So I travelled home to my home town Västerås by train today, and I figured something out.
The Swedish Express-class trains (the type I travelled in) called X2000 are equipped with both electric 230V outlets and wireless internet. The electricity is free, but the wireless internet costs several Swedish Kronor per hour if you are a poor student that only travels on second class tickets like me. You are using your laptop but feeling handicapped without internet, or just have to check your e-mail right now. So what to do?
There is a way I found to get an internet connection for free! I am not going to show you how to crack the login system, or do a heavy-duty crack. If you expected that, go back to your parent’s house and stick to Counter-Strike or some other trivial way to spend your time. Besides, that would be too obvious and might draw the attendants’ attention to you (and it is illegal!).
Before continuing, I also want to issue this disclaimer: I do not take any responsibility for anything that happens to you by doing this. If anybody finds out what you are doing, you might lose your ticket, be dropped off at the next station, be charged a heavy fine, or even charged in court. This method is written here for educational purposes and the joy of breaking a system only, and I do not encourage anybody to commit a crime.
So if the main entrance (cracking the login system) is the wrong way we just take the back door! In this case the one big weak point in the system is quite discreet and simple, but it requires that you get up from your seat and walk! Oh, no! The nightmare for a geek!
Don’t bring your laptop, you are just out on an intelligence mission for now. Head over all the way to the first class section of the train (probably the frontmost couch) and sneak in. I think that you not are allowed to enter the first-class section with a second-class tickets, so
you will need good timing and you have to be smart. Here comes the plan: First-class passengers get an internet connection for free, and they log in with a code they have printed on their ticket. Swedish railway tickets are in the size of flight tickets, so they are
easy to spot if their owners let them lay around on their trays and tables. What you do is that you walk quite quickly to the very front of the train, pretending to be on your way to the front of the train just for the fun of it. The real thing, though, is that you are looking for
open train tickets laying around. When you reached the front of the train, stare out of the window for a few seconds, play that you get bored of it and start walking back, more slowly this time. Remember where you spotted open tickets and walk slowly past them while
discreetly peering on them to find out the code. One tip is that you pretend to lose your balance of the train rocking and stand still for one second just beside the victim.
The most difficult part of this hack is that you will have to memorize a thirteen-figure code containing letters and numbers, but if you are a geek like me you probably have no problems to quickly memorize long strings of nonsense text (IP addresses anyone?) The code is on the upper middle side of the ticket if you wondered. You have the same type of code on your second-class ticket if you want to practice reading and memorizing that one.
Now go back to your seat, rehearsing the code over and over again as you walk. Sit down at your laptop and write it up somewhere safe. That is your ticket for a free internet connection!
Of course you must not steal the ticket, even if it seems tempting. The art of trainleeching is to leave as little a trace as possible.
Configure your computer to use the wireless connection. The SSID is “SJ” and there is no encryption. Head to the web page http://www.sjinternetombord.se and enter the code. Press login!
If everything goes right, you are now presented with a happy message confirming that you have logged in and the internet is ready to use.
Happy surfing!
There is one catch, though. The code seems to be a one-time code only, so what probably happens when you use the code is that the person who really owns the code will not get their free internet connection. They might call the technical support, which in turn might check the logs, and find that the code has been used by a specific MAC address (an address unique to your network interface). This address ties the login to your specific computer! You therefore have to choose your “target” wisely. Of course there are ways to change a MAC address, but that is outside the scope of this guide.
So this was a proof-of-concept of trainleeching on the Swedish X2000 trains. Use this information wisely. This guide was written on board an X2000 and of course posted from a leeched internet connection!
For first-class passengers I have the following recommendation: Keep your ticket clear of curious bystanders and your code hidden.
And now my recommendation for SJ: Why don’t you open up your networks for everybody to use? You save support costs for a complex coded system, get more happy passengers, and even more people will choose to travel by train instead of by domestic airlines (which is becoming a more and more popular in Sweden)
Finally, a last word of advice: Have fun! If you like this article or want to give some feedback, write your comment below.
4 Comments
This is nothing but petty theft. There is no such thing as a free lunch. I reckon that ‘free’ internet is included in the price of the first-class ticket, and therfore not really free at all. The ‘free’ part comes with the freedom to avail yourself of the service or not, once you have paid for it via the first-class ticket.
I can almost understand people who steal substantial amounts of money, but … a few Kroner???
I’m not a Christian, I’m an aethiest, but I do believe in taking only what you’ve paid for. You sign a contract when you buy a ticket – honour it.
So my question is – why are you disseminating this information? Surely not as a born-again Christian (or do you believe that your lord and saviour would encourage you to do this?). I suspect it’s a bit of an ego trip – you’ve figured out a way of cheating someone, and now you just have to let everyone know how clever you are.
Well, there’s no need. I wish I could communicate fluently in several languages. I wish I was as clever with computers as you; I’d love to be able to play a musical instrument half decently. Oh, and I wish I was still a teenager at the same time.
But I’m glad I’m not a thief, or his agent, or his educator.
Jonathan, you’re better than this – please remove it.
Karel
@Karel:
I will try to respond as well as I can to your points.
You reckon correctly. Internet is included in the first-class ticket.
I do not agree this is petty theft.
Where did I steal money? I did not get any richer from doing this except a few hits on my website (and I do not recieve money from that)
Now we are getting to fundamentals. I don’t have a need of internet when I ride a train – I am perfectly comfortable with reading a book or watching the Swedish landscape (it’s great – you should try it!)
This guide is meant as a proof-of-concept of the inherent flaws in the system. In a sense I do this to alert SJ and interested people of the problems I found. More importantly, though, is that I do this to lobby for free internet onboard. Systems that do not work as intended and are nothing but in the way of I see as superfluous. At least here in Sweden there now is a range of low-cost airlines taking you to many destination around the country for a price that is definitely competitive with the trains.
The train companies must quickly find better ways to attract customers, and that shouldn’t be too hard. Airplanes are noisy, uncomfortable and requires a lot of security for baggage and passengers, and there is no internet. How easy wouldn’t it be to have an open WiFi connection onboard a train? Even the smallest of pseudo-security pisses people off and requires a whole chain of authentication and encryption, and WiFi is now technically possible.
There is almost no risk of outsiders using the internet connection except people who stand at the stations, and they are at most getting a few minutes worth of surfing.
The point I am trying to make is that there is no argument for not opening up the internet access on board the trains – it is becoming an important part in the play for customers.
Intersting question! Let me put it this way: I am an advocate of full disclosure, the principle of publicly disclosing security flaws. I do not believe that spreading this information is bad in any sense, and as I write above, I am not leeching internet on board trains for personal gain.
This does not mean that I am without ethics, I believe in these ethics and do actually have a personal feeling for morale, especially since I am a christian!
Yes, that is true. I want to be rich and famous and all
No, seriously. I try to follow my own principles of full disclosure and since this is my personal window out the web I publish the information here. Full disclosure can act strangely to an observer, but I strongly believe that it is the correct path to thread in many areas.
I am blessed by many gifts, for which many I am grateful to my Lord.
I am grateful for that, too.
I have a policy of my own that I do not remove published information from my blog except in extreme cases (this is not one). Even if my fingers slip and I write something that could be negative for me in the end, I tend to keep it published. I do this as a bit of honesty, this blog is a part of what I am and I do not wish to hide my bad sides when they do.
Karel, thank you for your input! I do need some food for thought from time to time, both to re-evaluate myself and my ideas. I do respect your opinion, but I have decided not to remove anything from this website. I would like a further discussion, surely you have thoughts or ideas of what I just wrote here. Keep on commenting!
The slow wi-fi on SJ X2000 trains is not worth stealing. Tether your mobile phone or do something more productive with your time on board.
Now you’re just being dumb Karel. A first class ticket on a X2000 train can be more than twice as expensive. Let’s just say the price difference is 200 SEK, that’s more than enough to pay for one month of Turbo 3G internet, including the dongle.
Even budget buses offer free WiFi and electricity to their passengers these days and there really shouldn’t be a problem for trains to do the same thing. The internet itself is crazy cheap for both buses and SJ.