Over my summer interning in NYC I found even weaker vulnerabilities with the the NY Waterway ferry's e-ticketing system. Trivially cost can go from greater than $296/month (for some routes) --> $0. Fortunate for those who instinctually think of weaknesses in systems.
Hacking a parking ticket system
31–40 of 65 posts
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#32This reminds me of the guy who was caught a few years ago for putting homemade UPC stickers over the printed UPC symbol for expensive LEGO sets so that they'd ring up as inexpensive LEGO sets.
After the felony fraud charges, he would have been better off just shoplifting the sets instead.
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#33This reminds me of the guy who was caught a few years ago for putting homemade UPC stickers over the printed UPC symbol for expensive LEGO sets so that they'd ring up as inexpensive LEGO sets. After the felony fraud charges, he would have been better off just shoplifting the sets instead.
I can find some stories on the Internet about a wealthy person doing this:
http://lego.gizmodo.com/high-profile-silicon-valley-exec-gui...
http://gizmodo.com/5912141/multimillionaire-software-exec-ar...
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/incredibly-wealt...
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_20675946/silicon-valley-tech-e...
But there's this earlier story too:
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#34[deleted]
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#35A friend of mine in college did this, but it was even simpler- there was no barcode, just a number that increased by one for each ticket sold. He went the entire year just making his own to avoid paying $3 per day. Just take the last three days tickets, increment by the average difference, print and display. When they caught him (he parked in the wrong lot or something) he admitted everything, paid $80, and offered t…
A much simpler "hack" occurred to me recently. Suppose you wanted to store your car for a long time in a gated garage that also holds ZipCars. Drive your car in and take a ticket as normal. When it's time to leave, book a ZipCar for one hour. Grab its parking pass and use it to exit the garage with your car. Park on the street nearby, walk the pass back to the ZipCar. Are there typically countermeasures in place for…
Eventually, somebody would notice the car there and remove it by tow truck. Most garages need parking passes or have assigned numbers or something. When someone complains is usually when someone gets towed.
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#36The checksum algorithm they used will only produce 73 different checksums (00000000-99999999: 0-72) - and all of them even. There is space for 9999 different values. Tips to improve: f(x) = ( x * secret) mod 1000 - mod 10000 instead of mod 1000 (as mentioned in the article) - make sure the 'x' varies between 0-9999 (e.g. by splitting the number in half and adding the parts 03001909 > 0300+1909 = 2209) - make sure the…
A secret larger than 10,000 is not useful -- since the multiplication is mod 10,000, the first digit of the secret could be ignored anyway (54321 = 5 * 10000 + 4321 === 4321 mod 10000).
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#37Over a summer I lived in "intern housing" at a university in the DC area. They wanted $150 for parking for 2mo, yeah, nope. A little bit of research told me that the parking services were a separate entity from the school and that the school would put a hold on my student account and transcripts if there were unpaid charges. I also found that they supposedly boot you after 3 tickets. Tickets are $100 minimum and go up by $50 for every unpaid 30 days. As someone who never took and classes from them they didn't have much leverage over me. I just pulled my front plate, got a few spare plates from the junkyard and slapped one over my real plate when I got home for the night making sure no one plate had more than three tickets. For ~$3 day it was well worth the hassle. They're still sending me notices every two months about my unpaid fine for the one time they ticketed me with my real plate.
Seriously, the easiest way to abuse (private) parking systems is usually to make them write the ticket to a plate that doesn't come back to you.
Another "hack" was that the parking gates at most public garages in the DC area had a rubber sweep on the bottom and were tall enough that most 90s compacts could squeeze under if you retract the antenna, saves about $6 per usage.
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#38Over a summer I lived in "intern housing" at a university in the DC area. They wanted $150 for parking for 2mo, yeah, nope. A little bit of research told me that the parking services were a separate entity from the school and that the school would put a hold on my student account and transcripts if there were unpaid charges. I also found that they supposedly boot you after 3 tickets. Tickets are $100 minimum and go u…
That's risky because they may be able to look up your car by VIN. You'd probably need to randomize it by parking in different locations every day, hoping that you get different meter maids who wouldn't recognize your car. Your car would also have to be so generic in appearance (not just model/color but also condition) that it didn't stand out.
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So just get a new ticket from the entrance Getting a new ticket from the printer before the barrier will be hard if your car is inside the car park. Often the ticket printer will only work if it notices a large metal object (such as a car) in front of the barrier.
Many automated garages ban motorcycles because they're unable to trigger the sensor.
Interestingly, I find that on my bicycle I can trigger the sensors in roads (which in the UK seem to be marked by a line of tar, where the sensor has been cut in and sealed up) by angling my front wheel directly along the line - my belief is that it gives a pretty strong signal because the rim of the wheel is a lot closer than a car would be even though they are a heavier chunk of metal (inverse square relationship). In fact my impression at one place I worked was that the sensor gave a stronger signal doing this as the barrier to get out went up quicker for me than it did for cars. I have extrapolated this belief and also believe that the sensors that detect vehicles before traffic lights also give a stronger signal when the rim is close by and the lights choose to turn my way quicker as they think I'm a bus. I can't really verify this though, because I only ever travel by bicycle.
Anyway, I guess motorcycles are not quite as maneuverable as a bicycle, so would find it harder to trigger the sensors in this deliberate way.
Re: Hacking a parking ticket system
#40A friend of mine in college did this, but it was even simpler- there was no barcode, just a number that increased by one for each ticket sold. He went the entire year just making his own to avoid paying $3 per day. Just take the last three days tickets, increment by the average difference, print and display. When they caught him (he parked in the wrong lot or something) he admitted everything, paid $80, and offered t…
A much simpler "hack" occurred to me recently. Suppose you wanted to store your car for a long time in a gated garage that also holds ZipCars. Drive your car in and take a ticket as normal. When it's time to leave, book a ZipCar for one hour. Grab its parking pass and use it to exit the garage with your car. Park on the street nearby, walk the pass back to the ZipCar. Are there typically countermeasures in place for…
> Are there typically countermeasures in place for this?
The cost of the zip car + the hassle of booking the zipcar, walking from to it to grab the card, driving your car out and finding parking, then walking back to the car.
I would emphasize that this method requires finding parking outside the parking garage. Around where I live, that could be a long walk back to the garage (and paying a meter...)