hf mf mifare command causing reboots

yarda · 2014-11-17 23:25:08

Hi,

is it normal for proxmark3 to reboot on 'hf mf mifare' command? I think it shouldn't do this even if the card is not susceptible to the attack. I am experiencing reboots of the proxmark board and lost of communication in 5 - 30 seconds (randomly) after issuing this command. Simple block reads seem to work.There is more than 10V on the HF antenna and I am using latest head from the http://github.com/Proxmark repo. I suspect there is HW fault on my board, but I haven't another one to compare. Have anybody experienced anything similar?

thefkboss · 2014-11-18 09:21:15

same problem
sometimes happen (I don´t know why, with the same card, sometimes reboot with darkside attack )
is not your board ( I have it since 6 years ago, and my proxmark is perfect) is something on the code

iceman · 2014-11-18 09:32:23

The reboot is a "watchdog" protection, when the code running in pm3 is not triggering it then it restarts. Fail-save mechanism.
When it comes to "hf mf mifare" it usually is the card hasn't answered, it happens sometime with some cards for me too

yarda · 2014-11-18 11:09:04

Guys, thanks for info. Is your proxmark board from xfgpa.com or proxmark3.com? I read somewhere that this is only happening with Chinese boards. Could you confirm or deny this?

If this is only SW problem, I think I can look on it more deep. I also suspected this watchdog and the MCU is stucked somewhere in a loop, but it confused me a bit that the reboot is happening in random interval 5 - 30 seconds. Isn't the watchdog preset to 16 seconds or so?

thefkboss · 2014-11-18 12:20:54

mine, from proxmark3.com with AT91SAM7S256

iceman · 2014-11-18 20:24:21

I have two pm3, from xfpga & radiowars mod. They both work excellent.
However, every now and then when I get a tag that isn't acting well the pm3 reboots. nothing special.

MilkThief · 2014-11-19 10:03:34

It happens to me, too. I tried to figure out why the watchdog is not triggered but without answers.
Try to use different antennas and different tags. I had a broken pm3 board with 100% of times (using hf mf mifare) this issue, then with a working board I had this issue 5-10%.

Last edited by MilkThief (2014-11-19 10:04:38)

iceman · 2014-11-19 10:42:33

Yeah, about 5% I would say too. I just try to move the tag a bit or try the "hf 14a " commands.
Like with the recent toys I looked into, I have 2 out of 12, which I can't run the "hf mf mifare" command on. The sourcecode states something in the end of not getting any good nonces..

yarda · 2014-11-19 15:50:39

Thanks for info, mine is from xfpga.com. It's quite good assembled (much better than shown on some pictures around internet). But it reboots 100% of times with the supplied mifare test card on 'hf mf mifare' command. Unfortunately, I currently do not have other mifare cards to test.

I had a dilemma whether to return the board during warranty period, but according to your feedback, I will probably keep it. I have measuring equipment and experience with HW debugging, MCUs, FPGAs, VHDL/Verilog, so I will try to play with it bit more.

iceman · 2014-11-19 17:28:47

Try and get some other rfid tags. Transportssystems? Entrycards? toys? Try the default keys lua script, and see if your PM3 works at all.

MilkThief · 2014-11-21 22:28:33

Yarda, just ask to xfpga if they sent to you the one I returned...
...and read here.

yarda · 2014-12-04 17:00:51

I got some older mifare cards from my friends and all of them worked correctly without reboots. The only problem I spotted with one card was that the 'hf mf nested' sometimes found key consisting of all zeroes. Re-running the command resolved the problem. I also thoroughly tested other HF/LF functionality and all seems to work correctly.

I finally kept the board. It's quite good assembled, all IOs are there and it seems there is no defect on the PCB (I microscoped and measured important connections). The only thing I could criticize is the LF antenna. It's good for a quick start with LF tags, but it's performance is quite poor which can be problem when writing some "deaf" LF tags with higher power consumption. It is not critical, but I am going to build some better LF antenna.

So I think there must be something wrong with the firmware or with the HW design regarding the 'hf mf mifare' reboots, especially if the reboots are also happening with boards from other vendors. Maybe Chinese boards are just more susceptible to this problem, maybe due to tolerances of the parts used. Simple firmware fix may resolve this problem for all. I am definitely going to look more deep on it.

MilkThief · 2014-12-04 17:22:26

It happens on both my PM3: the cheap chineese and the expensive american... I'm not so expert to know where the problem is, but it's sure that if a TAG cannot be attacked, the user should advised about that with a "fail" message, not a reboot... Because after the reboot you need to exit the client, relaunch it and often the port (under linux) is changed.

About the antennas, both xfpga antennas are not so good tuned and the performance is poor.

I suggest to you, for starting, to open a keyfob tag (you can find it at less than $ 0,50 over internet), cut chip wires, trash the chip, to weld a strong copper cable, fill with glue, so as to hold everything and use a usb male connector on the other side of the (short!) cable. Then you'll find over internet a hirose to female usb adapter (not cable, adapter). If it works (it work perfectly for me!), you can find every kind and shape of LF antennas.

For HF you can use a hirose cable (search the forum), making a loop. The remaining pair of copper can be welded on a LF antenna instead to be cut away.
This way you build a dual band antenna...

Enio · 2014-12-04 20:33:57

Yeah watchdog is initialized on its default value 0xFFF ~16s, you reset it with WDT_HIT() so you could add it into the for (;;) loop thats listening forbresponse bytes and count the time yourself when to break you of it and i.e retry or abort with a message.

MilkThief · 2014-12-05 09:19:49

Sounds good... Could somebody fix this issue and submit the code? Thank you!

yarda · 2014-12-05 10:26:46

MilkThief: thanks for the antenna tip

Enio: thanks for the info, I will check it through the weekend

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#1 2014-11-17 23:25:08

hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#2 2014-11-18 09:21:15

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#3 2014-11-18 09:32:23

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#4 2014-11-18 11:09:04

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#5 2014-11-18 12:20:54

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#6 2014-11-18 20:24:21

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#7 2014-11-19 10:03:34

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#8 2014-11-19 10:42:33

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#9 2014-11-19 15:50:39

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#10 2014-11-19 17:28:47

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#11 2014-11-21 22:28:33

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#12 2014-12-04 17:00:51

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#13 2014-12-04 17:22:26

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#14 2014-12-04 20:33:57

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#15 2014-12-05 09:19:49

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

#16 2014-12-05 10:26:46

Re: hf mf mifare command causing reboots

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