• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • #33C3- Changing travelers flight bookings is really too easy for hackers

#33C3- Changing travelers flight bookings is really too easy for hackers

Pierluigi Paganini January 02, 2017

Changing travelers flight bookings is too easy. Absolutely astounding the Karsten Nohl research on the insecurity of traveler flight information.

The current travel booking systems is deeply insecure, it lacks of cyber security by design and the notorious hackers Karsten Nohl and Nemanja Nikodijevic have demonstrated it at the 33rd Chaos Communications Congress held in Hamburg last week (“Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?”).

The experts explained that it is quite easy to modify any passenger’s reservation, cancel their flight bookings, and even use the refunds to book tickets for themselves.

The security duo has conducted for several months a research on security employed by the Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) that are used by various actors in the travel industry, including airlines, travel agencies, hotels and car rental companies.

Below the video of the presentation held during the 33rd Chaos Communications Congress.

GDSs are enormous archives containing all information about travel bookings, they include so-called Passenger Name Records (PNRs), records include information such as traveler’s name, itinerary, travel dates, ticket details, phone number, email, passport information, credit card numbers, seat numbers and baggage information. Travel data is precious for scammers and phishers that could use them to launch targeted attacks and organize complex frauds.

As explained by the experts the most important GDS operators in the world are Sabre, Travelport, and Amadeus. The disconcerting discovery made by the researcher is that it is possible to add or modify any travel data by accessing the system with a last name and a six-character booking code.

We have to think GDSs as systems accessible from everywhere, access points could be airline websites, travel agencies, and also third-party websites like CheckMyTrip. Every time a travel includes flights with different airlines the booking can be modified through the websites of any of the airlines that operate the trip.

Attackers could cancel a flight, and if the booking allows the change crooks could use the credit given by the airline to book a new ticket.

Unfortunately, the level of protection for the PNR is very poor, the booking code is easy to obtain, it is printed on luggage tags and is also embedded in the QR codes printed on the tickets.

Passengers use to throw away old Boarding Pass even when the overall travel isn’t yet completed, or even worse, they post on social networks the pictures of the tickets.

We explained in the past that Boarding Pass contains personal information that could be exploited by hackers.

The popular investigator Brian Krebs published an interesting post on the topic explaining that a Boarding Pass Barcode contains a lot of data.

 

flight bookings boarding pass barcode

 

Experts highlighted that there is no logging implemented in the GDSs, this means that is impossible to discriminate the accesses.

“In the short term, at the very least we should expect websites that give access to travelers’ personal information to have the bare minimum of web security, and this includes at the very least some rate limiting,” the researcher said. “And until passwords and other security measures become common, I think we have a right to know who accesses our records and there must be some accountability, especially knowing how insecure these systems are today.” explained Nohl.

Karsten Nohl and Nemanja Nikodijevic explained that many airline and trip checking websites don’t limit the number of bad codes users can enter before they’re blocked, opening the door to brute force code-guessing attacks.

The duo demonstrated that it is a question of minutes to find matching booking codes for popular last names by using automated methods. Working with GDSs brute force code-guessing attacks are very easy because the systems use only uppercase letters. The researchers explained that one of GDS analyzed doesn’t use 1 and 0 to avoid confusion with the letters I and O, two other GDSs increase the codes sequentially making easier for an attacker to guess the code withing a sequence.

“The travel agencies have their own master logins into the GDSs and these accounts have very weak passwords. In one case the password was WS, which stands for web service, followed by the date when the login was created in DDMMYY format. This can easily be brute-forced and unfortunately it was one of the most complex travel agency passwords the researchers observed.” reported CSOonline.

The lack of security could be exploited by crooks to add their frequent flier number to other passengers’ long-haul flights in order gain the reward miles for themselves.

As demonstrated by the experts, hackers can do much more than change flight bookings,

[adrotate banner=”9″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – flight bookings,  hacking)


facebook linkedin twitter

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

    Cyber Crime / July 26, 2025

    Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

    Intelligence / July 26, 2025

    Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

    Intelligence / July 25, 2025

    Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

    Security / July 25, 2025

    Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

    Malware / July 25, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT