Tired of airport security queues? SQL inject yourself into the cockpit, claim researchers

Cybersecurity researchers say they've found a vulnerability that allowed them to skip US airport security checks and even fly in the cockpit on some scheduled flights. Ian Carroll and Sam Curry worked on the findings together after the Known Crewmember (KCM) queue caught their attention at an airport during their routine …

[elDog]

I'm sure FlyCASS considers safety and security as its highest priority.

"Carroll says that the first port of call would ordinarily have been to alert FlyCASS, but the researchers opted against this since "it appeared to be operated only by one person and we did not want to alarm them."

The sole proprietor quickly notified his CSO who worked with the QA teams and ran extensive red/black tests.

Amazing that the US DHS and other federal agencies don't vet their vendors very well.

[wolfetone]

Re: I'm sure FlyCASS considers safety and security as its highest priority.

"We were subject to a sophisticated attack" - FlyCASS.

[b0llchit]

Re: I'm sure FlyCASS considers safety and security as its highest priority.

Right,...

';DROP TABLE planesInFlight; INSERT INTO allowedItemsOnBoard VALUES ('gun','knife','cannon','rifle','dynamite');

[Kane]

Re: I'm sure FlyCASS considers safety and security as its highest priority.

Ahh, Little Bobby Tables!

[Dan 55]

Re: I'm sure FlyCASS considers safety and security as its highest priority.

Amazing that acceptance testing did not pick this up.

[EricB123]

Re: I'm sure FlyCASS considers safety and security as its highest priority.

Just once, JUST ONCE, can't someone just admit "Wow, we really fucked that one up"?

[Lon24]

DiCaprio Deprecated

Why go to all that bother of forgery, conning a uniform and forking out to the Ladybird Book on Piloting to get to a jump seat? And all that before airport security was supposed to be taken seriously.

I presume Ian and Sam have been signed up to 'Catch Me If You Can 2 - Frank Bytes Back'

[sitta_europea]

Re: DiCaprio Deprecated

"Why go to all that bother of forgery, conning a uniform and forking out to the Ladybird Book on Piloting to get to a jump seat?"

Before last night, the first time I saw that movie, and the same day this report came out on elReg, I wouldn't have understood the reference.

The coincidence of timing made the hair on my forearms stand on end.

[Charlie Clark]

Sounds about right

These schemes are always dreamt up overnight and then dumped on some underling to "make it happen" and the DHS is probably worth than most. It was dreamt up after September 2001 and was mainly a repository for cheap airport security, with federal employees exempt from minimum wage. Whoever came up with it has long since pocketed their bonuses and is probably enjoying their retirement but might well reply: "if it took them this long to discover, it was obviously good enough".

[An_Old_Dog]

Exploits of a Mom (Again)

"Little Bobby Tables" -- xkcd.com/327/

Sigh. All too easy.

[MiguelC]

Re: Exploits of a Mom (Again)

Little old Bobby Tables never ceases to amaze us (and security pros). I'm pretty sure he'll have grandchildren for our grandchildren to learn about :)

[Steve Graham]

Re: Exploits of a Mom (Again)

That's CAPTAIN Bobby Tables, reporting for duty.

[Rich 11]

Re: Exploits of a Mom (Again)

"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

[Gene Cash]

"TSA has procedures in place..."

Do I smell a deep pile of bullshit? I believe I do.

I don't believe a single word of those last two paragraphs.

[Joe W]

Re: "TSA has procedures in place..."

Well.... they can in fact check the ID of the person and compare it to the name and information in the portal.

it's just that those are wrong.

[a_builder]

Re: "TSA has procedures in place..."

The ID could be anything that an airport would accept….

Problem is that details matching the ID could be inserted in the list of valid persons.

[Sampler]

Re: "TSA has procedures in place..."

No, they have procedures in place.

The adequacy of such procedures was not part of the question...

[veti]

Re: "TSA has procedures in place..."

The statement "there are no transportation security impacts" is clearly not true. If it were, why did they make any changes at all?

It's the worst kind of corporate bullshit, designed to shut down awkward questions rather than actually allowing anyone to learn from them, because that would mean admitting a cockup.

[DS999]

I see that the TSA

Subscribes to a "head in the sand" security policy.

Removing information from their website without changing the policy that was detailed in that information is the worst kind of security through obscurity bullshit. Hopefully terrorists don't start employing elite blackhats for their next big plan.

[Spamfast]

Be afraid, be very afraid ... of the wrong thing.

I have no experience of the TSA having not had to use any US airports on my travels either before or after the terrorist catastophes in and around 2001.

But the organisation and especially its, probably underpaid & undertrained, staff seem to be held in contempt by many Americans from the jokes and comments in the media and places like this forum.

It seems pretty clear to me that much of the additional security measures at airports I have used - mostly in Europe and especially those in the UK - are more for reassurance that 'the government is doing something about this threat' than actually to make us safer.

It has also of course been a feeding frenzy for service companies and shoddy security tech slingers who have been able to fleece the taxpayers for all this with the help of their paid-for politicians and civil servants.

And of course the added inconvenience and FUD for the rest of us is exactly what the terrorists wanted to provoke.

[Martin Gregorie]

Re: Be afraid, be very afraid ... of the wrong thing.

As it happens,I have that experiece: I flew into Denver about two weeks after 9/11 and, because I'm a glider pilot and intended to fly gliders in the USA, I had my UK log book and license documentation with me.

The procedure for getting a US ticket was to visit the appropriate office (that was Denver for me, since I was visiting friends there and intended to validate my US licnce, when issued, at Boulder. Getting into the Denver CAA office was scary, since I was to be escorted to the relevant desk by a heavily armed door guard, who took me to the appropriate desk and then left. The surprise was that, US licence issued, I was than left to find my own way out when I'd expected to be escorted out as well, and so was never checked out. Sloppy security or what?

Paperwork issued, I drove to Boulder airport for check flights to validate my new US license. This involved aero towed launches in a Grob G103: (no huhu as my UK club had one ands I was already solo on type) and, a few days later, ended up it it at 17,000 on oxygen over downtown Boulder: fun! Subsequently, I flew flew other gliders in CA at Williams and Minden and got a type conversion to the Pegasus 103 at Williams - worth while as my UK club has one and I intended to fly it.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Be afraid, be very afraid ... of the wrong thing.

Presumably they weren't concerned that you would deliberately crash a glider into a office tower.

After all, no-fuel can't melt steel beams

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Be afraid, be very afraid ... of the wrong thing.

Otherwise know as ... Security Theatre <-- Right pondian spelling

I am more scared of the complacency of the TSA than I am of the Terrorists

I don't want 'theatre' to *feel* safe, I want to *be* safe !!!

:)

[spireite]

Obligatory reference...

Shirley not....

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for IAG and something like this is: a) incredibly common, and; b) not even the worst thing that is hackable.

Poorly run and implemented SaaS “solutions” that manage critical flight infrastructure and ancient shit running on MSDOS where “username” is just a variable that is used on the print template is rampant everywhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you expect when IAG and its airlines outsource tons of stuff to the likes of TCS...

[Anonymous Coward]

TCS are involved in systems supporting airport and airline security?

That's it, I'm never flying again.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry, for the really important stuff you're in safe hands, Boeing outsource to HCL.