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Hackers Clone Elvis' Passport

Barence writes "Hackers have released source code that allows the 'backup' of RFID-protected passports, although the tool can potentially be used to create fake or cloned documents. The Hacker's Choice, a non-commercial group of computer security experts, has released a video showing a cloned passport being approved by a security scanner at a Dutch airport. When the reader scans the passport, it is revealed to belong to one Elvis Aaron Presley, complete with picture. Reports of the hackers serenading security staff with 'Are You Clonesome Tonight' are unconfirmed."

32 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory by Gandalf_Greyhame · · Score: 5, Funny

    Elvis has left the building

    --
    I am not stubborn. I am right!
    1. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      On a day when we are going to be giving hundreds of billions to dodgy bankers, on a day when suicide bombs have returned to Baghdad, on a day when the most influential vice-presidential nominees for a lifetime will go toe-to-toe, surely there is more important news for /. to report!

    2. Re:Obligatory by BlueStrat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Elvis has left the building

      Elvis has left the building

      And the other Elvis has left the building

      There, fixed that for you.

      Cheers!

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    3. Re:Obligatory by tinkertim · · Score: 4, Funny

      Elvis has left the building

      Elvis has left the building

      And the other Elvis has left the building

      There, fixed that for you.

      Cheers!

      Strat

      Well, sort of .. but where do I find MAX_ELVIS ?

    4. Re:Obligatory by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 5, Funny

      There, fixed that for you.

      Thank you, Thank you very much.

      Elvis

    5. Re:Obligatory by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, sort of .. but where do I find MAX_ELVIS ?

      #include <rock-n-roll.h>

    6. Re:Obligatory by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ever since that cracker got me
      I found a new place to dwell.
      It's down at the end of cloned street
      At pwned hotel.

      (chorus)
      You make me so cloned baby,
      I get so cloned,
      I get so cloned I could die (again and again).

      And although its always crowded,
      You still can find some room.
      Where broken hearted users
      Do cry away their gloom.

      (chorus)

      Well, the spammer's mail keeps flowin,
      And the desk clerks dressed in black.
      Well they been so long on cloned street
      They ain't ever gonna look back.

      (chorus)

      Hey now, if a cracker gets you,
      And you got a tale to tell,
      just take a walk down cloned street
      To pwned hotel.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    7. Re:Obligatory by theeddie55 · · Score: 3, Informative

      if slashdot reported everything that was "at some level" technology news, it would just be a news site.

    8. Re:Obligatory by RemoWilliams84 · · Score: 5, Funny

      That would be the greatest rick roll ever. Have them scan your passport and it come back with Rick Astley's picture followed by you singing never gonna give you up at the top of your lungs. I'm beginning to see a whole reality show here.

      --
      "I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
  2. I can fix that for you... by codefrog · · Score: 5, Funny

    That little problem goes right away... just add "Elvis Aaron Presley" to the no-fly list.
    We is all secured again, and permanently this time!

    1. Re:I can fix that for you... by RuBLed · · Score: 5, Funny

      Elvis will be so pissed when he returns in 2012.

    2. Re:I can fix that for you... by davester666 · · Score: 5, Funny

      He's coming back for the Olympics? So, he's just be away all this time getting back in shape?

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    3. Re:I can fix that for you... by EasyTarget · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hello,

      You have used our copyrighted phrase '2012', thereby destroying the branding of the British Olympics. You owe us 12Bn poonds.
      We look forward to recieving your remittance by return.
      - IOC IP enforcement department.

      --
      "Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
    4. Re:I can fix that for you... by Sebilrazen · · Score: 3, Informative

      How the hell did this get modded "interesting"?? Is there some widely accepted theory about Elvis returning in 2012 I've missed?

      Who the hell gets mod points nowadays?

      Probably related to the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar, which was really accurate for 5,125 years, but it all of a sudden ends on the Winter Solstice in 2012, nobody knows what's going to happen.

      I like to think of it as Peter Venkman said, "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!" Elvis caused mass hysteria, ergo Elvis comes back.

      --
      "There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
    5. Re:I can fix that for you... by seededfury · · Score: 4, Informative

      "nobody knows what's going to happen."

      yes we do. Life goes in earth's new cycle of 26,000 years...

      Prophecy is bullshit stemming from a religious mind.
      from http://www.crawford2000.co.uk/maya.htm
      "Over a year's time the Sun transits through the twelve houses of the zodiac. Many of us know this by what "Sun sign" is associated with our birthday. Upping the scale to the Platonic Year - the 26,000 year long cycle - we are shifting, astrologically, from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. The Mayan calendar does not really "end" in 2012, but rather, all the cycles turn over and start again, vibrating to a new era. It is as if humanity and the Earth will graduate in the eyes of the Father Sun and Grandmother Milky Way. "


      For as long as I have been alive, doom and the end have always been so close but unfortunately it's always a lie.

  3. Be careful... by Anton+Styles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Personally, I'd be rather careful when it comes to ID fraud... Don't want to end up doing the Jailhouse Rock

    --
    "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
    1. Re:Be careful... by Patrick+Georgi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      At least in Germany, ID cards are considered to be federal property, so changing data on it could be considered malicious mischief.

    2. Re:Be careful... by Incadenza · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In the Netherlands passports are state property to. If your passport gets lost, you have to pay for a replacement (obviously) *plus* you get fined for losing government property!

    3. Re:Be careful... by EasyTarget · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Unfortunately the current mob in (sort of ) charge here are right up the illiberal-fuck brigade's arse.

      When it was recently demonstrated that the new national travelcard is broken (Mifare) the response was a typical mixture of outrage, damming everybody as criminal, and refusing to accept that people with science degrees are a darn sight smarter than the bunch of PR/MBA wankers who fell for the Mifare sales spin.

      --
      "Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
    4. Re:Be careful... by Thiez · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The card they use in the video doesn't appear to be a real passport, only the chip (that may or may not have been removed from a password). Even if what they did is illegal, I would be extremely suprised if anyone involved were to end up in prison, although they may be fined, especially if they got the chip out of a real passport (like you suggested).

  4. Osama Bin Laden by Krneki · · Score: 5, Funny

    I dare anyone to fake the ID of Osama Bin Laden and try to get to the US.

    --
    Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
    1. Re:Osama Bin Laden by plasmacutter · · Score: 5, Funny

      I would suggest a very fat white guy in a flannel shirt : )

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    2. Re:Osama Bin Laden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is slashdot. That doesnt really narrow it down now does it? :P

    3. Re:Osama Bin Laden by MadMidnightBomber · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's OK - they already assume everyone who isn't white is Osama Bin Laden.

      --
      "It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
  5. Before passing through security by BackwardHatClub · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please remove your blue suede shoes.

  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Bad title by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can't clone Elvis' passport; They didn't have access to the original.

    They created a passport with fake details which matched the identity of another person. Nothing was cloned. I bet it wasn't even his passport picture, but a stock photo from the web.

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    1. Re:Bad title by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Which, from the face of it, makes the feat even more impressive. Cloning means "simply" reading the data from one passport, and copying it onto another. It is not necessary to decrypt this data, as long as the chip is tricked into releasing it.

      Instead, they created a completely new data set, put this on the chip, and programmed the chip so it correctly answers to the challenge posed by the reader.

      Now the idea of having the data encrypted in the passport chip may be wishful thinking of course... I would expect it is encrypted, if not then it's of course one step less for these hackers. At the very least I would expect some cryptographic checksum, based on some secret key or so, to verify that the passport (i.e. the data on the chip) has been government issued.

      No matter what, a neat hack, and scary that it is possible in the first place.

  8. Never let a computer do a job that can be done by by HungryHobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Never let a computer do a job that can be done by a human."
    I just can't agree with this.
    People can be fooled easily enough and the more that's automated properly the better. A human(well thousands of them) *could* do all the interest calculations at your bank but it would be stupid to do it that way.

    There are loads of jobs out there which are better done by machines.

  9. Re:That's not a security console... by Ren+Hoak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It does not prove that security in those things is broken.
    Ok, so by your words, being able to create a document that contains blatantly false information, and successfully using that document to bypass security doesn't prove that "security in those things is broken". What, pray tell, would be required beyond this to demonstrate that security is broken? Because, you see, in my simple view of things, if you are "Bob" and security is on the lookout for "Bob", and you show them a modified password claiming that you're "Neil", and security lets you through because as far as they can tell you aren't "Bob", security has been compromised. When security is based on human inspection of said passport, clearly it's subject to human error. When security is electronically based, such as the case with RFID, all but the most basic of human interaction should be removed from the "is this a real passport?" equation.

  10. Hahahahahaha by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

    Of course we already knew, when U.S. passport encryption was broken in all of 2 hours, that this was inevitable.

    And the government did it all in the name of more "security".

    But as we know, it is actually less freedom, and LESS security. This is just more proof.

  11. Obvious Fake by jea6 · · Score: 3, Informative

    For conspiracy theorists: Elvis' middle name was Aron, not Aaron, right?

    Wikipedia says "Presley's genuine birth certificate reads "Elvis Aaron Presley" (as written by a doctor). There is also a souvenir birth certificate that reads "Elvis Aron Presley." When Presley did sign his middle name, he used Aron. It reads 'Aron' on his marriage certificate and on his army duffel bag. Aron was apparently the spelling the Presleys used to make it similar to the middle name of Elvis' stillborn twin, Jesse Garon. Elvis later sought to change the name's spelling to the traditional and biblical Aaron. In the process he learned that "official state records had always listed it as Aaron. Therefore, he always was, officially, Elvis Aaron Presley." Knowing Presley's plans for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Elvis' tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as the official spelling whenever the middle name is used today. His death certificate says "Elvis Aron Presley." This quirk has helped inflame the "Elvis is not dead" conspiracy theories."

    --

    sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.