Tag Archive for: Locks

Hackers Found a Way to Open Any of 3 Million Hotel Keycard Locks in Seconds


When thousands of security researchers descend on Las Vegas every August for what’s come to be known as “hacker summer camp,” the back-to-back Black Hat and Defcon hacker conferences, it’s a given that some of them will experiment with hacking the infrastructure of Vegas itself, the city’s elaborate array of casino and hospitality technology. But at one private event in 2022, a select group of researchers were actually invited to hack a Vegas hotel room, competing in a suite crowded with their laptops and cans of Red Bull to find digital vulnerabilities in every one of the room’s gadgets, from its TV to its bedside VoIP phone.

One team of hackers spent those days focused on the lock on the room’s door, perhaps its most sensitive piece of technology of all. Now, more than a year and a half later, they’re finally bringing to light the results of that work: a technique they discovered that would allow an intruder to open any of millions of hotel rooms worldwide in seconds, with just two taps.

Today, Ian Carroll, Lennert Wouters, and a team of other security researchers are revealing a hotel keycard hacking technique they call Unsaflok. The technique is a collection of security vulnerabilities that would allow a hacker to almost instantly open several models of Saflok-brand RFID-based keycard locks sold by the Swiss lock maker Dormakaba. The Saflok systems are installed on 3 million doors worldwide, inside 13,000 properties in 131 countries.

By exploiting weaknesses in both Dormakaba’s encryption and the underlying RFID system Dormakaba uses, known as MIFARE Classic, Carroll and Wouters have demonstrated just how easily they can open a Saflok keycard lock. Their technique starts with obtaining any keycard from a target hotel—say, by booking a room there or grabbing a keycard out of a box of used ones—then reading a certain code from that card with a $300 RFID read-write device, and finally writing two keycards of their own. When they merely tap those two cards on a lock, the first rewrites a certain piece of the lock’s data, and the second opens it.

“Two quick taps and we open the door,” says Wouters, a researcher in the Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography group at…

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Hackers Beat Anti-Repair Software Locks That Caused Train Breakdowns


A Polish train manufacturer has threatened to sue after a group of hackers accused the company of programming its products to inhibit independent repairs. The company’s software has reportedly caused trains to break down on purpose, and its circumvention has led the manufacturer to claim a conspiracy against it.

Poland’s Rynek Olejowy reports that rail operator Lower Silesian Railways (or Koleje Dolnośląskie) has been in a spat with Newag, producer of its Impuls 45WE hybrid multiple units. In June 2022, the railroad reportedly experienced multiple no-start failures with these trainsets in unrelated circumstances. In one case, the train stopped working after sitting out of service for a period, while in another it occurred following service at an independent train repair shop, SPS. Both reportedly resulted in fewer trains running than scheduled, impacting passenger service. (One Chinese railway had a similar incident when Adobe Flash was shut down.)

Newag reportedly claimed the trains had self-deactivated when their security software had been tampered with. However, a group of benevolent “white hat” hackers called Dragon Sector who were hired by SPS to assist have offered their own explanation: Newag used DRM to frustrate third-party repair efforts.

As reported in Polish outlet Onet, Dragon Sector said the trains were programmed to engage a software lockdown if they sat stationary for more than 10 days. This is believed to be an attack on independent repair, which has become a major battleground in recent years between consumers and companies like Apple, John Deere, and many across the car industry. Right-to-repair is combated in a variety of ways, from proprietary software and encryption that can only be read by the company itself to “parts pairing” according to 404 Media—a security measure against third-party service.

Not only does this make some devices impossible for the average user to repair, but it also can stop independent shops from fixing them at a lower cost than the manufacturer would demand. In extreme cases, this can leave consumers with no recourse if a manufacturer decides the product can’t be repaired, and…

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FCC Locks Down Router Firmware


For years, we have been graced with consumer electronics that run some form of Linux, have a serial port on the circuit board somewhere, and are able to be upgraded through official and unofficial means. That digital picture frame you got for Christmas in 2007 and forgot to regift in 2008? That’s a computer, and it would make a wonderful Twitter feed display. Your old Linksys WRT54G router? You can make a robotic lawnmower out of that thing. The ability to modify the firmware of consumer electronics is the cornerstone of Hackaday’s editorial prerogative. Now that right we have all enjoyed is in jeopardy, thanks to regulations from the FCC and laziness from router manufacturers.

Several months ago, the FCC proposed a rule that governed the certification of RF equipment, specifically wireless routers. This regulation would require router manufacturers to implement security on the radio modules inside these routers. While these regulations only covered the U-NII bands – the portion of the spectrum used for 5GHz WiFi, and there was no expectation of implementing security on the CPU or operating system of these routers, there were concerns. Routers are built around a System on Chip, with the CPU and radio in a single package. The easiest way to prevent modification of the radio module would be to prevent modification to the entire router. Some would call it fear mongering, but there was an expectation these proposed FCC rules would inevitably lead to wireless routers being completely locked down.

These expectations have become reality. Libre Planet has received confirmation from a large router manufacturer that firmware is now being locked down thanks to FCC rule changes.

News of this change to router firmware comes from a Battlemesh mailing list, a contest centered around modifying WiFi routers for mesh networking and ad-hoc networks. According to a  customer service rep, TP-Link has locked down the firmware for several models of WiFi routers due to the new FCC rule change. The models affected include the most recent 802.11n from TP-Link, and there is no way to use other firmware on these routers.

The controversy surrounding the FCC’s rule change has ebbed and…

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Sweepstakes: Rate Your Home Security System, Cameras, Locks, and More to Win



Take the Home Security, Cameras, and Smart Locks Survey(Opens in a new window) (US Only)


OFFICIAL SWEEPSTAKES RULES

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Readers’ Choice Sweepstakes (the “Sweepstakes”) is governed by these official rules (the “Sweepstakes Rules”). The Sweepstakes begins on July 24, 2023, at 12:00 AM ET and ends on August 13, 2023, at 11:59 PM ET (the “Sweepstakes Period”).

SPONSOR: Ziff Davis, LLC, with an address of 114 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10011 (the “Sponsor”).

ELIGIBILITY: This Sweepstakes is open to individuals who are eighteen (18) years of age or older at the time of entry who are legal residents of the fifty (50) United States of America or the District of Columbia. By entering the Sweepstakes as described in these Sweepstakes Rules, entrants represent and warrant that they are complying with these Sweepstakes Rules (including, without limitation, all eligibility requirements), and that they agree to abide by and be bound by all the rules and terms and conditions stated herein and all decisions of Sponsor, which shall be final and binding.

All previous winners of any sweepstakes sponsored by Sponsor during the nine (9) month period prior to the Selection Date are not eligible to enter. Any individuals (including, but not limited to, employees, consultants, independent contractors and interns) who have, within the past six (6) months, held employment with or performed services for Sponsor or any organizations affiliated with the sponsorship, fulfillment, administration, prize support, advertisement or promotion of the Sweepstakes (“Employees”) are not eligible to enter or win. Immediate Family Members and Household Members are also not eligible to enter or win. “Immediate Family Members” means parents, step-parents, legal guardians, children, step-children, siblings, step-siblings, or spouses of an Employee. “Household Members” means those individuals who share the same residence with an Employee at least three (3) months a year.

HOW TO ENTER: There are two methods to enter the Sweepstakes: (1) fill out the online survey(Opens in a new window), or (2) enter by mail.

1. Survey…

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