On the coast near where you come out of the Tunnels in Fristad Rock, you can find a door behind some breakable wood. Making machines more difficult to be physically breached or have their firmware manipulated doesn't just protect owners from product loss, it can protect users' sensitive financial data.This door is one of the hardest to open but also more than worth prioritising as you'll unlock a load of really useful info that will give you a massive head start in the game. Hacking a vending machine might seem like the kind of thing a bunch of bored contractors or kids might do, but there is potential for a determined hacker to walk away with thousands of credit card numbers.
Have a reputable security consultant audit software to spot vulnerabilities before they become serious issues. To protect data, be extra careful with network-connected machines, and always encrypt anything sent over TCP/IP. Tubular pin locks also aren't very secure, and should be avoided whenever possible. Any cables entering the machine should come up through the base, not through the back where they can be easily accessed and manipulated. Machines should be bolted to the floor to prevent tipping, and a good tipping sensor should not be able to be disabled by a magnet or other external device. To keep a vending machine safe, look at its physical safety first. Hacks are pretty specific to vendors and models of machine, and, while no vending machine is absolutely foolproof, there are measures manufacturers can take to protect their property and their users' data. A hacker stealing a soda now and then may seem low stakes, but a hacker stealing a week's worth of transaction information is a much bigger problem. Nonetheless, it still behooves manufacturers to secure their machines and data.
There are plenty of YouTube videos and blog posts detailing ways to hack vending machines for free products, but the majority of these fall squarely in the realm of clickbait-the creators are less interested in actually hacking machines than they are in getting views. Fortunately, most hacks don't work.įor people at all familiar with the kind of questionable advice given in things like “The Anarchist's Cookbook,” it probably isn't at all surprising to find that most of the hacking instructions readily available on the web are either completely bogus, outdated, or the end product of a game of internet telephone.
It's also possible for hackers to install pass-through devices to alter information sent through ethernet cables connected to the machine, or attach credit card skimmers to the interface.
A hacker could use a programmed card just as they would a normal credit or debit card, install the firmware mod, and then return at a later time to retrieve all of the card numbers and PINs collected by the mod in the interval.
In other cases, machines may vulnerable to firmware mods originating from chip and pin cards. This gave the hackers the ability to obtain pretty much unlimited free snacks, while the vending machine was left unable to tell that no money had been exchanged. In one notable example, a handful of CIA contractors managed to circumvent this by disconnecting a network cable during the transaction, preventing the machine from confirming that the payment cards they used actually had any funds. Methods vary depending on what the hackers are after. Still other hackers may be after something more sinister than a couple of free sodas-like the card numbers and PINs of everyone who uses the machine. Modern vending machines are constructed to be resistant to brute-force physical hacks (like rocking a machine back and forth to shake the goods loose), and even incorporate artificial intelligence. Who wouldn't want free food and drinks? Others might view the machines as a challenge. Why vending machines?įor some hackers, it might be a matter of convenience. Unlike the earliest attempts to hack vending machines-usually using a coin and a piece of tape, or even a blank metal slug-both hackers and vending machines have made things a little more sophisticated. They're generally unattended for significant amounts of time, so it isn't particularly difficult for a hacker to find a window to get free snacks, or even money.
Vending machines are a prime target for hacking attempts. Press Room What You Need To Know About Vending Machine Hacking