
A Hotel Room Hacking Spree (2017) - svenfaw
https://www.wired.com/2017/08/the-hotel-hacker/
======
daeken
The Onity lock hack was mine. I imagined many outcomes when I decided to
disclose it; a meth-fueled crime spree wasn't one of them. Man, life is weird.

~~~
kw71
What were you thinking would happen? That you'd simply become the envy of
magazine-reading normies and nerd conference attendees?

Anyone who's pirated software knows that electronic locky things are about as
worthy as masking tape. But you gave all the work away such that it took all
the brains of a jailbird methhead life-winner to rig up a formidable burglary
tool with an arduino (which i've always derided as baby-talk-programming-for-
potheads, how about that) Normally there would be some secretive jackass in
the middle like those developing and selling the auto theft tools to the guys
who manage car thieves... but you changed the world! Congrats.

~~~
daeken
I don't think the vitriol is warranted or constructive at all, but
regardless...

What I thought would happen: the general public would be made aware of a
serious vulnerability in products they believe to be safe (they were --
millions of people were made aware of it and I spent years dealing with the
press for exactly that reason), and that the companies involved would be
forced to act (the big ones were, small ones weren't). With the benefits of
hindsight, I 100% stand by the decisions I made and feel confident that I did
the right thing, despite that I knew that some folks would use this for crime
(and now know that they definitely have).

You can say that everyone knows that they're not secure, but that's ...
Frankly dumb and naive. The vast majority of people have no idea, and they
don't _care_ about the abstract notion of them being insecure. They do care
when I say "I can open any of 10 million locks in a second with no special
skills."

~~~
kw71
Thank you for replying, despite my shitty abrasive attitude.

No the normies don't know anything, that's why they are buying garbage like
cars without keys, "connected" door locks, and burglar alarms that some talk
radio host tells them is "safe". You can't teach them, and if you have
something better to sell with meritable security they won't choose it.

I don't know if you were surprised to find what you found. At any rate, you
knew that this stuff is garbage as soon as you found it. And so has anyone who
has attacked just about anything. From consumer junk to military toys, there
is very little out there that has actually incorporated much thought to attack
resistance... the only examples I can think of right now are pay television
and some game consoles... really, the most frivolous things.

I think it was the late 90s when I checked into a hotel and was slightly
surprised to get a magcard instead of the swiss cheese looking ving stuff I
was used to. I am sure that I am not the first or only one who thought, well
this is shit. The card probably only encodes a site code and an id for the
individual lock. I was impressed to learn that when the next guest gets a card
then mine won't work anymore. But whether we had the capacity to realize how
stupid the implementation must be, we all had some reassurance in that there
was at least a level of sophistication required to put me at risk there.
Whether that's a shitty night clerk disclosing the password for that card
writing device, or someone who took apart the lock to figure out how to throw
the bolt, there was something more required than a dickhead reading the
internet to do it. And for like fifteen years "it was acceptable" because
nobody gave a how-to to everyone.

So what were we supposed to do when the details - not the idea - were
disclosed? Not travel anymore? You did make the attack a lot easier than
necessary to make your point. Explaining an overview, the idea, still carries
some risk - there are so many people in the world that nobody has any novel
skill and someone's bound to replicate the rest of your work - but all these
details lowered the bar unreasonably.

Man, what if I had published the party trick that lets you start a toyota
without any keys or fob? I know I'm not the only one and doubt I was the
first. But it's not that people could lose their property, it's possible that
people who would not normally have access to "that car" would do something
extremely shitty with this possibly lethal weapon. Another attacker without
travel experience, grown up in the usa, might not realize that in other places
you can get away with car theft simply by driving east. I wouldn't have
thought about this when I was young but now I sure as hell don't want anything
like this on me.

------
hello_asdf
It’s an interesting story, but it’s rather sad. I really hope he gets the help
he needs in prison and avoids falling back into his old lifestyle.

~~~
xfitm3
“Then, a year after that DUI stop, in the summer of 2012, Cashatt got a letter
from the court. It informed him that he was being charged not merely with that
DUI misdemeanor but with a felony, the result of his latest charge plus all of
his prior offenses. The minimum sentence: six and a half years in prison.”

I think this is the saddest part. He had his life together, no matter how
fragile, and he was pulled back into the system.

~~~
oh_sigh
I'd withhold judgement - no matter how messed up people are, humans can always
be great story tellers.

Yes, I guess it sucks if you think you get off scot-free for a DUI and
multiple other offenses, but then are drawn back into the system. But that
doesn't mean that this guy actually had his life in order, or quit drugs, or
really did anything that he said he did.

------
coleca
Surprised that we haven’t seen a class action suit against Onity and/or the
hotel chains that used their locks after the hack was known and they weren’t
patching it.

~~~
daeken
When it was first disclosed, all the major hotel chains went to Onity with a
huge "what the fuck?" and got discounts or free hardware. Then Onity closed up
shop entirely; the name still exists in UTC, but the original Onity just ...
ceased to exist.

