Scalpers have used a security researcher’s findings to reverse-engineer “nontransferable” digital tickets from Ticketmaster and AXS, allowing transfers outside their apps. The workaround was revealed in a lawsuit AXS filed in May against third-party brokers adopting the practice, according to 404 Media, which first reported the news.
The saga began in February when an anonymous security researcher, going by the pseudonym Conduition, published technical details about how Ticketmaster generates its electronic tickets.
[…]
Although the companies claim the practice is strictly a security measure, it also conveniently allows them to control how and when their tickets are resold. (Yay, capitalism?)
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster and AXS create their “nontransferable” tickets using rotating barcodes that change every few seconds, preventing working screenshots or printouts. On the back end, it uses similar underlying tech similar to two-factor authentication apps. In addition, the codes are only generated shortly before an event starts, limiting the window for sharing them outside the apps. Without interference from outside parties, the platforms get to lock ticket buyers into their own resale services, giving them vertical control of the entire ecosystem.
That’s where the hackers come in. Using Conduition’s published findings, they extracted the platforms’ secret tokens that generate new tickets, using an Android phone with its Chrome browser connected to Chrome DevTools on a desktop PC. Using the tokens, they create a parallel ticketing infrastructure that regenerates genuine barcodes on other platforms, allowing them to sell working tickets on platforms Ticketmaster and AXS don’t allow. Online reports claim the parallel tickets often work at the gates.
According to 404 Media, AXS’ lawsuit accuses the defendants of selling “counterfeit” tickets (even though they usually work) to “unsuspecting customers.” The court documents allegedly describe the parallel tickets as “created, in whole or in part by one or more of the Defendants illicitly accessing and then mimicking, emulating, or copying tickets from the AXS Platform.”
