missing libimgui-dev package but the CLI compiled and worked with a small tweak in the makefile.
Would it be possible to have some instructions to compile under Windows, or perhaps cross-compiling it from Linux?
The CLI program is missing from the Windows ZIP.
And I think it would interest a lot of people to make it compatible with the RTL-SDR.
Nooelec has one with the Elonics E4000 tuner that cover those frequencies. I’ve used one successfully in GR-DECT2 by changing the GNU Radio flowgraph a bit.
In the DECT protocol, is there a flag that says if the transmission is encrypted or not, like in the Tetra protocol for example? If so it would be nice to show it on the screen.
My biggest problem is in my area I have yet to find a single “clear” transmission despite a lot of traffic. Oh well!
I could really use some IQ samples ore preferably an encrypted DECT phone to test against. Elonics E4000 does work, I suppose I should add rtl support
Only Hackrf no AirSpy or SDR
Planned for the future
No joy, just looked and DECT 6.0 is not allowed in EU/UK apparently, can you do our ststem/freqs?
The software already supports the EU 1.89GHz DECT channels.
It has a drop down for it and it is literally mentioned in the video.
So no need to add anything, it’s already there.
Yes i know, nothing received after hours of trying and it says DECT 6.0. That system is not in EU/UK from what I read
Thanks Sarah, especially for doing a windows version fir many things. You’re a star. Giving it a go now….