From: J. Forster (jfor@quik.com)
Date: Fri Mar 17 2006 - 14:58:26 PST
March 15, 2006
Coming Soon: Viruses Spread By RFID Tags
By Gregg Keizer Courtesy of TechWeb News
Radio frequency identification tags (RFID) can be used
to spread computer viruses and attack middleware
applications and the databases behind them, a group of
Netherlands-based scientists said Wednesday.
At an IEEE' conference on pervasive computing in Pisa,
Italy, Melanie Rieback, a third-year PhD student at
Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit, presented a paper that
outlined the threat to RFID systems and laid out how
the small amount of memory in a tag -- in some cases
as little as 128 bytes -- could be used to corrupt
databases.
RFID tags have been promoted as a more efficient and
economical way of tracking products -- from
manufacturers to end-users -- and have been thought to
be immune from such hacks.
Not so, said Rieback, a U.S. citizen who has studied
in the Netherlands for the past five years. "This is a
real threat, and it's going to be a larger threat if
it's not taken care of," she said Wednesday after
presenting her paper "Is Your Cat Infected with a
Computer Virus?"
Once a hacker has created a miniature virus -- and
perhaps planted a malicious tag on a product in store
-- the attack begins as soon as the RFID tag is
scanned. Attacks on middleware and the back-end
databases, she said, could take the form of buffer
overflows, code insertions, and SQL injections (a type
of specialized code insertion that tricks a database
into running SQL code).
To combat such attacks, middleware and database
"We wanted to get the message out," she added. "Now
creators -- including big names like Oracle and SAP --
must harden their products to account for viral
infections.
they have warning."
Viruses could spread from tag to database, then to
"There are real-world consequences here," said
other tags in settings where RFID chips are written
to, leading to scenarios where one incoming malicious
tag leads to a factory sending out millions of
infected chips to its customers.
Rieback. "Some car plants use tags on chassis to
identify what color the car is to be painted. If a
virus instructs the database to write tags that tell
[the machinery to] switch colors, you're talking about
destroying cars."
Andrew Tanenbaum, Rieback's supervising professor at
"In an airport that's tagging luggage [with RFID
Vrije Universiteit, had even more dire attacks in
mind.
chips], drug smugglers would love for their bags to
disappear," said Tanenbaum. "It would make it that
much harder for any AI used by the airport or customs
to spot suspicious bags."
Likewise, terrorists might be able to circumvent
RFID-based security measures -- such as those planned
to track shipping containers -- or evade bomb-sniffing
systems, such as the one set to debut this spring at
Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport, where tags
will be used to verify that bags have been checked for
explosives.
Viruses on tags can cross borders with ease, said
"But that's not a problem," said Tanenbaum. "Back-end
Rieback. Although RFID tags use locally-determined
frequencies to transmit data, there are widely-used
international standards. A product marked in Germany
with a malformed tag might be able to infect systems
in the U.S., although the virus itself would likely be
middleware- or database specific.
vendors are usually public knowledge. When a customer
signs with an RFID vendor, both usually issue press
releases."
Rieback's presentation included a proof-of-concept
"If we didn't [create a proof-of-concept exploit] no
"The surprising thing about this all is how easy it
"This is a wake-up call," concluded Tanenbaum.
virus created by a masters-level student of the
university, Patrick Simpson, to demonstrate the
attack.
one will believe us," Tanenbaum said. "The RFID
middleware makers, they'll all deny that there's a
problem." he continued.
was to write a virus," he said. "It took Patrick just
four hours."
**********
Again, thanks to JP
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