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Forbes reports that a security researcher in California registered the vanity plate "NULL," partly for fun and partly in the hope that this spoofed the system into returning errors whenever his plate was seen.
Instead he received more than $12,000 in fines, as his plate became a dumping ground for erroneous data records.
Every single speeding ticket for which no valid license plate could be found was assigned to his car. The Los Angeles police department eventually scrapped the tickets but advised the man to change his plates, or the same problem would continue to occur. In response, the man has apparently said: "No, I didn't do anything wrong," insisting to his Def Con audience that, whatever happens, "I won't pay those tickets."
Also covered in the Guardian.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Mer on Friday August 16 2019, @07:32PM (3 children)
Boohoo, shifting the blame for a shitty system. The place that authorizes vanity plates gave him the green light but would have said no for a bunch of reasons.
The police is scrapping the tickets because they are in the wrong. There's no law against fucking with this particular ticket system, and god know unless you have a law specifically forbidding fucking with the rules people are gonna fuck with them (ie: taxes).
The correct reaction isn't "you should change your plates" (that he already paid for) but "we'll fix our system".
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday August 16 2019, @08:01PM (2 children)
No, the correct reaction is, "we'll take your plates away and give you different ones at no charge."
And yes. Fuck with taxes and you get your ass in trouble. You couldn't have picked a better example of rules that if you declare you're trying to break the law you draw yourself an audit. Better yet: OK, just don't pay them and then we'll see what happens down the road.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Mer on Saturday August 17 2019, @10:00AM (1 child)
Sure, and the dutch sandwich is used by apple, google, facebook, oracle, airbnb, microsoft and yahoo because they have important business in Amsterdam. Not because they try to skirt around the law.
You make computer systems to make life easier, system limitations are not a valid reason to make new rules. Especially not when the exploit in question isn't an advanced hack but just unsanitized inputs.
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday August 19 2019, @03:13PM
And if this guy had the lawyers to talk to that those companies do in handling their taxes maybe he would have found a way to do it better, or be advised not to try it. But by all means, you are welcome to play with your personal taxes based on a concept that if you think the hole is there that you can use it. I look forward to your results, and if you're wrong I don't think the IRS will be terribly sympathetic to what you thought was OK.
And you pegged the word exactly: exploit. Try to exploit a system and don't be surprised the system does not welcome it.
This sig for rent.