Author: Baab

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Gift Card Security

Do you use gift cards?  Some people use them to anonymize their purchases, others because financial situations have forced them to.  Take a moment to think about securing them.

Stopped at Wawa on the way home last night, spotted a Vanilla gift card on top of the recycling bin.  Why the owner didn’t put it completely in the trash I don’t know, but because I’m dabbler in magstripe and RFID card security, I always pick up stray cards. 

So I took it home, and was able to log into its account, which had not been secured.  It painted a sad picture.

10/8 2:05PM – bought gift card $100
10/8 9:50PM – “Any Lab Test Now” $40 (going rate for a 5-panel drug test)
10/9 2:05AM – Target, $42.90
10/9 10:48AM – Chick-Fil-A $8.43
10/10 6:11PM – Wawa $8.27

So this person bought (or received) a gift card, paid for his or her drug test, bought something at Target, ate at Chick-Fil-A, then spent his or her last $8.27 on gas, zeroing the card out in two days, and then leaving it in plain sight.  

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The latest Humble Bundle

Can I assume you’ve all seen this already and bought in?  The Make: Electronics Humble Bundle?  For $20 you get over 20 ebooks on a wide range of topics for makers and electronics tinkerers.  

Also, anyone up for a happy hour Tues or Wed?  Hit me up on Twitter @dc540baab or email [email protected]

https://bit.ly/2Pcvdi3
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What evil have you brought upon us?

One of last month’s meeting attendees, bless his heart, and I will hereafter refer to him as HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED, because I haven’t asked his permission… Gave these lovelies out at the meeting.  I finally got around to looking at it, and SAVAGE!  Good thing I got new tweezers.

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DCZIA badge interactions…

So one of the menu options on the DCZIA badge is a BLE scan.  I ran it with all my badges lit up, and it recognized TWO DC26 badges.  I suspect that one of those is the TransIonospheric badge, because that one reported seeing the DCZIA badge…

DCZIA badge closeup
Trans Ionospheric Badge closeup
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Shenzhen IO

What a badass little game.  Found it by accident on Steam.  You’re a hardware hacker/coder taking over for someone who left or got fired, and you have to figure out how to design circuits and write machine code to make them meet specs.  Fun and challenging, and well-designed.  Exactly what I needed right now.

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Tubular picking

No, this isn’t about radical bluegrass.  I acquired a set of tubular lockpicks some time ago, but never got around to trying them out.  After our first meeting, I was inspired, so I ordered a few locks to try them out on.  

I had NO IDEA how easy these things make it.  It’s amazing that these locks are marketed at all.  Flatten the tension bars.  Ease the pick in while gently twisting.  Eventually the pressure will balance out and the lock will open.  Ridonkulous.

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A Different Kind of Lock

Picked up a locked Zero Halliburton Centurion Elite briefcase at an auction. There were contents, so I was dead set on getting in. It was the three-dial combo type. Tried brute-forcing it, but no luck. I suspect I would have had to go from closed and latched to open with every iteration, and that wasn’t about to happen. So I seduced my way into the case by another means, and removed the lock mechanism.  Hell, this case is considered the Rolex of briefcases, so I’d like to know the combo and be able to use it.