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Virus Jumps to RFID
MrShaggy writes "According to a BBC article, researchers have been able to make the jump between RFID tags and viruses. They found that the mere act of scanning a mere 127 bytes could cause an attack vector that would corrupt databases. From the article;'"This is intended as a wake-up call," said Andrew Tanenbaum, one of the researchers in the computer science department at Amsterdam's Free University that did the work revealing the weaknesses on smart tags.
"We ask the RFID industry to design systems that are secure," he said.'"
Hang on a minute, in this case the tag is not the problem.
It is the software running on the host machine which does not validate the data coming from the tag that has major issues.
If I can corrupt a database by entering an invalid lookup code then theres something severely fucked up.
My bet is its something like the sql injection attacks we see on the web, and you don't see people blaming the input box in those cases.
quote from the article:
In some cases, said the researchers, viruses could be spread by household pets such as cats and dogs that are injected with the tags to help identify their owner.
The pets aren't going to be spreading this "virus" themselves its not sexually transmitted, it cannot be passed by rubbing up against your leg. It will be the vets computer which gets infected because of crappy validation.
MEOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Charlie says: always validate your external inputs before doing any data processing.
Smart tags, dumb research.
(and thats coming from someone who doesn't like RFID)
liqbase
They could have been sued for violation of the DMCA. We don't want any weaknesses exposed by researchers in the early stages... we'd rather have them exposed maliciously after its too late!
http://religiousfreaks.com/that if you blindly accept user input without any sanity checking, bad things mad happen.
They found that the mere act of scanning a mere 127 bytes ...
That's merely amazing!
The University is called the "Vrije Universiteit" or VU for short ( http://www.english.vu.nl/home/index.cfm/ ). Which is not "Free as in Beer". It also didn't stand for Free as in: open for everyone. That didn't come along until the 1960's.
http://virtualize.wordpress.com/
I am glad that the viruses have started coming out for RFID devices before they started implanting them in my head. But it doesn't suprise me that people were able to find a way to create a virus for them. Hopefully it will cause those who are thinking about using RFID in everything (implanting in people, using as gun safety devices etc...)to reconsider before doing a wide distribution.
I, for one, would rather not have electronics malfunctioning in my body. Sometimes I have a hard enough time just keeping my body functioning. Who knows, before too long we may need to staff doctors and engineers in hospitals.
It is the software running on the host machine which does not validate the data coming from the tag that has major issues.
Absolutely. This is just like the Windows JPEG "virus" that was due to buggy JPEG parsing. Describing RFIDs as an attack vector is appropriate, but inert data can not be a virus. You typically don't execute images or identification information. Perhaps there needs to be some catchy name for this type of attack, but really it's just a new example of the common overflow bug.
2 words - Input Validation
This article can be summed up in the following sentance:
OH NO! Anyone can put ANYTHING on a tag that might be read by database software! Horrors!
C'mon people, this is basic data security 101 - never trust inputs without validation. This isn't a problem with insecure tags, it's a problem with import software/database code.
I can see premade RFID tags containing SQL code being sold on eBay. Lower your grocery store prices, evade background checks, travel anonymously, use VIP entrances, ignore 'Authorized Personnel' signs! This is total FUD. The database equivalent of believing everything you hear. If there is no authenticating, then it's no surprise that there could be malicious hacking. The real story is that if it is possible to have a single binary check system, someone could change their Zero value to a One to defeat it.
Noooooooooooooooooo!!!
7h3$3 4r3n'7 7h3 Ðr01Ð$ ¥0 4r3 £00|{1n9 f0r. M0v3 4£0n9. --OB1
So a specially-crafted RFID tag could cause code to execute on a vulnerable RFID reader. That's not a virus. But if this code causes the RFID reader to begin writing copies of the bad data to tags, then we have a virus.
But read-only RFID tags and RFID readers are much cheaper than the writable kind, so this is not very practical. And RFID tags typically can't hold bit strings which are long enough to contain useful software. So, again, this is a bit silly.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
when something breaks that was,like DRM, invented by Hitler.
From the article:
In some cases, said the researchers, viruses could be spread by household pets such as cats and dogs that are injected with the tags to help identify their owner.
Whats are those key words for out at a glance viewers:
Virus? Spread? Owner? Pet?
Someone has forgot what they are talking about while trying to spread FUD with the pet angle.
This is a good example of how people will sometimes trust data that isn't trustworthy at all.
I'd be willing to bet that someone with enough cleverness and free time could come up with a 'credit card virus' that could compromise specific vulnerable payment systems/credit card processing devices when swiped. For all we know, there may already be such exploits out there now. At least in the case of credit card processing, it's financial code so hopefully there are some stringent security processes along with multiple layers of verification, but still - pretty scary to think about.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
Way to keep upto data SlashDot.... this same exact problem was reported like over 6 months ago....
well these people weren't the first to do this, nor will they be the last. I first read about this on the 15th of March, and the malware itself has been publically available since then... it's all in the register article, here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/15/rfid_tags_ infected_by_virus/
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Brockman: Big game fever is reaching a fever pitch as the
fevered rivalry between Springfield U. and
Springfield A&M spreads like wildfever. [looks
offstage] This is writing?
Intern: I'm sorry Uncle Kent; I lost my thesaurus.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
If you merely store and read data - ANY DATA - and do not interpret it, it cannot carry a virus.
The minute you start interpreting data you have to treat it as potentially hostile. This goes for computers AND people. There's not much difference between a "hostile" data-set that the attacker knows will be interpreted as SQL code that he can use to corrupt an automated-supply-ordering system, a hostile data set that the attacker knows will be interpreted as a false we-are-low-on-inventory-order-more or we-have-enough-inventory-don't-order-more tag by a an automated-ordering system, and a hostile data set that the attacker knows will cause a human being to falsely think inventory is low or high and act accordingly.
BTW, the latter is easy enough to do: replace RFID tags that say "quantity 1 unit" with "quantity 1 pallet of 200 units" or vice-versa and hope no input-validating-computer or -person notices.
To borrow a phrase, "Garbage in, garbage out."
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
As much as I distrust RFIDs, and as much as I detest the way they are being used, this is a problem of the backend, not the RFID itself. It's an ancient problem of databases with data injection that has been used for years now, on the internet, to inject data into online databases or to mess with them generally.
It's not really new news either. I think I remember that report from about a year ago when RFIDs in our passports became an issue and Tanenbaum raised those concerns. So is this something new or do the old news get repeated for a lack of anything new?
Must be summer, all the politicians are on holiday...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This was reported as "the first RFID virus" (though it was really just a proof of concept) months ago... I read it on Slashdot : P Note the date at the top of the page referenced above: Last Updated: Wednesday, 15 March 2006, 18:02 GMT And the FUD starts all over again : )
noobcake or noobmuffin? It is the same price...
The makers of these systems design, advertise and sell these products as a complete solution.
When they are talking about RFID they are not talking about the chip itself, but the whole system: tags, readers, back end software complete.
I admit that the issue is not with the tag, but it is with the solution that is called RFID.
vajk
Just imagine what they could do with a mere half a megabyte.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
They don't carry firearms
Beware of any tags that contain the string "Execute Order 66"
I think the point of the research is that many RFID tags are read by closed or theortically isolated systems like inventory control devices and pet identity scanners that probably have not been examined for the kinds of vulnerabilities that we (theoretically) look for Internet accessible servers.
While we have a mediocre system for updating Internet-based applications in the face of vulnerabilties, the prospect of updating piles of non-Internet accessible devices is indeed an issue.
There is a PDF and also a complete discussion at http://www.rfidvirus.org/virus.html, breifly outlining "Replication Using Self-Referential Queries" and "Replication Using Quines".
For example,
Database systems usually offer a way to obtain the currently running queries for system administration purposes. However, these functions return queries as an normal string, which makes it possible to store them in the database, thereby replicating the query.
We have developed two versions of the virus, one that is contained in a single query, and one the requires multiple queries. The virus using a single query requires less features from the database, but cannot carry SQL code as a payload. The virus using multiple queries requires a database that supports this, but it does allow SQL code as a payload.
Details on the virus using self-referential queries can be found athttp://www.rfidvirus.org/exploits/sql_self/index .html
davecb@spamcop.net
It's not applicable to the RFID scenario, but some on some systems, very dangerous software can be packed in a very small amount of space.
Imagine a machine that had the following library routines:
Routine #1: Alert user to input a blank CD and copy x bytes of data from Y location, perhaps a location on the internet, to the CD
Routine #2: Erase the hard disk
Routine #3: Reboot the system from the CD
With only 3 function calls - probably well under 127 bytes of code, I can cause the machine to reboot and load the arbitrary data I just wrote to the CD.
A more real-world example is a bootloader: The first stage of a bootloader is a very useful, some would say essential, program, and it typically runs in 512 bytes.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
It's possible that they put a virus on an RFID tag. You can also put a virus in a newspaper or transmit it by reading out a bunch of numbers. But that doesn't mean it will be received in a form that makes it do anything. Presumably, they've found a bug in some RFID-processing software similar to the bugs in lots of data-processing software. Of course, RFID systems are more likely to be completely immune to this sort of input-validation issue, because they're often designed to be full-packet binary database keys, and there is no invalid input that the reader can produce (sort of like how US postal bar codes always read as 11-digit numbers, and, while some of those numbers aren't used, they're always either a real place or no place, not something that breaks the system.
The real security issue is that it's trivial to clone an RFID tag. Using it for identification is like using a piece of paper that can be photocopied, except that the attacker doesn't have to swipe the paper to copy it. But if people only think about the non-fundamental and insignificant flaws with RFID, they can be distracted from the fact that it's entirely inappropriate in the first place.
Tell that to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menez es
Sweet!
I really want to know, though, where can I get just such a "viral" RFID tag to stick to the inside cover of my passport?
I just need to wrap the real passport in a modified tinfoil beanie, put the fake one on the outside of the beanie, and laugh heartily as people scan me and then go white in horror at the realization of what they just did to themselves. Bwa-hahahah!
/ only half kidding - I'd do this in a heartbeat if I had the hardware to program my own tags.
When can we expect the same story but using a barcode reader as inputdevice for the database ?
Considering Andy Tannenbaum is involved, I imagine they would probably port Minix to it.
I've heard about this research about a year ago or something, and I can still draw the same simple conclusion:
RFID is read-only, a read-only virus can't spread, so it isn't a virus!
Unless you write a really really bad RFID-chip reader which can buffer-overflow and write in memory a simple RFID chip can't do any harm. So its also pretty safe to use...
Don't go thinking about infecting your local supermarket with a new RFID-virus, it'll never happen.
But while we're on it, have you guys heard about HP's Memory Spots? Its a new kind of wireless chip. The connection is much faster then RFID and the memory size is bigger. The biggest gain is in the size, 2 mm to 4 mm square with a build in antenna!
My blog: http://www.redcode.nl
This story is from March. It was covered on /. back then too.
2 4233
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/15/13
First off this is basically a dupe of http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/15/132 4233. It was innacurate when it was first reported and it's innacurate now.
Here is my reply from the original post and it applies here:
"There are a variety of standards on how RFID tags are encoded, all of which break down into partitioning the tag's data into segments to form the unique identifier
For the sake of argument I'll use EPC SGTIN96. In the SGTIN tag has four partitions: Filter, Company Prefix, Item Reference, and Serial Number. Each of these fields is of varying size depending on how big tag is. Typically RFID tags are 96 bits (although some tags can get up to 1Kbit), even using 7 bit ascii there's not a whole lot you can fit in 96 bits. When I poll the reader, or the middleware I'm getting back a number, e.g. 12345 and it's my responsibility to parse through that number to get the fields I'm interested in. In this scenario I would have to be doing some *very* sloppy programming to open myself to an SQL injection attack (something along the lines of treating known numeric data as a string).
ISO and EPC Gen 2 tags do support custom data, which I suppose could be used to store strings but since it is severely space constrained (typically in the range of 2-32 bytes) I question the viability of such an attack. Not to mention that the field will likely be used to writing in ids instead of human readable data. Finally, it is common to encrypt the custom payload on an rfid tag. So even if somebody were to change it to "AND 1 = 1" it would be caught when the program tries to decrypt the tag."
An RFID tag contains just a number; newer RFID tags have support for custom payload but 99% of RFID tags are so space constrained that nobody would put raw strings in the tag. I spent a good chunk of last year devleloping RFID applications and not once did I do a straight lookup on the database from data I pulled from the RFID tag. So while I guess this classifies as a vulnerability somebody who does straight database lookups using RFID tag data will bring down the company long before an RFID tag exploit will.
Oh, a lesson in history from Mr. I'm my own grandpa.
Nobody expects the SQL injection attack!
I just wanted to point out that the "Computer Science professor" mentioned in the /. blurb is "The" Andrew S. Tannenbaum, inventor of minix, and author of several textbooks used in Computer Science programs nationwide.
Personally, I would not have posted that article without attaching these links. Tannenbaum is a key player in modern computer science research and education.
Check out his homepage
and his Wiki biography.
I'm a software developer and I couldn't agree with you and grandparent (and probably 99% of the other people who reply) any more. If I wrote a program with such a fault (which I wouldn't) I most definitely wouldn't be calling it a virus. Something like this no different than a program crashes when it gets unexpected input etc.
Unless I missed something obvious (happens), I don't think this is a serious issue...
2 8359
:)
1) Most malicious SQL statements (i.e ";DELETE FROM USERS;") require more than 64-96 bits, the current standard for RFID tags.
2) Any RFID software system that is compliant with EPCglobal's Tag Data Specification (http://www.epcglobalinc.org) is inherently "immune" to this issue. The TDS spec defines several tag formats for use in software systems that require the tag's binary data to be in hexadecimal or decimal format and futhermore treated as a URI. e.g. urn:epc:raw:64.1234567890. Simply encoding a tag with ";DELETE FROM USERS;" will not cause any damage in an EPCglobal-compliant RFID system because the binary data read from the tag is never used in ASCII format, just decimal and hex.
3) Futhermore, the TDS specifies exactly which bits are to be used for various 'fields' such as 'company', 'item', 'serial number' etc. Most RFID systems perform operations on each field seperately, so any SQL statement would be broken up; ";DELETE FROM USERS;" could become something like ";DELE"."TE FROM"." USERS;". Again this doesn't matter so much because the data is never used in ASCII format, only Hex/Decimal.
In English....
ASCII: ";DELETE FROM USERS;"
Binary: 001110110100010001000101010011000100010101010
100010001010010000001000110010100100100111101
001101001000000101010101010011010001010101001
00101001100111011 (153bits, impossible to fit on Gen1 tags!)
Decimal: 59686976698469327082797732858369828359
URI: urn:epc:raw:153.596869766984693270827977328583698
As you can see, the URI form of the tag is pretty harmless.
That's the same news item, aye. Note that the BBC item linked in today's Slashdot story is itself also from 2006-03-15.
While we appreciate the information, recycling a story every four months is rather counter-productive. The BBC article was dated 15 March 2006 on the same day that the paper was delivered at the Fourth Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom) in Pisa, IT. The AIM Global RFID Experts Group (REG) were meeting at the same time in Kyoto that the paper was presented. We respectfully request that Slashdot readers take the opportunity to read our response and proceed with any other questions that you might have on this technology. Our response is posted at http://www.autoid.org/RFID_Experts/rfid_experts.ht m
Warmest regards!
Craig K. Harmon
Chairman, RFID Experts Group (REG)
craig.harmon@qed.org
craigkharmon
I can imagine a situation in LAX or any other large airport, if possible all over the world at the same time:
Sorry, I do not care if you say who you are. The computer who checks the RFID in your passport is telling me to put you under arrest and transport you to Guantanamo. Yes, I know that the same happend to anybody with a passport that has an RFID.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I thought the RFID tags WERE the virus!
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
That's what I thought.
And since most systems which READ Barcodes also PRINT barcodes at some point You could even spread it on paper that way. ;-)
As pointed by other posters, you need validation of tag data before the data reach the database. I have some experience in the field, but I never saw tags with so much memory. The largest I've seen is 128 bits (not bytes).
The Java application I work on uses prepared statements, and according to the Java specs, input data are checked for invalid SQL...therefore code injection is not possible.
I assume other frameworks will offer similar techniques.
This is not a technical issue but I found it humorous. A known flaw like this and consumer groups are mentioned as a threat to take advantage of it? Surely they can come up with a better first suspect than that. Bored /.s for starters. :)
Like get free EZ-TAG!!!
Of course, one problem is that it looks like most programmers never took Data Security 101.
This isn't a problem with RFID tags, per se, of course. But it does bring up an interesting point: Even if some big company intends to be completely nice about their RFID tag usage (and that is far from a given), some bad guy might be able to subvert the system to do bad things. The more data big companies have on you, the worse those bad things might be.
This is all pure speculation, of course, but history is full of examples where good ideas backfired when abused.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Does anyone remember the whole deal w/ the gas rfid chips. They were cracked by some researchers. With some equipment in their backback, they could essentially buy gas with someone elses identity. RFID TAGS ARE SIMPLY NOT SECURE ENOUGH TO STORE ANY AMOUNT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION.
And I hate the way my keyboard handles my drunk posts. It like, does no validation whatsoever. Damned keyboard.
I wish they would build a more secure keyboard.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
at work i crashed a portable barcode scanner/printer accidentally by missing what was in my hand and scanning a code printed on the side of a cardboard case.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Yes, one of the advantages of a microkernel is that you can do things like run Minix on an RFID tag -- for educational purposes only, of course... But with a macrokernel such as embedded Linux you can network your RFID tags and create a supercomputer that calculates your inventory for you! Don't even try running Windows CE on these things. You think you have viruses now?
FTFA: The researchers showed how to get round the limited computational abilities of the smart tags to use them as an attack vector and corrupt databases holding information about what a company has in storage.
Whoever wrote the RFID reading code needs to be shot. Or at least fired and sent back to college.
"Oh yeah, we have an externally read binary string here, let's rely on its structure and assume it is always what we expect." Sweet.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
The Amsterdam Compiler Kit was originally known as the Free University Compiler Kit (or VUCK, since V stands for Free in Dutch). RMS wrote:
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
This was originally posted in march, I think, but it is legit, even though the Rfid industry pushed a large disinformation campaign about it then. The problem is the people using the technology, namely walmart here in america are using it to automate the data collection methodology and reduce reliance on humans to do the collecting of data on product moving off the shelf with the hand held bar code readers, its this automation that allows this vector to propogate, because the human is out of the loop. It's not really good for a hack into the main frame, but its a good way for the disgruntled exemployee to walk in with a corrupted rfid in his/her pocket and spoil the database. However, if 1000 people walked into a walmart each with an rfid chip in thier pocket, this could get really ugly at the next stockholders meeting in Bentonville. While not a total ball buster, it is a nusiance attack that can cost hundreds if not thousands to correct individually.
As discussed, the software shouldn't be vulnerable to such attacks. But it's not FUD either.
The tags shouldn't be able to be overwritten without the change being detected as corrupt data. In other words, strong encryption. This is available, but more expensive, so customers are being marketed cheaper insecure solutions without becoming aware of the risks they are incurring.
If the patient ID tag in your hospital bracelet can be modified to show you as a different patient (say one needing a leg amputated for gangrene), that isn't just the scanning software that's a problem.
We are the 198 proof..
Doesn't do any good if your boss doesn't want you to spend the extra time coding the data validation code in order to get the job done now to keep expenses down. As we all know, time *is* money. (as is paying labor/brainpower/both)
So much for an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
If you truly care about 'secure code', do what this guy does.
Below text is from a
My only complaint is that the text below should be on a normal HTML web page as it should be required reading to all programmers everywere. The simple technique described below will make software secure at a fundamental level and make it all but impossible to exploit....