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Card Locks Thwarted by Shopping Club Card
hal9000(jr) writes "A recent column ('Social Engineering, the Shoppers' Way') on darkreading.com shows how easy it is for a pen test team to walk into a supposedly secure facility using a shoppers club card because the man trap feature was enabled. Man-traps allow people to enter an outer door but not an inner door similar to ATM kiosks. Once inside, of course, they had the run of the place." Lessons: after writing down your password, eat your sticky notes rather than leave them on the monitor.
Should have used caltraps instead of mantraps.
Argh.
Where I work, one of my friends was able to use his shopper's club card to get access to doors he didn't have access to, but I did. I thought the odds of that happening must be astronomical, but apparently it's more common than I thought.
TFA answers your question - most card reading entry systems have a feature which will allow any ATM card to open the door, because these systems are often used to secure ATM machines, and banks want people from other banks to be able to use their machine and pay the 2.00 service charge.
Maybe next time, instead of trying to get a first post by asking a question based solely on skimming the summary, you'll RTFA?
And what's more, the security system added frequent shopper rewards to their card! Those lucky bastards are going to save so much money on their next purchases of orange juice and cat food.
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Maybe...
1) Have a photo ID badge that is the only card that can be swiped to get in to the location
2) Install fingerprint readers and cameras for employees to gain entry
3) Lock all doors/locations not in use, & again use ID Badges and fingerprint readers to gain entry
4) Have have all passwords on keychains updated every few minutes
5) And finally, have all employees meet regularly so they know each other by name and by face
Just a thought.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
A man-trap, in the physical security world, is a "room" (loosely defined here) which has control points on both sides. Often you have to use two different forms of authorization, one for entry (i.e. a badge) and another for exit (biometrics, let's say). This allows it to *trap* anyone who tries to sneak through the system. What the article is really talking about is not a man-trap, but the anti-"bum" measures that banks use in many cities around ATMs inside a building. You have to put your ATM card into a slot, but it really doesn't read the card, it just verifies that you stuck a magstrip card into the slot. You then use your ATM card to access the ATM where it is presumably verified.
Setting anything in this method is absurd, and the physical security people should be fired on the spot for this kind of kindergarten mistake. While what likely happened is that it was turned this way when installed so that you could teach people to use it without having to deal with the slowdown of people actually being blocked, it's a bad way to behave, and shouldn't have been even turned on the first time this way. It may also be that, in fact, it was turned this way because of a problem with reliability of magstripe cards (they fail pretty regularly), and instead the system should have been converted to another form of identification -- Wiegand, RF proxy, etc.
Man trap is a bit confusing.
They are likely refering to a single person entry door.
The problem I see is this may not suffice for disabled access.
At first I thought man-trap would be they lock you in if anything goes wrong, the problem here would be a potentially devestating liability if there is any injury.
Think about the lawsuit if someone got injured or killed (or mildly annoyed) if they were physically detained by an automated system.
The wikipedia article indicates this issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-trap
My wife used to regularly get into my work buildings to meet me for lunch. You just need to carry a baby in a baby carrier and everyone will let you in.
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I work in a secured building - it's a federally protected building right above a train hub and across from the sears tower. Anyway - security is similar to what was described - barely flashing anything that resembles a photo ID card with a splash of red on it is sufficient to get in. I keep fighting the urge to do it, but what I really want to do is just draw a half assed I.D. card with crayon and construction paper and see if it gets me through.
www.wildpad.com
I wonder how many companies screen the janitorial staff? Not only do they typically have full access to the building, but they are there after hours and can easily rummage around looking for usernames, passwords, and machines that are still logged in with administrator privledges. Heck they could bring a laptop in and connect directly to the internal network for that matter.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
they could just use the transporter and beam into any secure area, all they need are the coordinates and blammo, they're in.
But, you forgot, after you beam down there could be an extremely attractive woman just waiting to suck all the salt out of you!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
What's most amazing about the story is not that they got "made" second time round but that the woman who did so had left the building, started her car and began to drive away. She remembered what had happened, turned round and came back to shop the two pentesters.
That this happened in this fashion 6 months after the initial (and hugely embarassing) successful penetration reflects both the company's response and the quality of the security awareness training delivered to employees.
How many people, hand on heart, once they're out of the office, would turn round and come back for such a scenario?
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
Pretty much any type of tools. ESPECIALLY telephone buttsets. My dad worked for a phone company for a long time, and if he had a telephone buttset, nobody every questioned his credentials, or took a second thought about letting him into anywhere in a building. Locked door? Just ask someone to open it for you!
Clipboard. If you got a clip board, people are AFRAID to question you. A coworker of mine visited a major plant once, and the employees mistook him for a CEO or something like that because he had a clipboard.
Suit and tie. People will assume you're a rep of a visiting company and will give you directions.
The best locks in the world won't do any good if someone trusted opens it for an attacker.
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
OK here an example from a recent pen test .
Someone setup a test SQL server in the lab with access to the production netowork.
Since it's "just a lab box" the SA password was left blank.
at some point a domain admin logged into this box.
The security team accessed the box with the local SA account.
They got the LSASS password cache.
With that they got the Domain Admin account.
They used that to acccess a DC, got the SAM and used Rainbow crack with a 10gig pre compiled hash DB to get 30 out of 35 domain admin accounts.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
Most security people are minimum wage. I see people talking about flashing cards and cans of food, etc. This is not a surprise.
I once entered the R&D area of a fortune 500 company using an ID that was printed on an ink jet printer and had my picture and the CIA logo on it. I was questioned and just flashed the card. That ended all questions.
When I was managing a computer company, I came back from lunch to find the lead chatting with a guy. The guy introduced him self as the fire marshal and the lead informed me that there was a Fire Inspection going on. The "Fire Marshal" told me I could not go into the back while the inspection was going on. I proceeded to enter the back to find the "Inspector" inspecting the computer equipment. Right out the back door!
The truth is that most people will not question you, provided you look like you belong and have some form of ID to back it up.
Now it is time to go to the uniform store and get a security guard uniform. I think ill stand next to the night deposit box at the bank. Just to see how many people will give me there deposits when I tell them that the deposit box it broken and I am there to collect and secure there deposit.
maybe it was an upper manager who was in a hurry and didn't want to get out his ID card
Yes, it's not the situation in the article, but you bring up a very valid point:
Security Is For Everyone
You absolutely should call security on upper management, though you might want to do it from someone else's phone. Management, not matter what level, must respect the security measures, no matter how high they are. The CEO should have his ID card at the ready if he's in a secure facility. *hrupph*
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Buy your tickets online, using TicketMaster's instant delivery mechanism. They email you a PDF that serves as the ticket.
Scan it in, bring it into photoshop, and edit the seat location. For that matter, use scissors and tape and a copier to modify your seat location. Make sure you make it a front row seat!
Then when you go to the concert, use the original to get in the door. Use your edited version to wander the floor. Obviously you probably won't have a seat, but you'll be able to get pretty darn close. All because they only scan the ticket at the door. They visually inspect the ticket to see if you are special enough to get up close.
* Seriously, I would never suggest that you break the law. This idea is purely for entertainment and discussion purposes. Kids, don't try this at home!