Pavol Luptak

Title: Public transport SMS ticket hacking

Bio:
MSc degree in Computer Science. CISSP, CEH and OWASP Slovakia Chapter Leader. Owner, CTO and Lead Security Consultant of the security-based company Nethemba s.r.o. focused on comprehensive penetration tests and security audits, proposing ultra secure solutions, VOIP solutions, clusters, consulting & training in security areas. You can find details here.

Abstract:
The primary aim of this presentation is to show a serious inherent vulnerability in the public transport SMS tickets system widely used in many big cities.

Firstly, prerequisites for a successful hack are described. Then a proposed SMS ticket hacking network architecture is outlined, including a SMS ticket hack server, SMS ticket mobile hack clients and their encrypted communication protocol.

The author describes various partial solutions how to fix this vulnerability including instructions for attackers how to evade them (e.g. by using decentralized private P2P mobile network).

Finally, an effective countermeasure is proposed: secure SMS ticket generation methods based on symmetric/asymmetric cryptography and a security improvement of transport inspector’s checking process.

Despite the fact that public transport companies have already been informed about this serious vulnerability, they ignore this fact and still use the vulnerable systems.