A smartphone was used in research to send a malformed NFC message to payment readers and trigger flaws in how their firmware handled it. The reported results ranged from crashes to code execution and transaction manipulation. That does not mean any phone can empty any ATM: the cash-dispensing scenario Rodriguez described depended on additional ATM software vulnerabilities, and WIRED reported no public demonstration of cash being dispensed.
What the NFC attack did
Near-field communication (NFC) lets a phone or card exchange data with a nearby reader. The research targeted the reader’s handling of an application protocol data unit (APDU), a message used in that exchange—not NFC payments as a whole.
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In its 2021 report, WIRED said researcher Josep Rodriguez bought NFC readers and point-of-sale devices and found devices that failed to validate the size of incoming APDUs. He used a custom Android app to send a carefully crafted input described as hundreds of times larger than a reader expected. The oversized input could trigger a buffer overflow: data being written beyond the space reserved for it in memory.
IOActive’s account of Rodriguez’s DEF CON 31 presentation, published August 10, 2023, described code-execution vulnerabilities in both bare-metal reader firmware and devices running Android or Linux. That later disclosure broadened the technical account beyond a simple reader crash, but it does not establish that every device using those operating systems—or every NFC terminal—was affected.
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What could happen after a reader was compromised
WIRED reported several possible effects, but they should not be treated as interchangeable. A crash disrupts the reader; code execution gives an attacker a more powerful foothold. The more serious transaction and ATM scenarios involve additional capabilities or vulnerabilities.
| Scenario | What the reporting supports |
|---|---|
| Reader crash | WIRED reported that malformed NFC input could make some readers crash or stop reading a card. |
| Code execution | IOActive’s August 10, 2023 event page described code-execution vulnerabilities in payment terminals handling a specially crafted APDU. |
| Transaction manipulation or data collection | WIRED reported demonstrations or findings involving changed transaction values and collection or transmission of magnetic-stripe card data. ThinkstScapes’ Q3 2023 summary said a demonstration changed logic for subsequent transactions while the host system and LCD showed nothing unusual. |
| ATM cash dispensing | Rodriguez’s reported scenario required additional vulnerabilities in ATM software. WIRED said those details were not disclosed; its video showed an NFC reader error and a later card-reading failure, not cash dispensing. |
What card information was—and was not—at risk
Karsten Nohl of SRLabs, whom WIRED said reviewed the work, told the publication that the reader attack could expose magnetic-stripe data, but would not give an attacker the victim’s PIN or EMV-chip data. That distinction matters: the reporting describes compromise of reader processing, not a demonstrated break of chip authentication or PIN security.
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Which equipment was named
WIRED’s 2021 report named ID Tech, Ingenico, Verifone, Crane Payment Innovations, BBPOS, Nexgo, and an unnamed ATM vendor. The article did not establish that every model from any named company was vulnerable. IOActive’s 2023 event page described findings in NFC readers found in major ATM brands, portable point-of-sale devices, gas stations, vending machines, and transportation systems; it also said the affected vulnerabilities spanned bare-metal firmware and Android/Linux devices.
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What vendors said about fixes
In WIRED’s 2021 account, Ingenico said its mitigations limited the reported technique to crashes and that it issued a fix because of customer impact. Rodriguez questioned the mitigation but had not built a proof of concept against it. Verifone said it had fixed vulnerabilities it found in 2018; Rodriguez said he later encountered a vulnerable device. These were competing historical statements, not a device-by-device assessment.
The available disclosures do not establish current patch coverage, a complete list of affected models or firmware versions, or which deployments have received fixes. Rodriguez told WIRED in 2021 that physically patching “so many hundreds of thousands of ATMs” would take a long time; that was his comment about the challenge, not a verified count of machines that remain vulnerable in 2026. A current answer for a particular terminal requires a vendor advisory or an authorized assessment of that device and its firmware.
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What this means for consumers and operators
For cardholders
The reported attack involved specialized input sent to a reader at close range, not a routine phone-to-phone trick that lets a stranger drain an account from across a room. If a payment terminal behaves unusually or a transaction amount does not match the purchase, do not approve it; check the receipt and account activity, and contact the card issuer about any unrecognized charge.
For merchants and ATM operators
Ask the terminal or ATM provider whether the specific model and firmware are affected by the disclosed NFC/APDU flaws, what mitigation or update applies, and how the fix is deployed. Do not infer safety or exposure from the manufacturer name alone. Any testing should be authorized and performed against the specific equipment in scope.
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