NFC flaws let researchers hack an ATM by waving a telephone

Enlarge (credit score: Chalongrat Chuvaree | Getty Photographs)

For years, safety researchers and cybercriminals have hacked ATMs through the use of all doable avenues to their innards, from opening a entrance panel and sticking a thumb drive right into a USB port to drilling a gap that exposes inside wiring. Now, one researcher has discovered a set of bugs that enable him to hack ATMs—together with all kinds of point-of-sale terminals—in a brand new manner: with a wave of his telephone over a contactless bank card reader.

Josep Rodriguez, a researcher and marketing consultant at safety agency IOActive, has spent the final 12 months digging up and reporting vulnerabilities within the so-called near-field communications reader chips utilized in hundreds of thousands of ATMs and point-of-sale programs worldwide. NFC programs are what allow you to wave a bank card over a reader—moderately than swipe or insert it—to make a cost or extract cash from a money machine. You could find them on numerous retail retailer and restaurant counters, merchandising machines, taxis, and parking meters across the globe.