Ever been frustrated by a locked shopping cart? A security researcher has revealed how to hack those remote-controlled cart wheels using just your smartphone. The discovery, presented at DEFCON 29, exposes the vulnerability in Gatekeeper Systems wheels commonly used by supermarkets and shopping centers to prevent cart theft.
These electronic wheels operate by detecting a 7.8 kHz signal from underground boundary wires, automatically locking when carts cross these invisible barriers. What makes this hack possible is that the control frequency falls within the normal audio range. By playing these recorded audio files through a phone's speaker, the electromagnetic field generated can mimic the official control signals that lock and unlock the wheels.
The researcher, who goes by the Xitter handle @stoppingcart, has created a website with ready-to-use audio files that can control these wheels when played near them.
Previously:
• Shopping Cart Alignment Chart
• Gentlemen mod a car with shopping-cart style caster wheels
• There's a field guide for identifying 'stray shopping carts'
• Safeway supermarket in San Francisco reports 160 shopping carts stolen in last month
