Magstripe Madness

Architecture and Background

Abstract: It's been a year since Major Mal gave his talk on hotel IR systems, and things haven't got any better...In fact, they've got worse. No, wait a minute...that's not right...They've *stayed* worse!! Having plumbed the depths of the IR in his room, and finding himself with little else to do, Major turned his attention to another piece of technology easily to hand: his magstripe room key...Now these have been around since Mary checked into her stable, and every hotel on the planet is using them, so they *must* be secure, right? Right??? OMFG, wrong!

Vulnerability Analysis

So wrong it'll make your head spin... In this talk Major Malfunction will expose not only how easy it is to bypass security mechanisms built into various magstripe technologies such as hotel doorkeys, train tickets, credit cards etc., but will also take a sideways look at how they might be leveraged to provide attack vectors on other in-house systems, such as passenger ticketing systems, bank clearing houses, hotel billing... OK, OK, enough already! We can fix this! All we need is some new technology, like, errr...RFID!

Exploitation and Demonstrations

That's it! That'll do the trick! Right? Right???? Bio: Major Malfunction lives in a fantasy world.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

He believes he works by day in the security industry, advises corporate, government, police and military, has a base in a secret underground nuclear bunker, and a network of colaborators all over the world involved in dark mysterious missions. He legally indulges his love of firearms in a country that prohibits them, swaps souvenirs with TLAs from all over the world, and generally swans about the UK like he owns the place...If you look closely, the man is obviously James Bond... No, not that closely...Back a bit and squint so you can't see his paunch...That's it! There, you see? What's that bulge under his armpit? James Bond, definitely.