RFID in RISKS Digest

[Dave Farber <dfarber () me com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Randall <rvh40 () insightbb com>
> Date: April 19, 2010 11:46:32 AM EDT
> To: johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com, Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Cc: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: RFID in RISKS Digest

> Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:04:21 PDT
> From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann () NOSPAM csl sri com>
> Subject: RFID zapper made from a disposable camera! (Eurekalert)
>
>  [Thanks to Ken Nitz.  PGN]
>
>  Safer swiping while voting and globetrotting: Tel Aviv University security
>  expert finds security holes in America's passports and 'smart cards'
> http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/21697.php?from=158414
>
> Since 2007, every new U.S. passport has been outfitted with a computer
> chip. Embedded in the back cover of the passport, the "e-passport" contains
> biometric data, electronic fingerprints and pictures of the holder, and a
> wireless radio frequency identification (RFID) transmitter.
>
> Although the system was designed to operate at close range, hackers were
> able to access it from afar --- until research by Prof. Avishai Wool of Tel
> Aviv University's Blavatnik School of Computer Sciences helped ensure that
> the computer chip in American e-passports could be read only when the
> passport is opened. The research has been cited by organizations including
> the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
>
> Now, a new study from Prof. Wool finds serious security drawbacks in similar
> chips that are being embedded in credit, debit and "smart" cards. The
> vulnerabilities of this electronic approach -- and the vulnerability of the
> private information contained in the chips -- are becoming more acute. Using
> simple devices constructed from $20 disposable cameras and copper
> cooking-gas pipes, Prof. Wool and his students have demonstrated how easily
> the cards' radio frequency (RF) signals can be disrupted. The work will be
> presented at the IEEE RFID conference in Orlando, FL, this month.
>
> More than one way to hack a chip
>
> Prof. Wool's most recent research centers on the new "e-voting" technology
> being implemented in Israel. "We show how the Israeli government's new
> system based on the RFID chip is a very risky approach for security
> reasons. It allows hackers who are not much more than amateurs to break the
> system," Prof. Wool explains. "One way to catch hackers, criminals and
> terrorists is by thinking like one."
>
> http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/21698.php?from=158414
>
> In his lab, Prof. Wool constructed an attack mechanism ---- an RFID
> "zapper"-- from a disposable camera. Replacing the camera's bulb with an
> RFID antenna, he showed how the EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) signal produced
> by the camera could destroy the data on nearby RFID chips such as ballots,
> credit cards or passports. "In a voting system, this would be the equivalent
> of burning ballots -- but without the fire and smoke," he says.
>
> Another attack involves jamming the radio frequencies that read the
> card. Though the card's transmissions are designed to be read by antennae no
> more than two feet distant, Prof. Wool and his students demonstrated how the
> transmissions can be jammed by a battery-powered transmitter 20 yards
> away. This means that an attacker can disable an entire voting station from
> across the street. Similarly, a terror group could "jam" passport systems at
> U.S. border controls relatively easily, he suggests.
>
> The most insidious type of attack is the "relay attack." In this scenario,
> the voting station assumes it is communicating with an RFID ballot near it
> -- but it's easy for a hacker or terrorist to make equipment that can trick
> it. Such an attack can be used to transfer votes from party to party and
> nullify votes to undesired parties, Prof.  Wool demonstrates. A relay attack
> may also be used to allow a terrorist to cross a border using someone else's
> e-passport.
>
> How to make "smart cards" smarter
>
> "All the new technologies we have now seem really cool. But when anything
> like this first comes onto the market, it will be fraught with security
> holes," Prof. Wool warns. "In America the Federal government poured a lot of
> money into e-voting, only to discover later that the deployed systems were
> vulnerable. Over the last few years we've seen a trend back towards systems
> with paper trails as a result."
>
> But there are some small steps that can be taken to make smart cards
> smarter, says Prof. Wool. The easiest one is to shield the card with
> something as simple as aluminium foil to insulate the e-transmission. In the
> case of e-voting, a ballot box could be made of conductive materials. The
> State Department has already taken Prof. Wool's advice: since 2007, they've
> also added conductive fibres to the back of every American passport.



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