Together with my colleague Matthias Deeg I’ve done some research on several (cheap) wireless alarm systems. We found that it is possible to disarm all systems by a simple replay attack. Such an attack can be easily carried out using a Software Defined Radio (SDR). The results of our research have been documented by “Plusminus”, a German TV show. Read more

Together with my colleague Matthias Deeg I’ve done some research on several modern wireless desktop sets. All of the manufacturers claim they are secure because they encrypt data using AES 128. All keyboards and mice use a proprietary communication protocol (not Bluetooth), therefore we were interested in if they are really secure. The result of the analysis was presented at several IT security conferences including Ruxcon in Melbourne, Hacktivity in Budapest, ZERONIGHTS in Moscow, DeepSec in Vienna and hack.lu in Luxembourg. Read more

After playing around with my SDR and wireless sockets I had a look at other devices, which also use ASK/OOK modulated signals. I found a different wireless socket system, an alarm system and a sex toy. After analyzing the signals, I wanted do build a remote to control them all. I used an Adafruit Trinket (ATtiny85) as micro controller and a cheap OOK transmitter module at 433MHz. The code on the controller just sends the same signal as the original remote replay attack). Read more

In order to improve my understanding of Software Defined Radios (SDRs) and wireless communication in general, I tinkered with cheap wireless sockets. The results are two pieces of software. Sniffer: This script can eavesdrop on the signals the remote control sends to the sockets. It displays the address, the socket identifier (A, B, C, D or E) and the state (on/off). Remote control: This script allows you to change the state of any socket by supplying the address and the socket identifier. Alternatively you can use the brute-force mode to turn on/off every socket within range. Read more

I wrote my bachelor thesis about finding and exploiting USB security issues in USB host implementations. The first chapter imparts some basic knowledge about the USB technology. The second part is about USB security. This includes theoretical approaches as well as practical attack vectors. In the last chapter of the thesis you will find my work of trying to exploit some USB vulnerabilities and building a malicious USB device. Read more

This is a paper about RFID security. It was part of my university studies (sixth semester). The main focus is on the theory and feasibility of different attack vectors and their counter measures. Especially logical issues and physical attack vectors have been taken into account. Read more

This is a paper about the basics of digital forensics. It was part of my university studies (sixth semester). It is an introduction to the topic and aims to answer questions like “what is digital forensics?”, “what is it for?” and “how is it done?”. There also is a practical part about some basic tools and how to use them. Read more

The “Gulaschprogrammiernacht” (GPN) is a congress organized by Entropia e.V. (CCC Karlsruhe). I presented my research about the security of the student card at this congress. The similar student card system is present at most German universities. At this point in time the system was very broken, mostly because of the usage of the insecure MIFARE Classic RFID tags. Read more

MifareClassicTool (MCT) is a Android NFC app for reading, writing, analyzing, etc. MIFARE Classic RFID tags. It provides several features to interact with (and only with) MIFARE Classic RFID tags. It is designed for users who have at least basic familiarity with the MIFARE Classic technology. You also need an understanding of the hexadecimal number system, because all data input and output is in hexadecimal. A list of features can be taken from the readme. This app was initially developed as part of my internship semester at SySS GmbH. Read more

As part of my studies, some fellow students and I held a lecture about GSM security. The purpose was to give other students a theoretical and practical background. We put together a script, a handout and some exercises. To make this as palatial as possible we used some Motorola C123 phones running OsmocomBB software. Read more