Nikhil Kumar Singh

NFC Security

NFC is widely used for authentication purposes. For example: NFC gate pass, NFC based rail ticketing, etc. But how secure real world NFC based authentication really is? I did a research, which lasted 2 years, to break into one of the major rail service in Delhi, DMRC. I was able to successfully recharge cards for free and travel for free and much more.

My talk will go into really basics of a communication technology and how to break it. Please note that its not going to be a NFC 101, I’ll only talk about a particular family of MIFARE NFC cards called MIFARE DESFIRE cards which are encrypted.

The story was also published in TechCrunch - https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/02/india-delhi-metro-smart-card-bug/