Door access reader (card reader): what it is and how it is attacked
Reads a badge to unlock a door.
Also known as
- card reader
- badge reader
- access control
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It is where physical access and network access meet, and it is often on the ordinary network.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Badges copied from a short distance away
- Following an authorised person through the door
What reduces it
- Use an authenticated reader-to-controller protocol and a tamper switch that reports
- Reconcile badge records against the staff list, and investigate the difference
- Anti-passback and an occupancy count, which catch the badge that follows a tailgate rather than the tailgate itself; only a turnstile or an airlock stops two people entering on one badge
Where it sits
- Group
- Endpoints and devices · The things people and processes touch directly.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- card-reader
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in endpoints and devices
- Desktop computerworkstation · PC · desktopA computer somebody sits at to do their job.
- Laptopnotebook · mobile workstationA portable computer that leaves the building.
- Mobile phonesmartphone · mobile · handsetA pocket computer that reads company email.
- PrinterMFP · multifunction device · copierPrints, scans and often emails documents.
- Smart deviceIoT · internet of things · connected device · camera · CCTV · IP camera · security camera · sensor · door lock · smart TVEveryday equipment with a network connection: cameras, sensors, door locks, TVs.
- Plant equipmentOT · ICS · SCADA · operational technologyMachinery that runs a physical process: a pump, a valve, a production line.
- Machine controllerPLC · RTU · programmable logic controllerThe small computer that tells a piece of machinery what to do.
The endpoints and devices group lists all 8 of them side by side.
Door access reader on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type card reader. 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