[Qtip]

ATM Hack Uncovered
Posted by Kevin Poulsen at 3:42 PM PDT
A security expert in New York has learned how to get free money from some ATMs by entering a special code sequence on the PIN pad.

Last week, news reports circulated about a cyber thief who strolled into a gas station in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and, with no special equipment, reprogrammed the mini ATM in the corner to think it had $5.00 bills in its dispensing tray, instead of $20.00 bills.

Using a pre-paid debit card, the crook then made a withdrawal, and casually strolled off with a 300% profit in his pocket.

Foolishly, he left the ATM misprogrammed this way for 9 days -- presumably to the delight of other customers -- before a good Samaritan reported the issue and exposed the caper.

How, exactly, he pulled off the swindle remained unreported. Curious, Dave Goldsmith, a computer security researcher at Matasano Security began poking around. Based on CNN's video, he identified the ATM as a Tranax Mini Bank 1500 series.

He then set out to see if he could get a copy of the manual for the apparently-vulnerable machine to find out how the hack worked. Fifteen minutes later, he reported success.

I am holding in my hands a legitimately obtained copy of the manual. There are a lot of security sensitive things inside of this manual. As promised, I am not going to reveal them, but there are:

* Instructions on how to enter the diagnostic mode.
* Default passwords
* Default Combinations For the Safe


Do not ask me for them.

I didn't have to. Following his clues, I found a copy of the Tranax manual online, from a third-party website, within a few seconds. Sure enough, it includes a special key sequence to put the ATM into "Operator Mode." Passwords are required from there, but the default passwords are listed.

The manual suggests operators change the default passwords. Presumably, Tranax sent out a reminder of this important tip last week after the Virginia heist appeared on CNN. Otherwise, expect long lines at the ATM for a while.