PreCheck "Hack" reached press
 

I think there was a post about this, which has now started to get coverage in mainstream press. TSA's non-denial of the problem is a bit surprising.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...058_story.html

So FT posters are "experts"? :rolleyes:

I know a few are but I doubt they would proclaim themselves as such.

Media. Pah!

Nevermind, posted in wrong forum.

They must have known about this when they started the program; obviously it isn't a concern to them.

And the article is incorrect that a boarding pass can be modified and still get PreCheck; in practice, when a boarding pass signature scans as invalid, a person is either allowed to proceed through regular screening or to get a new boarding pass and try again (as it is a print-quality that causes this problem).

With elected representatives getting involved, expect the worst (ie a shutdown of pre-check).

It was an FT member Colpuck that is the blogger referenced in the story. I don't think its a big issue. We did just fine before full body scanners.

I think they'll do anything to avoid that; it would essentially require TSA to admit that they'd screwed up and were compromising "security" with the program. Modifications, perhaps (like a membership style program a la GE), but a total shutdown seems unlikely.

There are some ways the boarding passes can be modified and still get PreCheck LLL outcomes. But then to succeed with that requires relying upon human errors to take place. [Some human errors have very high frequency of incidence while others don't.]

I can only hope for an elimination of PreCheck -- and I continue to be serious about that. [But it won't happen anytime soon.]

There is no general need for liquids, laptops and laces to be exposed in bins at airport screening checkpoints. PreCheck LLL-type screening should be the default screening method for passengers in general.

Also giving the government another favor to grant or deny is just another way to enable it to control people it has already bought off during the divide and conquer game the government is playing on TSA-subjected individuals.

I wouldn't bet on that. Track record and all...

Why would terrorists even bother with this when they can just enter the NoS with a gun and have a 70% chance of getting it through? Or get a job with an airside vendor and have a 100% chance of getting the gun through?

I recently heard an AFSer insist that everyone and everything airside--including employees and goods destined for airside vendors--is screened by the TSA. Is there an ounce of truth in this? Did the guy behind the counter at the ATL Pizza Hut go through the TSA before getting to his workplace? Is every dolly stacked with Coke screened for prohibited items? Anyone who watches _Breaking Bad_ knows that a dolly stacked with Coke is a great hiding place.

The AFSer's claim is false. The TSA isn't omniscient and omnipresent -- it's a highly-flawed, overly-expensive organization.

Ah, yes, isn't he the one who wrote a whole post explaining how one can reverse-engineer his own boarding pass to get PreCheck only to find out that there is a boarding pass signature. Trying to "expose" a "security flaw" that doesn't exist. Fail. :rolleyes:

I question Colpuck's motive(s).

Actually, I believe he said he wasn't sure if there was a boarding pass signature and whether or not his reverse-engineered boarding pass would, um, pass...

Yes . . . I don't know what happened to that thread (moved? deleted?)

But he didn't explore whether there were any kind of security/check features added to the pass that would make changing a 1 to a 3 insufficient to "qualify" for precheck.

Curiously, TSA doesn't seem to have specified one way or the other, and it is reasonable to wonder whether it means that the PreCheck system will be changed or suspended as a result.