Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
Researchers have discovered a hardware backdoor in a model of MIFARE Classic RFID cards that can allow unauthorized access to hotel rooms and office doors. The backdoor affects FM11RF08S cards and allows for attacks to compromise user-defined keys. This backdoor has also been found in the previous generation of cards. Consumers are urged to check if they are susceptible, as these cards are widely used in hotels worldwide.
Article:
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a hardware backdoor within a particular model of MIFARE Classic contactless cards that could allow authentication with an unknown key and open hotel rooms and office doors.
The backdoor affects FM11RF08S cards and was released by Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics in 2020. It enables entities with knowledge of it to compromise user-defined keys on cards, even when fully diversified, just by accessing the card for a few minutes.
Moreover, a similar backdoor has been identified in the previous generation, FM11RF08, and has been observed in cards dating back to November 2007. The backdoor allows for the instantaneous cloning of RFID smart cards used to open office doors and hotel rooms around the world.
Consumers are urged to check if they are susceptible to this vulnerability, as these cards are used widely in hotels across the U.S., Europe, and India. The backdoor and its key allow new attacks to dump and clone these cards, even when all their keys are diversified.
This is not the first time security issues have been unearthed in locking systems used in hotels. Earlier this year, Dormakaba’s Saflok electronic RFID locks were found to have severe shortcomings that could be exploited by threat actors to forge keycards and unlock doors.
