Re: RFID chip barcodes can carry a virus

You know, something else just came to me.
We have been discussing these chips in a totally software outlook.
This totally disregards the hardware.

Let us say the chip and all the software is aimed at a 8 digit serial
number consisting of 1' and 0's.

Now, 4 binary digits give us 15 possible variations, and I am just to
lazy to go on calculating what 8 of them give, but I am sure it is a
bunch.

Regardless, let us presume that what ever amount that it is deemed that
we need, we have set the system to load that much + 4 more binary
digits.
This would give us lots of growing room.

For this example, we will call that number 8.

Now then, we start with the scanner.
It is hardware, and scans the chip, just like it would scan a bar code,
using hardware to read the signal and store the information so that the
software can access it.

That hardware is, at one point, a memory chip that has 8 digits.
That is what the chip holds.
8 possible 1's or 0's.
They are cheep, far cheeper then the bigger memory modules, and is all
that is needed in that little hand scanner that is scanning the chip.

It will not matter how many digits the scanner reads, the memory chip
will only retain the first 8 digits that it receives.
Then the software will read those 8 digits and reset the chip.

So, how is a virus going to get past that hardware?
No buffer over run possible, due to the chip only holding the 8
expected digits and automatically truncating the input down to that 8
digits.

And no reason to make it fancier then that, sense that is the cheapest
method to do that job, and is the way it has been done for many years.

At that point, the hardware is sending a number.
Just a number.
That is all.
And the software is designed to receive a number consisting of 8 binary
bits.
And it is designed to manipulate that number as a number.
That is all.
Just like when you type a number into a calculator.
No matter what number you type into that calculator, it will not format
your hard drive.
It may produce an error for to many digits, but it will never send all
your money to Spain.
It takes that number and looks up that number in a preexisting
database.
At that point, it does the commands associated with that number, based
on the commands that are in the database.

Nothing that you put in that chip will do anything that is not already
determined by command # so and so, listed in a preexisting database.
And no number that you enter into that database will change it or
rewrite it.

No virus damage possible.
The only damage possible is if a command already contained in the
database is issued when it is not desired.

Sure, you can change the price of something.
Just like you can by switching the stickers now.
But all you will be able to do is what you can do now by changing a
item number.
You will effect inventory and show something out that is not out.
You will possibley trigger automatic reordering of that product.
But you will not transfer all of Walmart's credit card records into
your e-mail, nor transfer all there money into your account.

.

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