Access badge (proximity card): what it is and how it is attacked
The card or fob a person holds against a reader to open a door.
Also known as
- proximity card
- prox card
- RFID card
- fob
- smart card
- staff pass
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It is a credential like a password, but it is carried in a pocket, lent between colleagues and readable by anything close enough. It is also the credential least often included in a joiners and leavers review.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Older card types that answer with a fixed number to any reader that asks, so a copy cannot be told from the original
- Cards that keep working after somebody leaves, because the badge system is not joined to the leaver process
- Visitor and contractor cards issued in bulk and never returned
What reduces it
- Move off card types that answer with a fixed number: no reader can compensate for that
- Reconcile the badge list against the staff list on a schedule and investigate the difference
- Expire visitor and contractor cards by date rather than on trust
Where it sits
- Group
- Identity · Who something claims to be, and what proves it.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- access-badge
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in identity
- Sign-in serviceIdP · SSO · identity provider · Entra ID · OktaThe single service that proves who someone is, for every application.
- Directory serviceActive Directory · AD · DC · LDAP · domain controller · staff directory · identity storeThe system that holds every account and computer, and decides what each one is allowed to do.
- Second factorMFA · 2FA · multi-factor authenticationA second proof of identity beyond the password.
- Machine accountservice account · robot account · non-human account · application accountAn account used by software rather than by a person.
- CertificateTLS certificate · PKI · code signing certificateA digital document proving something is genuinely what it claims to be.
The identity group lists all 6 of them side by side.
Access badge on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type proximity card. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker