How to Disable an RFID Tag with your Cellphone
Wednesday, February 15th, 2006
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags–tiny wireless circuits that derive their power from radio waves and cost just pennies to make–have quickly found their way into identification badges, shipping containers, even ordinary store products. Because, unlike barcodes, the tags can be read surreptitiously, a number of groups have raised privacy concerns. To address these concerns, leading RFID makers have created so-called “Gen 2″ chips that will divulge their data only after a reader transmits the correct password. The new chips can also be triggered by a different password to silently self-destruct, for example as a customer leaves a store.
Encryption protects the password transmission. But renowned cryptographer Adi Shamir of Weizmann University claims to have found a way to bypass the encryption scheme and obtain the self-destruct password using technology no more sophisticated than that in a common cell phone.
Shamir announced the discovery this morning at the 2006 RSA Conference, a large computer security meeting opening today in San Jose, Calif. “Everyone expects that there will soon be billions of these tags in circulation,” Shamir noted. “We bought one of the major-brand RFID tags and tried to break into it by power analysis,” he said.
RFID tags have no battery or internal power source; they obtain the energy they need to operate by sucking it out of the radio signals they absorb. But in doing so, every computation of the RFID circuit modifes the radio environment. Shamir and his coworkers used a simple directional antenna to monitor the power consumption of an RFID tag as they transmitted correct and incorrect passwords to the device slowly, one bit at a time.
“We could easily notice a power spike after the first bit that the chip didn’t like,” Shamir recalls. By starting over and modifying the offensive bit, the researchers were able to derive quickly the kill password for the tag.
“We believe that a cell phone has all the ingredients needed to detect these passwords and disable all the RFIDs in the area,” Shamir says.
If confirmed by others, the flaw would raise serious questions about the suitability of current RFIDs for use in theft prevention, employee idenfication and other applications.
August 7th, 2008 at 5:55 am
i luv n worship u. keep it up.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I would like to know how you can disable a RFID tag or chip with a cellphone?OR how to disable a electronic mind control device or chip?
February 9th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I Have a Rimage DVD Writer and Printer, What it is…… you can look it up here http://rimage.cd-writer.com/catalog/rimage-2000i-cd-dvd-publisher-p-6803.html
It take the HP Print Cartridge 56 Black and 57 Color……. BUT you can only use the Cartridge from Rimage, witch are the 56 and 57 Cartridge, but they have a RFID tag in it so you can’t used the HP ones in the store only the HP from Rimage witch are more expensive….. so do you know anybody who can bypass this, I would like to use the HP Cartridge I can get in the store down the street, and not pay the high cost from Rimage…….
Thank you
February 10th, 2009 at 6:01 am
I place all my new clothes an shoes in the micowave.
be carefull not to burn a hole in the fabric as the rfid gets really hot.
Worked with my passport too.
why in Gods name does someone need to know who I am from 30 feet away.
If you want to know who I am just ask.
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 pm
WRT the ink cartridge issue: If you were to buy an expensive cartridge, use it up, remove the ID circuit(look for the electrical contacts on the cartridge), then wire it into printer’s circuit permanently – you should be able to use the cheaper cartridges from then on. Keep in mind that some of the contacts on the cartridge will be for ink level readings. You will want to keep this part of your printers circuitry intact and only bypass the ID portion. A much easier, safer, and even cheaper way would be to refill the rip-off cartridges with a refill kit. All printer manufacturers are ripping us all off with the price of ink. The cost of manufacturing ink is extremely low.
April 12th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Wayne did you ever figure out a good way to do it? I have an older model rimage that they no longer even support. That means I can’t get their cartridges anymore. The HP ones are available but of course I can’t get them to validate. How do I know where it receives the signal?
June 6th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
What I want to know is, is it possible to permanently disable a cell phone remotely? It would be sweet to disable a person’s phone when they
‘re driving recklessly while talking on their phone.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I heard that if you trigger an old Genie garage door opener, that it will interfere with a cell phone. I’m going to get up and go in the kitchen and try it right now. Be right back. Well, that didn’t work. My husband and I were in the kitchen on our cell phones and triggered our opener. The cell phones didn’t shut off, but the garage door did open. LOL Sorry. LOL
Did you hear the latest? The theory is that they are using the H1N1 vaccine to inject us all with RFIDS (radio frequency identification devices). YIKES! It’s just a theory, get your shots. Still, you never really expect stuff like this to even be conceived of. It just seems like science fiction, hard to believe, but you have to be constantly diligent. Thanks for the microwave tip. Never thought to do that, but certainly will in the future.