Report: Oyster card crypto leak

Snip from an item on Wikileaks:

Chip company NXP Semiconductors is to sue Radboud University in an
attempt to halt the publication of a paper detailing the cryptographic
cracking of the Oyster smartcard, used widely on the London transport
network.

The case is to be heard on Thursday in a court in Arnheim, NXP told
ZDNet.co.uk on Tuesday. However, an NXP spokesperson declined to give
any reasons at present for the company seeking to halt the publication.

Researchers from the Radboud University in Nijmegen last month claimed
to have cracked the security on the Oyster card, which uses an NXP
chipset called Mifare Classic. The research had led on from a
cryptographic crack of Mifare Classic by German researchers Karsten Nohl
and Henryk Pltz.

A spokesperson for Radboud University told ZDNet.co.uk that NXP wanted
to stop publication of the paper due to "safety reasons". However, the
spokesperson said that the university intended to proceed with the
publication of the research at the Esorics conference in Malaga in
October. The court is expected to reach a decision next week.

Well, it does appear they're leaked. Lawsuit to stop the paper publication isn't going to
do a heck of a lot of good now.

Censored Milfaire Classic Oyster Card break paper 2008
[ Wikileaks, thanks Jake Appelbaum ]

Previously on Boing Boing:

  • London Underground's OysterCard is cracked
  • Dutch RFID transit pass cracked and cloned