Las Vegas : DefCon Day 1
And the hacking begins!
I finished off my day of work and headed to the airport to take off for Vegas for the weekend. On my lunch break I checked into my flight and expected to print out my boarding pass. The option was there, but there was another option. One that I’ve never seen before: Save to your mobile device. ?!
Hell yeah, I’m down to try this out. What it did was email a link to my iPhone. When you click on the link, the browser opens to a page that displays a barcode, and all my flight details (see the image below).
When I arrived at the security checkpoint, the little Indian man asked for my boarding pass and I showed him the webpage on my phone. He balked a little about needing a paper boarding pass with gate information, but I firmly insisted that this was all that was necessary… and he let me pass. Social Engineering Tactic #1: Success.
My next interaction was the security lady that was to check my boarding pass with my ID. When I showed her my phone, she smiled and told me how she’d heard about these but never got to scan one. I was her first. Awww. I hope she remembers me :). Anyway, after scanning my phone she didn’t even ask me for my ID. She just handed me my phone and said I could go through. I asked if she needed my ID and she said that it was verified through the scan. Ummm…what? I dunno if I’d call that an SE tactic, but definately got around security (without even trying). Success?
Next I as to strip down and walk through the metal detector. When I walked through, the security guard asked for my boarding pass. I told him thy it was on my phone. Deer in headlights. “let me see boarding pass”.
“Umm, I don’t have a paper one. I have an electronic one on my phone,” I said.
“you must carry boarding pass with you to give to me!”
“ok. Dude… It’s on my PHONE! I can’t carry a phone through the metal detector!”.
“oh. Ok. Go ahead”
?!
SE #3? Success I guess. (oh. Still no request for my ID.)
When I arrived at my gate they had just begin boarding first class. Great timing! Next they announced boarding for Elite Members. I’m not an elite member, but it’s a full flight to vegas and I’m sitting in the first row. This means I’m last to board and there will be no room for my bag and it’ll have to be cheked. Crap.
So I board :).
The ticket taker asks for my boarding pass and I handed him my phone. He looked back at me and told me that they were only boarding elite members right now. So I told him that I was an elite member, but that the status wasn’t on the phone pass thing.
I boarded. 
SE #4… Success!
On to Vegas baby!
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