Hacking Android Smartphones with NFC Tags

arxiv.org

19 pointslainon4 comments

Ehhh, this is kinda dumb. There isn't a vulnerability in NFC per se, just that you can encode NFC tags with malicious URLs. If the user isn't paying attention, they might get served with a phishing page, or a page that scrapes the user's location. QR codes would have the same vulnerability. This isn't an NFC problem, this is a social engineering problem - don't scan tags you don't trust, just like you shouldn't open up emails you don't trust.

There are a couple of differences:

1. Scanning a QR tag and going to the URL requires the user to open a QR reading app at minimum. NFC scanning runs in the background.

2. QR codes are visible to humans, whereas you can put an NFC tag in anything, and can spoof it from at least centimeters away.

3. The contact info vulnerability, which isn't just opening a URL, seems really bad, as it adds stuff to your contacts without asking.

For NFC to work your screen has to be on - you can't hijack a phone in someones pocket.

Just tested this with my N6 - confirmed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com