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Physical Authentication at The University of Michigan

20 May 2014

This past spring, my colleagues David Adrian, Matt Diffenderfer, and myself did a brief audit of the physical authentication systems employed at the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus. Focusing on digital systems which utilize physical tokens, we investigated the strengths and weaknesses of the university’s Mcard student IDs and dormitory key cards with regards to security.

Abstract

The University of Michigan employs several card-based identification and authentication mechanisms to regulate physical access to campus properties. Magnetic stripes are used for the university’s dormitory keys and Mcard student IDs, with the latter also employing contactless smart card technology for building access. Prior published works have shown these technologies to often be inadequate for security purposes, resulting in the university having to update their systems in recent years with the goal of bolstering campus security. We present a security analysis of the current iteration of the Ann Arbor campus systems for authentication via Mcards and dormitory key cards, and a survey of past and potential future attacks against these systems.

You can find the full paper here.

EECS 494 - Computer Game Design

19 May 2014

Last fall, I undertook UMich’s game design course as part of my undergraduate capstone requirements. The course, taught by Jeremy Gibson - a new addition to the UMich faculty after teaching for several years at USC - taught us proper design principles and techniques with regards to game development and interactive user experiences. In addition, Gibson’s course introduced us to the basics of Agile development, which for our purposes involved scrum sessions each lecture, stories/tasks, and burndown charts.

The workload was divided into four projects across the semester - one physical paper/cardboard game, one 2D game, one 3D game, and a final capstone project in a format/medium of our choosing. I have posted all four of my projects (or what I can of them) to a GitHub repo, where they can be downloaded or viewed. I’ve provided brief summaries of each project below:

  • P1: Supernatural Soccer
    First project for the course; a physical board game designed to be played by 4 players divided into teams of 2. Features fast and strategic goal-oriented gameplay.

  • P2: Fytecode
    Second project for the course; a 2D computer game for a single player to be played with a mouse and keyboard. A short concept demo that features increasingly difficult gameplay reminiscent of older arcade titles.

  • P3: Leave No Trace
    Third project for the course; a 3D computer game for a single player to be played with a mouse and keyboard. A minimal concept demo that mixes 3D platforming with time-limited elements of “endless runners” like Canabalt or Temple Run.

  • P4: Collapse
    Fourth and final project for the course; a 3D computer game to be played over networks with 2 teams of 2-4 players each using game controllers such as the XBox360 controller. A prototype game that mixes 2D brawler elements from games like Super Smash Brothers with objective-oriented gameplay from popular multiplayer games like League of Legends or Team Fortress 2.

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