Samy's MagSpoof Hacking Device Was Just Featured on Mr. Robot

Samy Kamkar, security researcher and friend of WonderHowTo, just had one of his devices featured in Mr. Robot.

If you've never heard of Samy, you've at least probably heard of one of his hacks. For instance, the Samy computer worm that hacked MySpace, his compressed air trick that opens security doors, or the Master Combination lock cracking calculator.

SPOILER ALERT: Details from Mr. Robot Season 2, Episode 6 Below

In season 2, episode 6, Angela visits the FBI floor in the Evil Corp's offices to plant a femtocell, a low-power cellular base station, with an exploit on it. But before she does this, Darlene breaks into a hotel room close to Evil Corp's building using some hacker trickery so she can use what looks like a cantenna to safely connect to the femtocell from afar.

To break in, she basically clones a maid's hotel key, which has a magnetic stripe on it. But since cloning a physical card takes too long, she uses a device called a MagSpoof.

Mr. Robot/USA Networks

The MagSpoof is Samy's creation, and something we've covered before in the past. It essentially uses an electromagnet to copy the same pattern that the maid's key card would provide to the card reader, then transmits that data to the lock. The stronger the electromagnet, the father away it will work.

Mr. Robot/USA Networks

To learn more about how MagSpoof works, check out our overview of the project. And make sure to check out Samy's site or his YouTube channel for more cool hacks to come. You never know what might make it into Mr. Robot next.