Well the day is almost upon us! It’s not going to be very scientific as I’ve no idea which hotels or where the majority of these cards came from but I’m borrowing a magstripe reader from work (which just happens to be the same model supported by common black hat carding software :-S maybe I’ll skim my credit card while I’m at it) and I’ll finally get to see if hotels are still doing silly things like storing sensitive info on the cards.

Most of these cards are magstripe cards with the odd ISO 7816 or 13.56mhz RFID card thrown in so I’ll hopefully be able to put together another post of the process and the hardware used but for now… behold my collection of hotel cards :

For those that don’t know, SDR stands for Software Defined Radio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio). What this means that all the usual hardware gubbins of a radio (mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/demodulators etc) are replaced with software running on your computer. With this, bug fixes and new features are easily implemented and with the processing power of modern processors we can watch a large bandwidth at once as well as changing mode (AM, FM, Side Band, digital modes, etc.) all done within software!

The guys at osmocom that developed the Open Source GSM stack for Motorola phones, started a new project called OsmoSDR (http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/), and from this an offshoot, RTL-SDR (http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/blog/rtl-sdr-introduction), project using cheap DVB-T USB receivers came about. The receivers supported by RTL-SDR are based on the RTL2832U chip and E4000 tuner.

This picture shows a 2MHz window of our local FM Radio segment – 2MHz at once! Try and do that with your scanner! On the right, the top window shows the spectrum analyser, and the bottom window shows a waterfall output or the signals in the segment. You can adjust the bandwidth, filters, squelch (for FM). From this picture you can see three strong and one weak radio station. Bonus points to those that can identify them

This picture shows the same spectrum, but with a 3.2MHz window – notice the extra stations.

What can we do with RTL-SDR? Watch segments of radio spectrum (in the range of 64 – 1700 MHz with a gap from approx. 1100 – 1250 MHz) and identify signals. Analyse those signals and even try to decode any content. All done within software. For under £12.

Here’s a couple of youtube videos that help show SDR in use:

Videos:
FM Radio Test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj9iTg0G4Go
Pager reception: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFkk6rkCX40
UHF Milsat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kt6JNNRGq8

URLs:
http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/
http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/blog/rtl-sdr-introduction
http://wiki.spench.net/wiki/USRP_Interfaces

It does 2.5 or 3.5 inch drives , it can operate in stand alone mode or you can hook it up to an external drive.

http://www.integral-storage.com/product/hard-drive-copy-station

http://wiki.eclipse.org/Jetty/Howto/Secure_Passwords

and the source for this class can be found at the following URL, which comes with a handy de-obfuscation routine at around line 153:

Jetty Password Utility Class

Because Java makes you feel dirty I re-wrote it in python as a stand alone utility:

# Jetty Deobfuscation Tool

import sys

def d_jetty(ct):

	pt = ""
	b = bytearray(len(ct)/4)
	i=0

	for x in b:

		t = ct[i:i+4]
		i0 = int(t,36)
		i1 = i0 / 256
		i2 = i0 % 256
		x = (i1+i2-254)/2
		pt+=chr(x)
		i+=4

	return pt



if (len(sys.argv) == 2):
	raw_ct = sys.argv[1]
else:
	print "Jetty Deobfuscation Tool v1.0"
	print "./jdt <string>"
	exit(0)

print d_jetty(raw_ct)

To set up this project we have to have an idea of how much is needed each year. If we go on the basis of renting a space in Belfast (we’re assuming this is were the majority of people will use the space) then you are looking at between £250-600 per month, depending on size and location. Then there’s electric, heating (for the winter), internet access, rates (do we get discount for non-profit organisation?), insurance, general maintenance, bog rolls We’re basing it on a year as rent/insurance etc all need to be signed up for a year and we dont’ want people bailing out 1/2 way through and leaving the others to cover the costs!

Here’s a rough tally of costs:

From this we reckon it’s going to cost £8800 per year to run a space. To generate this sort of money we’re thinking of setting a guide of £300 per year for members. This seems a lot (and it is!) but if you break it down it’s only £25 per month. If we can get 20 people to cough up £300 then that’s a good part of the costs covered (in principle)!

We’ve also thought about going to local tech companies for a “donation” to help fund the space. If we got 10 companies donating £250, that’s a good chunk of the goal met. What to they get for their money? The chance to help local guys meet, come up with ideas, work on project and learn new skills. Skills that they might be able to call upon.

We’d also thought about selling items, t-shirts, recycled hardware etc, but this might be something we have to put on hold until after the “goal” is reached. If you go back to the theory – the goal has to be reached within the time limit, or no money is taken.

So, we’ve started a plan, we need your comments/suggestions/corrections. This is the part where we need your feedback. If we don’t get enough feedback from you guys, we’ll not even bother setting up a project and a goal. If you think the costs are too small/big, let us know. If you think that £300 for the year is WAY to much, let us know. We need your feedback.

TJ & A

If you’re interested in programming, like to take things apart and see what happens if you mess with hardware, or want to know more about some of the the pitfalls of network and computer security (as well as how to prevent them), come along and mess with a group of like minded people

The success of these hackerspace events depends ENTIRELY on your support. If you want Belfast and NI to have a hackerspace, please show your support!