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3. Understanding MagSpoof

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Marcelo Arredondo edited this page Jul 24, 2024 · 7 revisions

MagSpoof by Electronic Cats is a device that can spoof/emulate any magnetic stripe or credit card.

  • It allows you to store all of your credit cards and magstripes on one device.
  • It works on traditional magstripe readers wirelessly (no NFC/RFID required).
  • Can disable Chip-and-PIN (code not included).
  • Correctly predicts Amex credit card numbers + expirations from the previous card number (code not included)
  • Supports all three magnetic stripe tracks, and even supports tracks 1+2 simultaneously.
  • Easy to build using Arduino or other common parts

MagSpoof can be used as a traditional credit card and simply store all of your credit cards (and, with modification, can technically disable chip requirements) in various impressive and exciting form factors, or can be used for security research in any area that would traditionally require a magstripe, such as readers for credit cards, drivers licenses, hotel room keys, automated parking lot tickets, etc.

Note: The Chip-and-PIN and Amex information are not implemented, and using MagSpoof requires you to have/own the magstripes that you wish to emulate. Simply having a credit card number and expiration date is not enough to perform transactions. MagSpoof does allow you to perform research in other areas of magstripes, microcontrollers, and electromagnetism, as well as learn about and create your own devices similar to other existing, commercial technologies such as Samsung MST and Coin.

01 Pins MagSpoof V5

Front face of the board

Pins MagSpoof 3

Back face of the board
  • CH552G Microcontroller: This is the microcontroller to drive the entire system. It stores all of the magnetic stripe/credit card data on its flash memory (128 Bytes).
  • TC4424 Dual High-Speed Power Mosfet Driver: For driving the coil. It can output up to 3A peak current.
  • USB C compatible: makes an easier and asymmetric connection.
  • 1 status LED: let you know if the board is in bootloader mode or emulating a magstripe card.
  • 1 CHRG LED: status of charging.
  • SWD pins: for the programmer or debugging.
  • Battery pins
  • Coil pins
  • Switch for turning ON/OFF the board
  • Switch to select BATT/VBUS power supply: now you can choose which power supply to use.

Pinout notes

SW1 and RST labels on the silkscreen of the board are exchanged. Please follow the "Pin assignment table" picture at the top of this page to use them the right way.

Using the battery

If an external battery is used, the charging LED will be turned-on while the battery is charging. Turning-off means the battery is completely charged.

Bootloader Mode

MagSpoof V5 has a Bootloader Mode that is activated by making a short circuit between the pads of JP1:

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