DEF CON 33 - Elevators 101 - Bobby Graydon, Ege Feyzioglu
Source: YouTube · DEFCONConference · published Oct 10, 2025 · 36:42
Elevator hacking involves using elevators in unintended ways to bypass security measures 0:36-0:43, presenting significant vulnerabilities in building security systems.
Key Takeaways:
• Elevators have special operation modes (independent service, fire operation) that can bypass normal security restrictions 6:56-7:07
• Fire emergency mode specifically ignores all authentication requirements, granting access to any floor 15:55-16:05
• Key switches can be bypassed by shorting or pulling wires, potentially giving unauthorized control 18:37-19:00
• Social engineering techniques like piggybacking or pretending to be in a hurry can effectively bypass elevator security 33:33-33:56
Elevators represent an often-overlooked vulnerability that can completely bypass traditional floor-to-floor security measures in buildings.
Sources:
- 0:36-0:43 Definition of elevator hacking
- 6:56-7:07 Special operation modes explanation
- 15:55-16:05 Fire emergency mode bypasses security
- 18:37-19:00 Bypassing key switches
- 33:33-33:56 Social engineering techniques
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First 800 characters of the transcript
Everyone, uh, thank you so much for coming to the elevator talk. It's 10:00 in the morning and I cannot believe we have anyone here. That's amazing. It's almost the full house. Um, uh, my name is Ega. It's spelled like that. That usually helps. And my name is Bobby. It is also spelled like that. >> Um, and we're uh, >> uh, we're with the physical security village. Uh you might have seen us in hall 2. If you haven't, you should definitely take a look. Um and uh today we're going to be talking to you all about elevator hacking. So elevator hacking is using elevators in a way that they're not designed to be used to do things that you were not meant to do. Um we can put them in special modes of operation. We can mess with them in other ways, but um the gist is that we want to use elevators in …