Photobombs made from the black and white square barcodes could cause problems for device wearers.
Google Glass owners may want to be careful where they aim their new headsets, as researchers have now discovered that scanning the wrong QR codes could result in the corruption of the device.
The research firm said that they were capable of developing their own attack of this nature.
Lookout Mobile security firm researchers claim to have been able to come up with an attack as of last spring that could compromise Google Glass through the use of QR codes. This functioned extremely simply when the user scanned a malicious barcode.
The vast majority of QR codes are used simply to provide device users with a fast way to link to a website.
However, in this case, the seemingly innocent QR codes caused the device to be hacked. According to the researchers who developed the malicious attack to take advantage of the bug, they have already come up with a fix for the issue. This is important because according to what was reported to Google, the attack could crash the device or force it to connect to a rogue Wi-Fi hotspot that could eliminate the encryption of the communications of the device. It could also send it directly to a malicious website that would allow full control of the device to be handed over to the attacker.
According to Marc Rogers, one of the researchers at Lookout, “Google has set up the device so that Glass scans every photo you take for something interesting.” He added that “While that’s exciting, the fact that Glass can parse photographs opened up a vulnerability. By understanding and reverse engineering the QR codes, we were able to create malicious ones that would silently reconfigure the device.
Rogers went on to describe a situation in which a person could wear a t-shirt that features QR codes that have been maliciously crafted. The result to a passing user of Google Glass is that he or she could be “photobombed”, and the owner of the barcode could attack the device. Similar situations include printed stickers of the barcodes that are placed overtop of innocent ones on billboards and other ads.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePWEJ2cNMog]
The service has now been rolled out in order to help to make traveling more convenient.
Google has just announced that they have rolled out their automatic digital boarding passes based on QR codes through their Google Now service in order to allow travelers to use their mobile devices for a number of convenient purposes.
The Google Now service helps users stay up to date on everything from sports scores to weather conditions.
This latest announcement has revealed that the anticipated QR codes and associated mobile boarding passes have now gone live. It was made through the @Android Twitter account held by the company. The posting came with a video that helped to demonstrate this brand new feature to the service.
The QR codes help airline travelers to avoid unnecessary lines and boarding pass kiosks.
They also provide more convenience over having to print out the boarding passes at home, as the QR codes and additional information is all displayed on the mobile device screen. For individuals who already have smartphones and who bring them with them whenever they travel, it eliminates a number of steps that can help to reduce the number of hassles along the way.
The service is possible by accessing the flight confirmation emails that the smartphone user has on his or her device, and then automatically draws up the boarding pass based on that information. In order to actually use this pass. The travelers can simply check in with the airline as they usually would with a paper boarding pass.
Once the traveler has checked in, the Google Now automatically retrieves the digital boarding pass which is assigned its own unique QR codes. This is done on behalf of the traveler, without any additional required effort. Aside from the barcode, it also contains the terminal, gate, and seat number, as would be assigned on a printed boarding pass.
When the passenger arrives at the gate, the QR codes can be displayed on the device screen so that they can be scanned by the attendant. So far, the service works only with certain specific airlines – which have not yet been identified by Google. However, this information will likely be released over time. At the moment Google Now is available only on devices running Android 4.1 or higher.
