RESEARCH | December 6, 2021

Cracking the Snapcode

Daniel Moder, IOActive Security Consultant, explores the world of the ever-increasing forms of bar codes, specifically, cracking Snapcodes.

Snapcode is a proprietary 2D barcode system that can trigger a variety of actions when scanned in the Snapchat app. Unlike some bar code systems, there is no public documentation about how the Snapcode system works. Daniel delves in to discover the inner workings of Snapcode to answer the following questions: 

  1. What data do Snapcodes encode?
  2. How do Snapcodes encode data?
  3. What actions can be triggered when these codes are scanned?