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Passport RFIDs Cloned Wholesale by $250 eBay Auction Spree

February 3, 2009
by Dan Goodin
Staff Writer, The Register

Dan Goodin

Using inexpensive off-the-shelf components, an information security expert has built a mobile platform that can clone large numbers of the unique electronic identifiers used in U.S. passport cards and next-generation drivers’ licenses.

The $250 proof-of-concept device–which researcher Chris Paget built in his spare time–operates out of his vehicle and contains everything needed to sniff and then clone RFID, or radio frequency identification, tags. During a recent 20-minute drive in downtown San Francisco, it successfully copied the RFID tags of two passport cards without the knowledge of their owners.

Paget’s contraption builds off the work of researchers at RSA and the University of Washington, which last year found weaknesses in U.S. passport cards and so-called EDLs, or enhanced drivers’ licenses.

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