so you will have to modify the underlying OS or change the device firmware to stop acting as a USB keyboard and go back to acting as a RS232 device and force the POS software programmer to look for the serial port and grab the data.īut it get’s worse, These barcode readers are configured by barcodes, so “locking down” the barcode scanner is useless as you can scan a special barcode that will enter configuration mode no matter how locked down you set it because the scanner’s module has this as a default function from the manufacturer to make it easy for POS software makers to be lazy. So sanitation of the input is 100% impossible with all current systems as they show up as keyboards. This makes it so the programmer does not have to actually do any work to support a barcode scanner.

Most USB barcode readers simply fill in a text field on the screen and act like the keyboard. I have dealt with small company stuff all the way to IBM systems and they all are written by people that should not be allowed to program. software is some of the worst software out there. Posted in computer hacks, Security Hacks, Slider Tagged barcode, hack, security, sql injection Post navigation The defense is simple, and it’s the same as everywhere else: disable the debug and configuration modes in your production systems, and sanitize your input. suggests lottery machines, package-delivery automats, and even hospitals.

How many of these are vulnerable is an open question. However, we have many automated machines in our everyday life that use barcodes. Still, it’s a suspicious-looking attack to try to pull off where other people (think cashiers) are looking.

The article details how they got their payload from requiring more than ten individual barcodes down to four. ADF even supports a delay function to allow time for the command window to pop up before running the rest of the input. Whatever computer is on the other side of the barcode scanner has just been owned. Through use of these Advanced Data Formatting (ADF) modes, sends Windows-Key-r, and then cmd.exe, ftps a file down, and runs it. The trick is that many POS terminals and barcode readers support command characters in their programming modes. The idea isn’t new, and in fact we’ve seen people trying to drop SQL attacks in barcodes long ago, but put a few different pieces together and came up with a viable attack. It’s a promising attack - nobody expects a takeover via barcodes. Has been playing around with barcodes lately, and trying to use them as a vector to gain control of the system that’s reading them.

Arm of revenge hacked