Fergie's Tech Blog

Drive-By 'War Cloning' Attack Hacks Electronic Passports, Driver's Licenses

Kelly Jackson-Higgins writes on Dark Reading:

With a $250 used RFID scanner he purchased on eBay and a low-profile antenna tucked away in his car, a security researcher recently cruised the streets along Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, where he captured -- and cloned -- a half-dozen electronic passports within an hour.

Chris Paget, who will demonstrate the privacy risks with these IDs at the Shmoocon hacker confab later this week in Washington, D.C., coined this newest RFID attack "war cloning" given its similarity to war-driving, or wireless sniffing. "War cloning -- it's the new hacker sport," he says.

The security weaknesses of the EPC Gen 2 RFID tags, which lack encryption and true authentication, have been well-known and of concern to privacy advocates for some time. These tags are being used in the new wallet-sized passport cards that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offers under the new Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative for travel to and from Western Hemisphere countries. The e-cards are aimed at simplifying and speeding up the border-crossing process, providing U.S. Customs and border agents with information on the individual as he or she queues up to inspection booths at the border.

posted by Fergie @ 2/02/2009 09:09:00 PM