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Magician Forgets Password To His Own Hand After RFID Chip Implant (theregister.com) 42

Posted by BeauHD from the cautionary-tales dept.
A magician who implanted an RFID chip in his hand lost access to it after forgetting the password, leaving him effectively locked out of the tech embedded in his own body. The Register reports: "It turns out," said [said magician Zi Teng Wang], "that pressing someone else's phone to my hand repeatedly, trying to figure out where their phone's RFID reader is, really doesn't come off super mysterious and magical and amazing." Then there are the people who don't even have their phone's RFID reader enabled. Using his own phone would, in Zi's words, lack a certain "oomph."

Oh well, how about making the chip spit out a Bitcoin address? "That literally never came up either." In the end, Zi rewrote the chip to link to a meme, "and if you ever meet me in person you can scan my chip and see the meme." It was all suitably amusing until the Imgur link Zi was using went down. Not everything on the World Wide Web is forever, and there is no guarantee that a given link will work indefinitely. Indeed, access to Imgur from the United Kingdom was abruptly cut off on September 30 in response to the country's age verification rules.

Still, the link not working isn't the end of the world. Zi could just reprogram the chip again, right? Wrong. "When I went to rewrite the chip, I was horrified to realize I forgot the password that I had locked it with." The link eventually started working again, but if and when it stops, Zi's party piece will be a little less entertaining. He said: "Techie friends I've consulted with have determined that it's too dumb and simple to hack, the only way to crack it is to strap on an RFID reader for days to weeks, brute forcing every possible combination." Or perhaps some surgery to remove the offending hardware.
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Magician Forgets Password To His Own Hand After RFID Chip Implant More

Magician Forgets Password To His Own Hand After RFID Chip Implant

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  • Congratulations! (Score:4, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday November 22, 2025 @03:02AM (#65811515)

    You've won "dumbest idea of the week"!

    • Re:Congratulations! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Saturday November 22, 2025 @04:41AM (#65811589)

      This isn't even the dumbest idea of the last 90 seconds. Somewhere out there a guy is getting a tattoo with the name of a girl he met in the last five hours while coked out if his mind. Compared to getting rid of that, extracting an RFID implant will be a minor inconvenience.

      • This isn't even the dumbest idea of the last 90 seconds. Somewhere out there a guy is getting a tattoo with the name of a girl he met in the last five hours while coked out if his mind. Compared to getting rid of that, extracting an RFID implant will be a minor inconvenience.

        Its about the cool factor.

        Were here mainly talking about the guy with an RFID implant on Slashdot. Makes that dude pretty famous. For at least 15 minutes or so.

        If the snow snorter got a tattoo of a virtual girlfriend? Then HE would be the talk of the Slashdot town. Gotta know how to stay relevant with this crowd.

      • This isn't even the dumbest idea of the last 90 seconds. Somewhere out there a guy is getting a tattoo with the name of a girl he met in the last five hours while coked out if his mind. Compared to getting rid of that, extracting an RFID implant will be a minor inconvenience.

        Or the young lady who tattooed her boyfriend's name right above her vulva, then broke up with him a little later. She's been having difficulties finding new relationships ever since. Seems new guys don't care for being reminded of her ex while entertaining her.

        • It's almost as if making long-term commitments while under the influence of short-term feelings is fundamentally unwise.

          I wonder if this has anything to do with the high divorce rate in the developed world....

          • It's almost as if making long-term commitments while under the influence of short-term feelings is fundamentally unwise.

            I wonder if this has anything to do with the high divorce rate in the developed world....

            Cassandra moment follows. I've done a bit of research on the issues, because of personal interest. I'd spent several years in the attempts to increase the number of women in STEM careers, and wondered why they fail.So I do personal research - and no, not just the internet.

            A whole lot has to do with the increased divorce rate or even increasing it. As we went into the middle of the first decade of the 2000's, some very strange things happened. Womanism gained a lot of traction, and taught women that they h

            • "As I have always tried to tell women, you don't see tattooed women in the board room."

              As far as you know. Most women that get tattoos don't get them in places where business attire leaves them exposed.

              What is fundamentally unfair is that a man with obvious tattoos can have them disregarded through brute competence and presentation. Women are usually not offered the same path to being judged independently.

              But make no mistake. There are tramp stamps in the board rooms. Just like how Chappelle once joked, "I'

              • "As I have always tried to tell women, you don't see tattooed women in the board room."

                As far as you know. Most women that get tattoos don't get them in places where business attire leaves them exposed.

                Which is why I said they would have to get them on their genitals or a tramp stamp, below the bikini line. I noted that I have seen them sleeveless, in shorts, in backless gowns. in bathing suits, It ends up being a additive process. I'd I've seen the uncovered arms, legs, backs, necks, Not all at once, but over time, most of them.

                And the other thing is that most of these ladies are not the mentality of a woman who gets tattoos.

                What is fundamentally unfair is that a man with obvious tattoos can have them disregarded through brute competence and presentation. Women are usually not offered the same path to being judged independently.

                But make no mistake. There are tramp stamps in the board rooms. Just like how Chappelle once joked, "I'm sure there are a lot of gay men here... with their wives."

                Funny, I've lived in the boardroom for around 20 years, and you know how man

                • Well, I know of exactly two who have hidden tats. One is a tramp stamp, the other is a leg snake. The reason I know is probably because although I do get in front of boards on occasion, I don't inhabit them. I know those folks personally. Were I their coworkers I probably would not know.

                  Reading the rest of your post, I'm inclined to walk away. The idea that your wife getting a tattoo means instant divorce tells me everything I need to know about you and your value system.

                   

                  • Well, I know of exactly two who have hidden tats. One is a tramp stamp, the other is a leg snake. The reason I know is probably because although I do get in front of boards on occasion, I don't inhabit them. I know those folks personally. Were I their coworkers I probably would not know.

                    Reading the rest of your post, I'm inclined to walk away. The idea that your wife getting a tattoo means instant divorce tells me everything I need to know about you and your value system.

                    There are values and there are values. I told my wife no tattoos, and she knows it is a deal breaker. She has her own deal breakers, and I comply. In your family, I take it you have no deal breakers? Your wife can do anything at all and you would just say " Okay dear - have fun"! Tell Bob , Jim and Sally I picked up the hotel bill for you guys.

                    Rather than go down the standard road where you end up calling me the M word (admit it, you want to) I have standards. I have boundaries. My wife has standards an

      • To be fair that guy can just date people named Maria from now on. I'm not sure what anyone can do with an RFID chip they locked themselves out of. Maybe he can get comes out of his mind with the first guy and go crazy enough to dig it out himself.

      • Somewhere out there a guy is getting a tattoo with the name of a girl he met in the last five hours while coked out if his mind.

        Yeah - a smart guy waits at least seven hours...

    • Second worst. The winner is the International Association for Cryptologic Research cryptographising themselves out of their own election [iacr.org]. If they'd used any normal election process without trying to include cryptography they wouldn't have this problem.
      • Sure, as dumb as it is, it kind of proves the point, right? This system can't be compromised: even the "experts" are locked out.

  • so where does the keyboard attach? and what does the password protect?

    • The keyboard is attached to the computer that runs the software that manages the rfid tag. Could be a virtual keyboard on a smartphone with an NFC reader, for example.

      It protects your rfid tag data from being randomly overwritten by parties that don't know the password.

  • Should have written the password down (Score:3)

    by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Saturday November 22, 2025 @04:14AM (#65811569)

    He should have written the password down on a yellow Post-It note and stuck it on his ass.

    As for placement....right next to his "dumbass" tattoo seems like a good location.

  • Just implant another one in the other hand. My dog has one. Big sharp needle though.

  • He is in good company, after all... (Score:3)

    by LordHighExecutioner ( 4245243 ) on Saturday November 22, 2025 @05:31AM (#65811633)
    ...if professional cryptographers lose their password [slashdot.org], he is in good company....
    Better to take advantage of the oblig xkcd [xkcd.com] suggestion!

  • Offending? (Score:3)

    by madsh ( 266758 ) on Saturday November 22, 2025 @05:40AM (#65811647) Homepage
    I do not think the hardware is the one to blame here!

  • Not everything on the World Wide Web is forever, and there is no guarantee that a given link will work indefinitely.

    Really? Sit down with 100 people under age 30 and ask them what domain name ownership means. You will quickly will see the larger problem with “selling” the “free” internet in exchange for a digital soul. Every time. Actually paying money for shit online used to come with benefits. You know, like owning your own permanent forever space on the internet. Otherwise known as what people have done for decades now.

    People won’t even remember how to internet without the Magnifice

  • Slashdot is broken (Score:3)

    by aRTeeNLCH ( 6256058 ) on Saturday November 22, 2025 @08:13AM (#65811753)
    I scanned the article and all current comments, and I can't find a single instanciation of the word AI...
  • Did he try 1 2 3 4 5 ?

    • Did he try 1 2 3 4 5 ?

      Same combination on the hand that grabs the luggage with the same combination?

      Biting down hard on the nouveau-meta, for flavor.

  • Two of my implants are passworded - the TOTP application in my Vivokey Apex [vivokey.com] and my Walletmor payment implant [walletmor.com], which occasionally prompt payment terminals to ask my PIN - and guess what: I didn't forget them because they're kind of important. Duh...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pz ( 113803 )

      But, you eventually will. Trust me, you will. Time catches up to all.

      Best option is to write them down and put them in a bank vault, or similarly secure location. And include the bank identity in your will, which you entrust to a respected legal firm. Make sure that the bank knows what to do with the contents of the safe deposit box if they go belly-up.

  • Hope he takes better care of his willy passwords. You don't want to check haveibeenpwned.com for your genitalia.

  • Magician Forgets Password To His Own Hand After RFID Chip Implant

    Now even he won't know where his hand has been.

  • Afaik phones don't have RFID hardware. Typically it's NFC.

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"The algorithm to do that is extremely nasty. You might want to mug someone with it." -- M. Devine, Computer Science 340

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