Passport RFID cloning with $250 of off-the-shelf parts

[unixronin]

Those new secure¹ RFID passports?  The ones that the US Government is so certain can't be faked?

Using inexpensive off-the-shelf components, an information security expert has built a mobile platform that can clone large numbers of the unique electronic identifiers used in US passport cards and next generation drivers licenses.

The $250 proof-of-concept device - which researcher Chris Paget built in his spare time - operates out of his vehicle and contains everything needed to sniff and then clone RFID, or radio frequency identification, tags.  During a recent 20-minute drive in downtown San Francisco, it successfully copied the RFID tags of two passport cards without the knowledge of their owners.

Got two passports just driving randomly around SF.  Now imagine how many you could get, sitting in the vicinity of the international departures lounge at SFO innocently reading a book, or sitting in the parking lot across the street from the DMV office...

Because the technology employs no encryption and can be read from distances of more than a mile, the tags are highly susceptible to cloning and tracking, researchers have concluded.

[...]

Paget's device has a range of about 30 feet, making it ideal for discretely skimming the EDL and passport card tags of people who pass by his vehicle.  With modifications, Paget says his device could read RFID identifiers that are more than a mile away.

[1]  According to the government...

Comments

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

It keeps my Bay Area Fastrak transponder from being read by anything when it is stored in my glove compartment.
And I have heard from other sources as well that Mylar Bags make an OK Faraday Cage.
You do need to make sure that the bag completely surrounds the item being secured from snooping. My Fastrak bag completely contains the transponder then flops over and has a piece of sticky tape to keep the flap closed. There are no gaps in the mylar enclosure.
I've heard the passport holders are similar with the mylar being between two pieces of stuff (leather, plastic, fabric) and then the holder closes around the passport. Should work.