Security researcher sounds alarm over ATM NFC reader vulnerabilities

guest · Jun 28, 2021

Security researcher sounds alarm over ATM NFC reader vulnerabilities
Bugs allowed the researcher to crash terminals and worse
June 28, 2021
https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/28/...aders-hack-security-vulnerability-jackpotting

IOActive security researcher Josep Rodriquez has warned that the NFC readers used in many modern ATMs and point-of-sale systems are leaving them vulnerable to attacks, Wired reports. The flaws make them vulnerable to a range of problems, including being crashed by a nearby NFC device, locked down as part of a ransomware attack, or even hacked to extract certain credit card data.

Rodriquez even warns that the vulnerabilities could be used as part of a so-called “jackpotting” attack to trick a machine into spitting out cash. However, such an attack is only possible when paired with exploits of additional bugs, and Wired says it was not able to view a video of such an attack because of IOActive’s confidentiality agreement with the affected ATM vendor.
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In one video shared with Wired, Rodriquez causes an ATM in Madrid to display an error message, simply by waving his smartphone over its NFC reader. The machine then became unresponsive to real credit cards held up to the reader.

The research highlights a couple of big problems with the systems. The first is that many of the NFC readers are vulnerable to relatively simple attacks, Wired reports.
The second problem is that even once an issue is identified, companies can be slow to apply a patch to the hundreds of thousands of machines in use around the world.
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Rodriguez plans to present his findings as part of a webinar in the coming weeks to highlight what he says are the poor security measures of embedded devices.
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