Researchers find Apple Pay, Visa contactless hack September 30, 2021 Isaac Umunna Comment(0) Large unauthorised contactless payments can be made on locked iPhones by exploiting how an Apple Pay feature designed to help commuters pay quickly at ticket barriers works with Visa. Sep 30, 2021 Sep 30, 2021 Apple, drain, feature, hacked, Pay, visa, wallet Looking for Side Income? Click Here to Watch the Customer Testimonials of 1,000s of Others Doing This Right Now!
Cybersecurity researchers have demonstrated what they claim to be security issues in Visa and Apple payment mechanisms to make fraudulent contactless mobile payments.
The researchers from University of Birmingham and University of Surrey used a locked iPhone to make a payment via NFC exploiting an Apple Pay feature called Express Transit that’s designed to work with Visa to help commuters pay quickly at ticket barriers.
In a video, the researchers successfully tricked an iPhone to make a Visa payment of a £1,000 payment without unlocking the phone or explicitly authorizing the payment.
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Gekitou ninja taisen special iso. According to reports, while Apple said the matter was an issue with Visa’s payment system, Visa countered the research by saying that its payments were secure and that this type of attack couldn’t be replicated outside of the lab in the real-world.
Fooling the phone
The hack involves the use of a small commercially available piece of radio equipment, which is placed near the iPhone to trick it into believing it is dealing with a ticket barrier. At the same time an Android phone running a custom app developed by the researchers is used to relay signals from the iPhone to any contactless payment terminal.
Since the iPhone thinks it is paying a ticket barrier, it does so while still being locked. On the other end, the custom Android app modifies the iPhone’s communications with the payment terminal, which thinks the iPhone has been unlocked and the payment has been authorized legitimately.
Importantly, the researchers share that the Android phone and payment terminal used in the hack don’t need to be near the victim’s iPhone.
“It can be on another continent from the iPhone as long as there’s an internet connection,” Dr Ioana Boureanu of the University of Surrey told the BBC.
The researchers reportedly shared their discovery with both Apple and Visa about a year ago, but are still awaiting a fix. Visa meanwhile is of the opinion that the hack is “impractical” outside of a lab.
Via BBC
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Large unauthorised contactless payments can be made on locked iPhones by exploiting how an Apple Pay feature designed to help commuters pay quickly at ticket barriers works with Visa. Cardscan 800c mac software.
In a video, researchers demonstrated making a contactless Visa payment of £1,000 from a locked iPhone.
Apple said the matter was “a concern with a Visa system”.
Visa said payments were secure and attacks of this type were impractical outside of a lab. Free garfield comic books.
The problem, researchers say, applies to Visa cards set up in ‘Express Transit‘ mode in an iPhone’s wallet.
“Express Transit” is an Apple Pay feature which enables commuters to make quick contactless payments without unlocking their phone, for example touching-in and touching-out at a London Underground ticket barrier.
It is a weakness in how Visa systems work with this feature, that researchers from the Computer Science departments of Birmingham and Surrey Universities, discovered how to attack.
Relay attack
In demonstrating the attack, the scientists only took money from their own accounts.
In very simple terms – and with many key details deliberately omitted- the attack works like this:
- a small commercially available piece of radio equipment is placed near the the iPhone, which tricks it into believing it is dealing with a ticket barrier
- at the same time an Android phone running an application developed by the researchers is used to relay signals from the iPhone to a contactless payment terminal – this could be in a shop or one the criminals control
- because the iPhone thinks it is paying a ticket barrier, it doesn’t need to be unlocked
- meanwhile the iPhone’s communications with the payment terminal are modified to fool it into thinking the iPhone has been unlocked and a payment authorised – allowing high value transactions to be made without entering a PIN, fingerprint or using Face ID
In a demonstration video seen by the BBC, researchers were able to make a Visa payment of £1,000 without unlocking the phone or authorising the payment.
The researchers say the Android phone and payment terminal used don’t need to be near the victim’s iPhone.
“It can be on another continent from the iPhone as long as there’s an internet connection” said Dr Ioana Boureanu of the University of Surrey.
Stolen phones
The researchers have so far demonstrated the attack only in the “lab” – and there’s no evidence that criminals are currently exploiting the hack.
Ken Munro, a security researcher with Pen Test Partners, who was not involved in the research, told the BBC it was “a really innovative piece of research” and needed to be fixed quickly.
He said it’s a similar attack to having a contactless credit card terminal tapped against your wallet or purse.
But this attack was rather more insidious, he said, as it doesn’t need the card terminal any more – just a small box of electronics that can relay the fraudulent transaction elsewhere
Visa Hacked 2021
“Perhaps the greatest worry is for a lost or stolen phone. The crook doesn’t have to be concerned about being spotted by others as they carry out the attack any more.”
The university researchers also said the attack might be easiest to deploy against a stolen iPhone.
The researchers say they first approached Apple and Visa with their concerns almost a year ago – there have been “useful” conversations, but the problem has not been fixed.
Visa’s view was that this type of attack was “impractical”.
It told the BBC that it took all security threats seriously, but “Visa cards connected to Apple Pay Express Transit are secure, and cardholders should continue to use them with confidence.
“Variations of contactless fraud schemes have been studied in laboratory settings for more than a decade and have proven to be impractical to execute at scale in the real world”.
It is possible, for example, that Visa’s fraud detection systems would spot and block unusual patterns of spending, although the researchers did not encounter this problem in their lab tests.
There’s also the practical problem of getting close to a victim’s phone.
Anyone who thinks they have lost their phone can use Apple’s iCloud to block Apple Pay or wipe the phone, and they can also alert Visa and block payments.
Apple told the BBC: “We take any threat to users’ security very seriously. This is a concern with a Visa system but Visa does not believe this kind of fraud is likely to take place in the real world given the multiple layers of security in place”.
“In the unlikely event that an unauthorised payment does occur, Visa has made it clear that their cardholders are protected by Visa’s zero liability policy”.
But Dr Andreea Radu, of the University of Birmingham who led the research, told the BBC complex attacks that work in the lab can end up being used by criminals.
“It has some technical complexity – but I feel the rewards from doing the attack are quite high”, she said, adding that if unaddressed “in a few years these might be become a real issue”.
Dr Tom Chothia also at the University of Birmingham, said iPhone owners should check if they have a Visa card set up for transit payments, and if so they should disable it.
“There is no need for Apple Pay users to be in danger, but until Apple or Visa fix this they are”, he said.
Secure systems
The researchers also tested Samsung Pay, but found it could not be exploited in this way.
They also tested Mastercard but found that the way its security works prevented the attack.
Visa Hacked 2021 Online
Co-author Dr Ioana Boureanu, from the University of Surrey, said this showed systems could be “both usable and secure”.
The research is due to be presented at the 2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.