Hacker Breaks ATMs Using Only a Handy Cellphone

ATM hacking is nothing fresh . Like any man - design scheme , they ’re confine to contain a defect or two , or just flush it with time against faster , better technologies . Unlike most hardware , though , ATMs seem to occupy a special place in the resource of people who derive sick pleasure from watching supposedly impregnable devices get splayed widely open like a roast duck’s egg . In the terminal , who among us could really reject the amazing power to make cold-blooded , hard cash simply appear out of nowhere ?

Alas , most ATM political hack of the yesteryear have required an assailant to gain ground physical admission to a USB embrasure ; an act far too blazing in day , as it unremarkably demand mangling some part of the machine . This is genuine even if the finish is not to slip any actual money within , but rather “ skimming ” the payment card details of succeeding law - stand customer . Even the morerarely performednetwork - based attacks , while remote , are seemingly dominant with risk . Hacking into a banking company now , and then somehow finding a manner into a special ATM would , after all , expect a more expansive skillset — not to mention a indigence to go undetected within a highly guard environment .

grant to Wired , however , at least one researcher has found a way to avoid most of this trouble , absorb cash from ATMs like magic with a elementary movie of his radiocarpal joint . The wall socket reported Thursday that Josep Rodriguez , a research worker and adviser at security house IOActive , has build up a collection of bugs affecting NFC systems — a.k.a . nigh - playing field communication — which many mod machines trust on to wirelessly transport data , include debit and credit card information .

Photo: Chris McGrath (Getty Images)

Rodriguez , who ’s hired to de jure test machines to improve their security department , has been able to use NFC reader to trip what programmers call a “ buffer storage overflow , ” or surfeit of data that cloud a car ’s memory . This tenner - old attack has allow Rodriguez to work ATMs and other distributor point - of - sale political machine — believe retail store checkout motorcar — in a variety of way : capturing payment card info , injecting malware , and even in one case “ jackpotting ” an ATM , which is incisively what it sound like :

“ Rodriguez has built an Android app that allows his smartphone to mime those quotation card radio communications and exploit flaws in the NFC systems ’ firmware . With a undulation of his phone , he can exploit a variety of bugs to crash point in time - of - sales agreement machine , whoop them to gather and transmit quotation card information , invisibly change the value of proceedings , and even lock the devices while exhibit a ransomware message . ”

concord to Wired , Rodriguez has kept his findings under wraps for around a twelvemonth and is otherwise de jure bound not to give away the individuality of certain ship’s company he ’s worked for . Nevertheless , being bothered that a decades - old proficiency is still affecting a host of modern motorcar , he designate to disclosure more technological detail in the coming workweek in an effort to call attention to , as Wired puts it , “ the unfathomable land of embedded machine security measure more broadly . ”

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