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Hackers Clone Elvis' Passport
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Oct 02, 2008 05:30 AM
from the don't-mess-with-the-king dept.
from the don't-mess-with-the-king dept.
Barence writes "Hackers have released source code that allows the 'backup' of RFID-protected passports, although the tool can potentially be used to create fake or cloned documents. The Hacker's Choice, a non-commercial group of computer security experts, has released a video showing a cloned passport being approved by a security scanner at a Dutch airport. When the reader scans the passport, it is revealed to belong to one Elvis Aaron Presley, complete with picture. Reports of the hackers serenading security staff with 'Are You Clonesome Tonight' are unconfirmed."
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Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Elvis has left the building
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
On a day when we are going to be giving hundreds of billions to dodgy bankers, on a day when suicide bombs have returned to Baghdad, on a day when the most influential vice-presidential nominees for a lifetime will go toe-to-toe, surely there is more important news [bbc.co.uk] for /. to report!
Parent
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Elvis has left the building
Elvis has left the building
And the other Elvis has left the building
There, fixed that for you.
Cheers!
Strat
Parent
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Elvis has left the building
Elvis has left the building
And the other Elvis has left the building
There, fixed that for you.
Cheers!
Strat
Well, sort of .. but where do I find MAX_ELVIS ?
Parent
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
#include <rock-n-roll.h>
Parent
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you, Thank you very much.
Elvis
Parent
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever since that cracker got me
I found a new place to dwell.
It's down at the end of cloned street
At pwned hotel.
(chorus)
You make me so cloned baby,
I get so cloned,
I get so cloned I could die (again and again).
And although its always crowded,
You still can find some room.
Where broken hearted users
Do cry away their gloom.
(chorus)
Well, the spammer's mail keeps flowin,
And the desk clerks dressed in black.
Well they been so long on cloned street
They ain't ever gonna look back.
(chorus)
Hey now, if a cracker gets you,
And you got a tale to tell,
just take a walk down cloned street
To pwned hotel.
Parent
I can fix that for you... (Score:5, Funny)
That little problem goes right away... just add "Elvis Aaron Presley" to the no-fly list.
We is all secured again, and permanently this time!
Re:I can fix that for you... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:I can fix that for you... (Score:5, Funny)
He's coming back for the Olympics? So, he's just be away all this time getting back in shape?
Parent
Re:I can fix that for you... (Score:5, Funny)
Hello,
You have used our copyrighted phrase '2012', thereby destroying the branding of the British Olympics. You owe us 12Bn poonds.
We look forward to recieving your remittance by return.
- IOC IP enforcement department.
Parent
Osama Bin Laden (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Osama Bin Laden (Score:5, Funny)
I would suggest a very fat white guy in a flannel shirt : )
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Re:Osama Bin Laden (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Osama Bin Laden (Score:5, Funny)
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Before passing through security (Score:5, Funny)
Bad title (Score:5, Insightful)
They created a passport with fake details which matched the identity of another person. Nothing was cloned. I bet it wasn't even his passport picture, but a stock photo from the web.
Re:Bad title (Score:5, Insightful)
Which, from the face of it, makes the feat even more impressive. Cloning means "simply" reading the data from one passport, and copying it onto another. It is not necessary to decrypt this data, as long as the chip is tricked into releasing it.
Instead, they created a completely new data set, put this on the chip, and programmed the chip so it correctly answers to the challenge posed by the reader.
Now the idea of having the data encrypted in the passport chip may be wishful thinking of course... I would expect it is encrypted, if not then it's of course one step less for these hackers. At the very least I would expect some cryptographic checksum, based on some secret key or so, to verify that the passport (i.e. the data on the chip) has been government issued.
No matter what, a neat hack, and scary that it is possible in the first place.
Parent
Never let a computer do a job that can be done by (Score:5, Insightful)
"Never let a computer do a job that can be done by a human."
I just can't agree with this.
People can be fooled easily enough and the more that's automated properly the better. A human(well thousands of them) *could* do all the interest calculations at your bank but it would be stupid to do it that way.
There are loads of jobs out there which are better done by machines.
Re:Misconfigured scanner (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:That's not a security console... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, so by your words, being able to create a document that contains blatantly false information, and successfully using that document to bypass security doesn't prove that "security in those things is broken". What, pray tell, would be required beyond this to demonstrate that security is broken? Because, you see, in my simple view of things, if you are "Bob" and security is on the lookout for "Bob", and you show them a modified password claiming that you're "Neil", and security lets you through because as far as they can tell you aren't "Bob", security has been compromised. When security is based on human inspection of said passport, clearly it's subject to human error. When security is electronically based, such as the case with RFID, all but the most basic of human interaction should be removed from the "is this a real passport?" equation.
Parent
Re:Be careful... (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Be careful... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Be careful... (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunately the current mob in (sort of ) charge here are right up the illiberal-fuck brigade's arse.
When it was recently demonstrated that the new national travelcard is broken (Mifare [computerworld.com]) the response was a typical mixture of outrage, damming everybody as criminal, and refusing to accept that people with science degrees are a darn sight smarter than the bunch of PR/MBA wankers who fell for the Mifare sales spin.
Parent