The hacker ‘Plore’ demonstrated that it possible to bypass security measures implemented by German manufacturer Armatix for its smart gun.
When the gun first fired without authentication “I almost didn’t believe it had actually worked. I had to fire it again,” the researcher said. “And that’s how I found out for $15 (£11.50) of materials you can defeat the security of this $1,500 (£1,150) smart gun.” said Plore.
Plore demonstrated that he was also able to jam the radio frequency band (916.5Mhz) used by the smart gun from ten feet away by using a cheap transmitter device $20 (£15).
The radio waves emitted by the transmitter device prevent the owner from firing the gun even when he is wearing the smartwatch.
Plore also bypassed the security mechanism implemented for the smart gun by using a custom-built $20 RF amplifier to extend the range of the smartwatch. When the owner squeezes the trigger, the gun sends out a signal to check whether the watch is there or not.
The researcher was able to intercept the signal sent by the smart gun to check for the presence of the watch when the owner was trying to fire. The custom device allows extending the range by up to 12 feet, an attacker could bypass the security measure wearing the watch distance.
“When the shooter squeezes the gun’s handle, it sends out an RFID signal to check if the watch is present. But Plore showed he could place one of his radio devices near the watch to intercept the signal, and relay it to another gadget as far as 12 feet away. That means the gun doesn’t need to be next to the shooter’s wrist, as intended, but can instead be held by someone else, breaking its tight identity restrictions.” reported Wired.
Evidently smart guns are not so smart.
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(Security Affairs – smart gun, hacking)
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