Practical Attacks on NFC Enabled Cell Phones

Author

Verdult, Roel ; Kooman, Francois

Author_Institution

Inst. for Comput. & Inf. Sci., Radboud Univ., Nijmegen, Netherlands

fYear

2011

fDate

22-22 Feb. 2011

Firstpage

77

Lastpage

82

Abstract

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enables devices to communicate wirelessly within proximity distance. These NFC devices are often embedded into smart posters that offer the ability to exchange small files, photos and contact details. The Nokia 6212 Classic is currently the most popular NFC phone. It allows users to easily exchange digital objects using the NFC interface. To do so, two phones should be within the proximity coupling distance of 5 cm. This paper shows that the NFC feature that invokes a Bluetooth connection without user consent can be abused to surreptitiously install malicious software on the phone. This results in a serious vulnerability when smart posters start installing malicious software or spreading viruses.

Keywords

Bluetooth; cellular radio; Bluetooth connection; NFC; Nokia 6212 classic; cell phone; distance 5 cm; malicious software; near field communication technology; smart poster; virus; Bluetooth; Business; Hardware; Mobile handsets; Payloads; Protocols; Radiofrequency identification; Attacks; NFC; Phone; RFID; Security;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Near Field Communication (NFC), 2011 3rd International Workshop on

Conference_Location

Hagenberg

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-176-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NFC.2011.16

Filename

5741305