Open sesame - or how vulnerable is your stuff in electronic lockers

Presented at DEF CON 32 (2024), Aug. 9, 2024, 11 a.m. (45 minutes).

Physical security is often overlooked in many organizational threat models. An increasing amount of physical security devices with smart components are being introduced to the market with widespread adoption. This creates an enticing attack surface for physical red teams. Lockers and cabinets equipped with electronic smart locks can be found in many places such as offices, factories, hospitals, labs, and gyms. With remote and hybrid work increasing in popularity, shared use office setups becoming the default. Co-working spaces in offices are now commonplace with lockers being installed for employee device storage. People generally trust that their belongings will be secure in these lockers and entrust the locks with sensitive information, like their personal PIN. Is there a more stealthy way to get into lockers that don't involve using a crowbar? In this talk we will analyze the vulnerabilities affecting locks manufactured by the "global leader in keyless lock solutions," Digilock and Schulte-Schlagbaum AG (SAG). Both companies have been in the physical security industry for many decades. What went wrong in the development of these devices and how can these vulnerabilities be fixed? We will also discuss several other vendors operating in this space and compare findings. We will demonstrate practical physical and side-channel attacks targeting locks that accept a standard PIN and RFID. Learn why it is poor practice to reuse the same secret PIN for lockers and safes and devices such as mobile phones and laptops (especially if they are stored inside the lockers).

Presenters:

  • Braelynn - Security Consultant at Leviathan Security Group
    Braelynn is a security consultant at Leviathan Security Group where she conducts security assessments of products for startups, Fortune 500 companies, and everything in between. She enjoys partaking in CTFs and researching the security anything that piques her curiosity. She has previously presented this research at conferences such as Chaos Communication Congress.
  • Dennis Giese
    Dennis Giese is a researcher with the focus on the security and privacy of IoT devices. While being interested in physical security and lockpicking, he enjoys applied research and reverse engineering malware and all kinds of devices. His most known projects are the documentation and hacking of various vacuum robots. He calls himself a "robot collector" and his current vacuum robot army consists of over 60 different models from various vendors. He talked about his research at the Chaos Communication Congress, REcon BRX, NULLCON, and DEFCON.

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