A hacker convention attendee has cloned a hotel room key into their nail art using NFC chips and the Flipper Zero so they can open their hotel room door.
While CES and Computer may be long finished, that doesn’t mean everything is all quiet on the tech convention front. Def Con, the Las Vegas-based hacker con, began on August 8 2024 but already its attendees are showing off their latest hacked creations.
Attendees like one hacker, who, equipped with an open-source NFC-compatible device, managed to clone their hotel room credentials to their nail art and open their hotel room door.
Def Con staff member and X/Twitter user Babybe_Doll posted a video sharing their impressive hacking skills in all their nail art glory. In a social media thread, the hacker explained the finger-nail mod was achieved first by cloning their hotel room key using the Flipper Zero.
Unlocking my hotel room door with my fingernails!New #defconnails for #defcon inspired by Jon Buckley's "High Tech Monopoly" with 2x hidden Mifare Classic magic chips and 2x NTAG+LED nail stickers that I designed. I used @flipper_zero to clone my room key to the Mifare chip! pic.twitter.com/XrsfKltF4P
— @baybedoll@infosec.exchange (@Baybe_Doll) August 6, 2024
The Flipper Zero is a small compact device that can interact with RFID and NFC signals, like that found and stored on a hotel room keycard. In this instance, Babybe_Doll cleverly used the compact device to transfer the info stored on the room key, onto a Mifare branded chip.
Instead of just attaching the chip to their phone, Babybe_Doll incorporated it into their nail art. This nail art, according to the hacker, was also inspired by ‘High Tech Monopoly‘, a piece of art by artist Jon Buckley.
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The nail art looks stunning in its own right and fit enough for debuting on the Def Con convention floor. Each nail takes after one of the tech-parodied Jon Buckley Monopoly squares, with intricate recreations of the iconic Monopoly art.
However, beneath the carefully painted nail art are two hidden Mifare classic magic chips, and two NTAG LED nail stickers, designed by Baby_Doll herself.
Each of the hacker’s middle fingers sports the classic Mifare NFC chip, while the exposed nail stickers are where the LED and NTAG213 tag have been stored. The end result lets the hacker right into their hotel room, with no keycard in sight.
DEF CON 23 kicked off on August 8 and runs right through to August 11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. No doubt, the annual hacker convention will be home to a load more fun hacks, the likes we’ve never seen before.