Hardware Hacking

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My apartment complex used to be a hotel and still has the doors. Can I hack the key cards unlock? (imgur.com)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Basically the title. I confirmed with management that the system for these hotel style door locks are no longer in use and they likely even moved doors from their original location in the process of remodeling the building into apartments. I'm just trying to prevent myself from getting locked out and avoid using my regular key if I can. I've tried reading it with an NFC reader and it didn't work so I imagine it was to be RFID?

Any tips on where to start? I am an experienced software engineer, but I haven't done any hacking before. I can buy tools to do the job if necessary

Edit: Added pictures for the cynics. It is my apartment

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[–] Grass 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think I saw a headline about some hacker convention in Vegas where they did this. Might have a basic dumbed down explanation common to articles about hacks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The way they did it is not trivial. They disassembled the hotel management software, found an exploitable bug, and managed to write that bug into a card. They are not releasing the code as the vendor says after a year only around 30% of the devices are patched.

As card readers dont have internet connectivity fixing them is a slow process.

[–] Grass 2 points 7 months ago

Oh thanks for the details. It wasn't something I felt compelled to read and just vaguely recalled existing. I'm slightly surprised they don't have internet these days. Obviously it would be an entire extra can of worms for security but manually patching each one sounds awful. I also saw in another comment someone said they are battery powered which makes it an even less appealing system. I'd feel inclined to make them bolt the other way and have the card and lock unit on the frame side and have them connected to a wired network routed through the wall and powered by mains also. Maybe there's some super obvious reason locks go from the door to the wall that I never thought to look in to though.