Paid parking is a cancer on society

See rant above...

Free Parking??

If it were me, I'd just look between New York Avenue and Kentucky Ave. Of course if I were in the UK, it would be between The Strand and Vine Street.

Then again, I've got one of those remote transponders (called FasTrak here) that does parking now at the local airport. A nice man-in-middle attack ought to work there!

Nothing new under the sun

Years ago, a cerrtain well-known UK company started making staff use swipe cards to pay for stuff in the restaurant and staff shop, and we were supposed to go and put our money on the card *before* buying stuff. Of course, most people would load their cards at the start of the week or, in some cases, put loadsamoney on every (monthly) payday - thus letting the company collect the dosh and earn the interest.

The thing was, it didn't take long for the electronics whizzes to work out that they only needed to put the money on one card, then clone it using equipment they had just lying around... and since they dumped the data from the real card onto the computer in their lab, they never needed to put real money on at all... they just copied the 'full' card back to their empty ones. This worked even after the company switched to an rfid-based card.

Unfortunately I left just after they brought in the version that read the serial number from the card (different number every card, and the system monitored how much was put on and when), so I don't know how they got around that...

Laundry

My Flat utilizes a pay card system for the laundry facility... at $1.10 to wash and $1.10 to dry it costs me nearly $40 a week to do laundry when just across town there is a $0.25 a load laundry mat, and pick up / drop off laundry service would cost $50 / week... I fail to see why I should pay this much and have been tempted to get a card reader for the purpose of leveling the playing field... yet alas I look rather drab in stripes.

but can they

play Tetris on it?

eBay ?

OK, call me sceptical, but just how do Parking Meters come up for sale on eBay ? I mean I've seen some fairly weird shit, but Parking Meters ? Sadly I'm at work and can't visit the tat bazaar to find out if there are any currently available - anyone

I guess anything is possible in the good ol' U. S. of A.

Paris? - I don't think anyone has cloned the key for her slot

@Laundry

<<... at $1.10 to wash and $1.10 to dry it costs me nearly $40 a week to do laundry>>

Christ-on-a-bike! Do you do one sock at a time??? Can't you pop a washing machine in the bathroom like we have? Costs next to Bugger Hall. Watching it do its stuff must be vastly more entertaining than 'Merkan TV channels...

@ Andus McCoatover

You sir owe me a new keyboard!

I was just about to say at $2.20 for a wash and dry that is about 18 wash/dry cycles per week so iether they are doing the laundry for everyone in the apartment block or, as you suggest the machines are incredibly small requiring the washing of each item individually

$40 per week, $200 per month, fuck me just throw your old clothes away and buy some new stuff.....

Re: eBay?

Er, you don't use eBay much I take it then?

Parking meters are actually at the more sensible end of the spectrum here. Doesn't even warrant a "WTF?", but they can have one anyway.

Who would take advantage of this?

Perhaps someone who was fined £60 after cable-tied "pay over there" signs were removed by vandals so they didn't know they had to walk several hundred yards in the wrong direction to find a ticket machine...

That's who.

All this complicated techno fuss

In the good old days of coin operated parking meters all that you needed to crack those devices was a 10lb Sledge Hammer.

Now these people use fancy mancy smart cards.

Tsk Tsk, a 10 lb sledge hammer will have the same effect on the new stuff. ...

Modern Youth - I ask you.

Sledghammer, how amateur

remember the guys that got caught driving about london with a 7tonn van and hundreds of parking meters in the back.

they reversed over the meters and then chucked them in the back..... off to the next one...

they made a fortune...

but got caught when a witness to thier escapades rang the police.

that must be have been a first...

the police actually bothering to turn up to nick some villans whist on the job.

whatever next...

Attack Vectors.

This is nothing new. There is always one problem with large scale projects like this. The systems are off-line. Thus meaning the monetary value of the parking has to be stored on the card.

There are multiple ways to get information on the data structure on the card.

The cheaper system will use off the shelf cards that just read/write in any smartcard reader.

You take a dump of a card. And use it in the meter. Take another dump and analyse the two dumps and you will see where the value is stored.

Using a data interceptor to log conversations. You can do this within 30 seconds sat next to the meter with a laptop.

Breaking into the meter to install software/hardware to intercept data.

This mostly resolves down to the meter not checking the value written to the card was written by a legitimate source.

I don't feed the meters...

One of the advantages of having a disabled parking placard...