Time Turner: Hacking RF Attendance Systems to Be in Two Places at Once
Vivek Nair reverse engineers university RF wireless classroom attendance trackers, building an Arduino spoofing device to simulate physical presence in two lectures simultaneously.
Summary
Automated RF Attendance Tracking Systems
Universities and corporate facilities increasingly deploy proprietary wireless attendance tracking beacons to monitor physical presence in lecture halls.
Reverse Engineering Proprietary RF Beacons
Vivek Nair analyzes the RF physical layer and packet transmission protocols used by commercial classroom attendance devices using a software-defined radio.
Building the Time Turner Hardware Spoofing Device
By capturing challenge-response packets and identifying lack of timestamp validation, Nair programs an inconspicuous battery-powered Arduino device to emulate student badges.
Demonstrating Simultaneous Multi-Class Attendance
The project demonstrates successfully registering attendance across multiple simultaneous lectures, highlighting protocol flaws in contactless physical presence systems.
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