'Badbarcode' attacks expose potential vulnerabilities in barcode tech

Researchers with Tencent's Xuanwu Lab demonstrated several attacks that used barcodes to execute commands on barcode reader host systems and could potentially be used to upload trojans at the PanSec 2015 Conference in Tokyo on Nov. 12. Yang Yu, the firm's founder and head, posted several videos to his Twitter account of an attack he has dubbed “Badbarcode” that demonstrate how barcodes that were printed on paper and on digital screens could be programmed to execute any command on a computer.