[PLUG-TALK] Hacking Hotel Locks with an Arduino

[Keith Lofstrom]

> On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at gate.kl-ic.com>wrote:
> 
> > http://tinyurl.com/c2zqthp
> > A presentation at the Black Hat Hackers conference publicly
> > demonstrated how to access card key door locks with an
> > Arduino and a patch cable.  The locks have no cryptographic
> > security.

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 12:11:03PM -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> One comment in the article says that people may have to come up with other
> ways to be secure in the hotel, such as chains, etc.  Wouldn't a blob of
> fast set epoxy take care of the problem?  Those connections are not used
> very often, so everybody using that room subsequent to the
> epoxy suppository would be safer.  I know there would be a temptation to
> administer the medicine elsewhere, but the lock would serve as a reasonable
> surrogate.

The problem is, they charge the batteries in the locks with the
same connector.  So if the battery fails while your stuff is in
the room, they will have to pull the door off for you to get at it.

I always use the deadbolt when I'm in the room, and don't leave
valuables in there when I'm out of it.  Perhaps a bad guy could
get in and lie in wait for me, but I think we would just end up
talking about electronics hacking, rather than acts of violence.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs