Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread dan

Steven M. Bellovin writes, in part:
-+---
 | There's a limit to how far they can go with that, because of the fear
 | of people abandoning the transponders.
 | snip
 | As for usage-based driving -- the first question is the political will
 | to do so.
 | snip
 | Finally, the transponders may not matter much longer; OCR on license
 | plates is getting that good.
 | 


I don't think whether it is a transponder or not
actually matters, Steve, since, as you say, OCR
of the license plates makes whether a transponder
is in place totally irrelevant.

As to public resistance -- look at the revenue
coming in to, say, Chicago from the red-light
cameras and tell me that this won't spread.
Similarly, per-mile road-use pricing will be
all about revenue enhancement but it will be
painted DHS-faireness-green (So as to fairly
fund the maintainance of this State's critical
infrastructure, this Act converts the funding
mechanisms over to a fairer road-use policy
but, at the same time, it leaves in place the
State gasoline tax, thereby penalizing the
people who continue to drive gas guzzlers).

Which leads back to the recording of travel
and the handling of those recordings.  When
New Jersey signed up with EZ-Pass it required
the company involved to retain toll records
for ten years (as an aid to law enforcement).
Since that is the same company in lots of
states even if it is called something else
(like FastLane in Massachusetts), the rational
thing for the company to do is to just keep
everything forever.  With disk prices falling
as they are, keeping everything is cheaper
than careful selective deletion, that's for
sure.

--dan

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread John Levine
 The relationship to this list may then be thin
 excepting that the collection and handling of
 such data remains of substantial interest.

Actually, it points to cash settlement of road tolls.

That's not unknown.  On the Niagara Falls toll bridges, they have an
ETC system where you buy your transponder for cash at a toll booth and
refill it with cash.  I suppose they could take your picture and link
it to your license plate, but they can do that if you throw quarters
into the bin, too.

R's,
John

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread maf
On 27 aug, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
 Finally, the transponders may not matter much longer; OCR on license
 plates is getting that good.  As has already been mentioned, the 407
 ETR road in Toronto already relies on this to some extent; it won't be
 too much longer before the human assist is all but unneeded.

We are already there. The London congestion charges are as far as I know
completely based on OCR. The same goes for the congestion charge in
Stockholm. In Stockholm they initially gave out transponders but they
have stopped doing that, probably because the OCR technology is good
enough.

I think that the primary reason they are going for systems like that is
that it is much cheaper to install and run than distributing a lot of
transponders or building and staffing toll-booths. The tracking
capabilities is merely an added bonus.

In Göteborg they have a system with cameras which looks at license
plates at different locations and through that measure how long it takes
to drive certain routes. This system is still under construction but
there are some information billboards where they show the current
driving time to various targets. They say that they mask out the last
digit of the plate and destroy the information after a short while, but
who knows.

/MaF
-- 
Martin Forssen [EMAIL PROTECTED]  Development Manager
Phone: +46 31 7744361 AppGate Network Security AB

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread Eugen Leitl
On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 12:16:23PM -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:

 Finally, the transponders may not matter much longer; OCR on license
 plates is getting that good.  As has already been mentioned, the 407
 ETR road in Toronto already relies on this to some extent; it won't be
 too much longer before the human assist is all but unneeded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll_Collect is in operation in entire
Germany. It does OCR on all license plates (also used for police
purposes in realtime, despite initial vigorous denial) but currently 
is only used for truck toll.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org
__
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A  7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread Steven M. Bellovin
On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:49:20 +0200
Eugen Leitl [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 12:16:23PM -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
 
  Finally, the transponders may not matter much longer; OCR on license
  plates is getting that good.  As has already been mentioned, the 407
  ETR road in Toronto already relies on this to some extent; it won't
  be too much longer before the human assist is all but unneeded.
 
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll_Collect is in operation in entire
 Germany. It does OCR on all license plates (also used for police
 purposes in realtime, despite initial vigorous denial) but currently 
 is only used for truck toll.
 
How well does that actually work?  There were many articles in RISKS
Digest about problems with the early deployment.

And -- turning the topic back to crypto -- is there a cryptographic
solution to license plates?  Put another way, what are the legitimate
needs of various parties, and can these be satisfied in a
privacy-preserving way?  (Note: I do not regard put a digital cash
wallet in the transponder as a solution to the license plate problem,
since it doesn't handle the problem of toll evaders, people who aren't
members of the system, and many other things that license plates are
used for.)


--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread StealthMonger
Sherri Davidoff [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Look for general tracking to appear everywhere.

 Anonymous travel is dead.  Even for subway riders who still use tokens
 and citizens that bicycle around town, the proliferation of cameras,
 facial recognition technology, biometrics and RFID tagging will render
 anonymity obsolete within a generation.

Cryptography affords an alternative.  Cryptography enables untraceable
persistent pseudonyms created and maintained via chains of anonymizing
remailers and broadcast replies.

In the nightmare scenario that you describe, untraceable nyms may be
the only way that one can live as a responsible adult, rather than a
subject of a nanny state.


 -- StealthMonger
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 --
   stealthmail: Scripts to hide whether you're doing email, or when,
   or with whom.  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Finger for key.

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread Stefan Kelm
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll_Collect is in operation in entire
 Germany. It does OCR on all license plates (also used for police
 purposes in realtime, despite initial vigorous denial) but currently 
 is only used for truck toll.

 How well does that actually work?  There were many articles in RISKS
 Digest about problems with the early deployment.

That's true wrt to early deployment. Given that the Toll Collect
system has been up and running since January 2005 it (technically)
runs surprisingly well. They have improved tremendously and are
likely to sell their technology to other european countries.

Cheers,

Stefan.


Symposium Wirtschaftsspionage 03.09.2008 KA/Ettlingen
http://www.symposium-wirtschaftsspionage.de/
-
Stefan Kelm
Security Consulting

Secorvo Security Consulting GmbH
Ettlinger Strasse 12-14, D-76137 Karlsruhe
Tel. +49 721 255171-304, Fax +49 721 255171-100
[EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.secorvo.de/
PGP: 87AE E858 CCBC C3A2 E633 D139 B0D9 212B

Mannheim HRB 108319, Geschaeftsfuehrer: Dirk Fox

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread Steven M. Bellovin
On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:55:57 +0200
Stefan Kelm [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll_Collect is in operation in entire
  Germany. It does OCR on all license plates (also used for police
  purposes in realtime, despite initial vigorous denial) but
  currently is only used for truck toll.
 
  How well does that actually work?  There were many articles in RISKS
  Digest about problems with the early deployment.
 
 That's true wrt to early deployment. Given that the Toll Collect
 system has been up and running since January 2005 it (technically)
 runs surprisingly well. They have improved tremendously and are
 likely to sell their technology to other european countries.
 
I confess that from a privacy perspective, I'd prefer if it didn't work
that well...

Thanks.


--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread Stefan Kelm
 everything forever.  With disk prices falling
 as they are, keeping everything is cheaper
 than careful selective deletion, that's for
 sure.

I disagree.

We've been helping the German Toll Collect system (as
discussed in this thread as well) setting up and implementing
their data privacy concept. This concept requires Toll Collect
to delete almost any data after a certain (quite short, actually)
amount of time. Even with disk prices falling they save lots
and lots of money (even compared to what we charged them for
telling them... :-) ).

Cheers,

Stefan.


Symposium Wirtschaftsspionage 03.09.2008 KA/Ettlingen
http://www.symposium-wirtschaftsspionage.de/
-
Stefan Kelm
Security Consulting

Secorvo Security Consulting GmbH
Ettlinger Strasse 12-14, D-76137 Karlsruhe
Tel. +49 721 255171-304, Fax +49 721 255171-100
[EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.secorvo.de/
PGP: 87AE E858 CCBC C3A2 E633 D139 B0D9 212B

Mannheim HRB 108319, Geschaeftsfuehrer: Dirk Fox

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-28 Thread Eugen Leitl
On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 06:03:14PM +0200, Stefan Kelm wrote:

 We've been helping the German Toll Collect system (as
 discussed in this thread as well) setting up and implementing
 their data privacy concept. This concept requires Toll Collect
 to delete almost any data after a certain (quite short, actually)

They (not Toll Collect, though) do a realtime query against a 
reasonably long list of license plates in some German states, I recall reading.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Hessische-Polizei-hat-seit-Maerz-eine-Million-Kfz-Kennzeichen-gescannt--/meldung/99197

 amount of time. Even with disk prices falling they save lots
 and lots of money (even compared to what we charged them for
 telling them... :-) ).

Given where things are headed in Germany, I guarantee you Toll Collect
will be required by law to do data retention for at least a year or
two in less than 5 years.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Debatte-um-Zugriff-auf-LKW-Mautdaten-fuer-Fahndungen-geht-weiter--/meldung/76321

-- 
Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org
__
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A  7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-27 Thread dan

Bill Frantz writes, in part:
-+--
 | In the San Francisco Bay Area, they are using the transponder codes
 | to measure how fast traffic is moving from place to place. They
 | post the times to various destinations on the electric signs when
 | there are no Amber alerts or other more important things to
 | display. It is quite convenient, and they promise they don't use it
 | to track people's trips.
 |


Look for general tracking to appear everywhere.
Fast declining gasoline tax revenues will be
replaced with per-mile usage fees, i.e., every
major road becomes a toll road.  Most likely
first in will be California and/or Oregon.

The relationship to this list may then be thin
excepting that the collection and handling of
such data remains of substantial interest.  Of
course, everyone who carries a cell phone has
already decided that convenience trumps security,
at least the kind of security that says they
can't misuse what they ain't got.

--dan

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-27 Thread R.A. Hettinga


On Aug 27, 2008, at 7:10 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


The relationship to this list may then be thin
excepting that the collection and handling of
such data remains of substantial interest.


Actually, it points to cash settlement of road tolls.

Most likely digital bearer transaction settlement, in the long run.

But y'all knew I'd say that, right?

:-)

Cheers,
RAH

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-27 Thread Steven M. Bellovin
On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:10:51 -0400
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 
 Bill Frantz writes, in part:
 -+--
  | In the San Francisco Bay Area, they are using the transponder codes
  | to measure how fast traffic is moving from place to place. They
  | post the times to various destinations on the electric signs when
  | there are no Amber alerts or other more important things to
  | display. It is quite convenient, and they promise they don't use it
  | to track people's trips.
  |
 
 
 Look for general tracking to appear everywhere.
 Fast declining gasoline tax revenues will be
 replaced with per-mile usage fees, i.e., every
 major road becomes a toll road.  Most likely
 first in will be California and/or Oregon.
 
 The relationship to this list may then be thin
 excepting that the collection and handling of
 such data remains of substantial interest.  Of
 course, everyone who carries a cell phone has
 already decided that convenience trumps security,
 at least the kind of security that says they
 can't misuse what they ain't got.
 
There's a limit to how far they can go with that, because of the fear
of people abandoning the transponders.  For example -- they absolutely
will not use it for automated speeding tickets on, say, the NJ
Turnpike, because if they did people would stop using their EZPasses.
Given what a high percentage of drivers use them, especially at rush
hour, they make a significant improvement in throughput and safety at
toll plazas.  On congested roads, throughput is *extremely* important.

As for usage-based driving -- the first question is the political will
to do so.  In NYC, there's been tremendous resistance to things like
tolls over the East River bridges or congestion charges for driving
into much of Manhattan during the business day -- the Mayor tried very
hard, but was unable to push it through the state legislature.  That
said, I've seen some papers on how use of these transponders has
desensitized people towards the actual tolls they pay, and hence to
toll increases.

Finally, the transponders may not matter much longer; OCR on license
plates is getting that good.  As has already been mentioned, the 407
ETR road in Toronto already relies on this to some extent; it won't be
too much longer before the human assist is all but unneeded.


--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-27 Thread dan

  Personally, I don't want to have a history of my travel stored in any
  database. Right now, purchasing a one-time CharlieTicket is a 30 cent
  surcharge per ride, but it is the only way to take the subway in Boston
  without creating a travel history. Privacy in public transportation
  should be equally accessible to all citizens, regardless of financial
  resources.


I suspect that you, as do I, pay for as many things
in cash as humanly possible though, of course, we are
well past the point at which paying for an airline
ticket, say, in cash does anything more than make
you even more inspected than you would be if you
used credit.

That said, the 30c surcharge for having no record
kept for riding the subway is at once a price for
privacy that is at least expressed in the coin of
the realm and, at the same time, not a guarantee,
just a side effect.  If the MBTA general manager
were to say For 30c more, we promise to forget
you were a passenger he would be out of a job in
the morning at the Governor's demand and there'd
be wide agitation against the idea that better off
people get privacy when poor folks don't.  Do you
suppose that we can, just possibly, make privacy
into a class warfare issue?

We sort of do that already in that the people
who make privacy law, legislature and executive
alike, are afforded precisely zero privacy by
both the courts and the press.  As such, one has
to be a truly addled optimist to imagine that
those who have no privacy are nevertheless willing
to grant you more privacy than they have, unless
they are somehow nostalgic for what they themselves
lost in becoming a member of government.  Me, I
think that the loss of privacy required to become
part of government is a sieve for not caring about
such issues because, if you did care, you wouldn't
go into government in the first place.

--dan

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


RE: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 9:24 AM, Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21301/?a=f

From the article: other toll systems, like E-Z Pass and I-Pass, need
to be looked at too

A couple years ago I got a letter from E-Z Pass a few days after I
used my transponder in my new car without registering my new car. They
gave me a grace period to register before making me pay some sort of
penalty.

So, I believe, at least for E-Z Pass, the attack would have to include
cloning the license plate and pictures may still be available whenever
a victim realizes they have been charged for trips they did not take.

-Michael Heyman

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread Ken Buchanan
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 9:24 AM, Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
   Despite previous reassurances about the security of the system,
   Nate Lawson of Root Labs claims that the unique identity numbers
   used to identify the FasTrak wireless transponders carried in cars
   can be copied or overwritten with relative ease.


Nate hasn't disclosed details of the code that wirelessly overwrites a
transponder's ID.  The temptation would be too great for many to copy
an annoying neighbour's transponder ID, and then drive through a busy
mall parking lot cloning it onto every transponder in proximity.

As mentioned in the article, the vendors have claimed it was
read-only, even though it uses flash memory (I guess technically they
could cut the write line in manufacturing, but realistically that was
highly unlikely even before Nate did this work).  I would speculate
that they just looked at the high level design, which didn't contain
any specifications for features to write to memory, and decided that
meant 'read-only'.  In the meantime, the implementers don't see any
harm in adding a few extra features *beyond* what is in the design
(viz.: the overwrite code) especially where that might be useful for
testing and diagnostics.

As an aside: Isn't it noteworthy how much less press this has gotten
than the Boston subway hacks, even though it is (IMO) of much greater
severity?  There might be a lesson there for the Massachussetts Bay
Transit Authority.


Ken

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread Matt Blaze


On Aug 26, 2008, at 10:15, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 9:24 AM, Perry E. Metzger  
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21301/?a=f

From the article: other toll systems, like E-Z Pass and I-Pass, need

to be looked at too

A couple years ago I got a letter from E-Z Pass a few days after I
used my transponder in my new car without registering my new car. They
gave me a grace period to register before making me pay some sort of
penalty.

So, I believe, at least for E-Z Pass, the attack would have to include
cloning the license plate and pictures may still be available whenever
a victim realizes they have been charged for trips they did not take.



I believe that's correct.  In fact, the plate recognition technology  
they

use seems to be good enough to make the transponder itself redundant.
I know several people with E-Z Pass who disconnected the internal
battery of their transponder (out of concern that there might be
hidden readers around town that track vehicles at places other than
toll gates).   Even with dead transponders, their accounts are still
charged accurately when they pass toll gates.  (The sign displays EZ  
Pass

not read or some such thing, but the account is debited within a day
or two anyway).

-matt

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 10:52 -0400, Matt Blaze wrote:
 On Aug 26, 2008, at 10:15, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  So, I believe, at least for E-Z Pass, the attack would have to include
  cloning the license plate and pictures may still be available whenever
  a victim realizes they have been charged for trips they did not take.
 
 I believe that's correct.  In fact, the plate recognition technology  
 they
 use seems to be good enough to make the transponder itself redundant.
 I know several people with E-Z Pass who disconnected the internal
 battery of their transponder (out of concern that there might be
 hidden readers around town that track vehicles at places other than
 toll gates).   Even with dead transponders, their accounts are still
 charged accurately when they pass toll gates.  (The sign displays EZ  
 Pass
 not read or some such thing, but the account is debited within a day
 or two anyway).

This is the same for the state-wide Texas tag, TxTag[1].  If your tag
doesn't register, or you disable or remove it, the toll system can still
accurately bill you based on your license plate and vehicle
registration.  If you're not in the TxTag system at all, they simply
mail you a bill.

[1] http://www.txtag.org/

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread Ken Buchanan
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 11:56 AM, Dustin D. Trammell
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 This is the same for the state-wide Texas tag, TxTag[1].  If your tag
 doesn't register, or you disable or remove it, the toll system can still
 accurately bill you based on your license plate and vehicle
 registration.  If you're not in the TxTag system at all, they simply
 mail you a bill.

I think this is a bit different than what Michael Heyman said.  TxTag,
IIRC, was implemented by the same company (Raytheon) that implemented
the 407 ETR toll system in Toronto.  In the case of the 407, there is
no image recognition done if the car has a valid transponder.  Only in
the case of a missing or invalid transponder is the plate imagery
used.  Supposedly the OCR has a high enough error rate that there is
still manual verification of plates before sending a bill, and
accordingly a $3.60 additional charge is applied per trip.

If the images are used even when the vehicle has a valid transponder
-- as Michael Heyman suggests is happening with E-ZPass -- then it
might be feasible to have back end defenses against cloning, though
not without inconvenience to customers who borrow cars, buy new cars,
or rent cars while their own is getting serviced.  Also as Matt Blaze
pointed out this makes the transponder wholly redundant.

Ken

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread John Levine
  So, I believe, at least for E-Z Pass, the attack would have to include
  cloning the license plate and pictures may still be available whenever
  a victim realizes they have been charged for trips they did not take.

The 407 toll road in Toronto uses entirely automated toll collection.
They offer transponders (which, annoyingly, are the same system as
NY's EZ-Pass but don't interoperate) for commuters and trucks, but for
casual use by cars, it reads your plates and sends you a bill.

I can report from experience that when I use it with my NY plates, I
always get a bill a month or so later.

R's,
John

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread Dustin D. Trammell
On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 13:22 -0400, Ken Buchanan wrote:
 On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 11:56 AM, Dustin D. Trammell
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  This is the same for the state-wide Texas tag, TxTag[1].  If your tag
  doesn't register, or you disable or remove it, the toll system can still
  accurately bill you based on your license plate and vehicle
  registration.  If you're not in the TxTag system at all, they simply
  mail you a bill.
 
 I think this is a bit different than what Michael Heyman said.  TxTag,
 IIRC, was implemented by the same company (Raytheon) that implemented
 the 407 ETR toll system in Toronto.  In the case of the 407, there is
 no image recognition done if the car has a valid transponder.  Only in
 the case of a missing or invalid transponder is the plate imagery
 used.  Supposedly the OCR has a high enough error rate that there is
 still manual verification of plates before sending a bill, and
 accordingly a $3.60 additional charge is applied per trip.
 
 If the images are used even when the vehicle has a valid transponder
 -- as Michael Heyman suggests is happening with E-ZPass -- then it
 might be feasible to have back end defenses against cloning, though
 not without inconvenience to customers who borrow cars, buy new cars,
 or rent cars while their own is getting serviced.  Also as Matt Blaze
 pointed out this makes the transponder wholly redundant.

I can confirm that they definitely use imagery even when a valid
transponder is detected.  A couple years or so ago I had to put my
vehicle in the shop and use the wife's for a few days.  I assumed that I
could use my TxTag in her vehicle, and it would simply bill my account,
however a couple of weeks later I received a bill for the tolls, billed
to the owner of her vehicle at our address.  When I called to inquire,
they informed me that it did read the transponder, but mismatched with
the plates.  There was a grace period during which I could update the
transponder to the new vehicle and avoid the fines, but as I would be
getting my vehicle back in a few days, I opted to just order a second
transponder for her car.  They were kind enough to transfer the tolls to
the new transponder and waive the fees.

-- 
Dustin D. Trammell
Security Researcher
BreakingPoint Systems, Inc.


signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part


Re: road toll transponder hacked

2008-08-26 Thread Bill Frantz
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ken Buchanan) on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 wrote:

I think this is a bit different than what Michael Heyman said.  TxTag,
IIRC, was implemented by the same company (Raytheon) that implemented
the 407 ETR toll system in Toronto.  In the case of the 407, there is
no image recognition done if the car has a valid transponder.  Only in
the case of a missing or invalid transponder is the plate imagery
used.  Supposedly the OCR has a high enough error rate that there is
still manual verification of plates before sending a bill, and
accordingly a $3.60 additional charge is applied per trip.

If the images are used even when the vehicle has a valid transponder
-- as Michael Heyman suggests is happening with E-ZPass -- then it
might be feasible to have back end defenses against cloning, though
not without inconvenience to customers who borrow cars, buy new cars,
or rent cars while their own is getting serviced.  Also as Matt Blaze
pointed out this makes the transponder wholly redundant.

I could see where knowing what the license plate should be, from
the transponder code, could feed back into the OCR and only
generate a hit when the disagreement was obvious.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, they are using the transponder codes
to measure how fast traffic is moving from place to place. They
post the times to various destinations on the electric signs when
there are no Amber alerts or other more important things to
display. It is quite convenient, and they promise they don't use it
to track people's trips.

If one were paranoid, one could put a different ID into the
transponder for each trip, and only put the one it was issued with
into it for toll crossings. :-)

Cheers - Bill

---
Bill Frantz|We used to quip that password is the most common
408-356-8506   | password. Now it's 'password1.' Who said users haven't
www.periwinkle.com | learned anything about security? -- Bruce Schneier

-
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]