Hacking Home Depot

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Author: dual_parallel
Date Released: Unknown
Added to DD: 22:37, 3 Dec 2004 (EST)

Being a new homeowner, I've been to Home Depot more times than I'd care to. With all those visits (and all that money), I was bound to pick something up about the technology at America's favorite home improvement store.

I'll start with the point-of-sale (POS) system - first a description and then instructions on how to open the store, recover a crashed terminal, etc. Most of the info is verbatim from Home Depot instructions, so I hope it is not incomplete or disjointed. After that, I'll discuss the phone system.

Home Depot uses NCR POS terminals with TELXON portable terminals, SYMBOL UPC guns and STRATIX portable printers. Most POS terminals at the front of the store (checkout and customer service) are manned or observed during business hours. So if you want to play around, head to the middle of the store by the remodeling/home decorating departments. There you should find an unattended terminal without a cash register.

Here's what is done to start a new day, i.e. open the store, in the POS system:

  1. On the Main Menu, type 16 (or POS) and press Enter to display the POS Menu.
  2. On the POS Menu, type 1 (or OPNST) and press Enter to display the Open the Store screen.
  3. View the status (CLOSED0 of PSP A and PSP B [Payment Service Provider] at the bottom of the screen.
  4. Enter Y to answer the question, "Do you want to start a new business day?" and press Enter.
  5. PSP status changes from CLOSED to OPEN.
  6. Press Enter to return to the POS Menu.

Now, if you want to open the registers:

  1. At the register, type your cashier log number [I don't know how many digits in a cashier log number] and press enter.
  2. Insert manager key and turn it to S. Type 8 and press Enter. Register briefly displays "SPT [?] Downloading." When SPT download is complete, drawer opens and an I-8 receipt prints [register report - you'll see].
  3. Close the drawer. The register prompts again for a cashier log number.
  4. Turn the manager key to R and remove the key.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 at all registers. Open register even if they will not be used.
  6. Give register reports (I-8 receipts) to Vault associates.

The next set of instructions is much more useful - how to switch payment service provider:

  1. From the POS Menu, type 29 (or PSPSWT) and press Enter.
  2. View screen with PSP A and PSP B displayed.
  3. Type Y to answer, "Do you want to make PSP B primary [PSP A is primary by default]?"
  4. Press F6 to accept response.
  5. View message "Processing please wait..."
  6. View the PSP A status change to Backup and the PSP B status change to Primary on the screen.
  7. Press F3 to return to the POS Menu.

To make this article complete, I'll share closing the store:

  1. Log on as Close/2GOHOME or from the POS Menu, select Close Store / Start Batch.
  2. When the screen appears, view the status (OPEN) of both PSP's at the bottom of the screen.
  3. Enter Y to answer the question, "Do you want to end the current business day?" and press Enter.
  4. Enter your name [hello, name tags]. Press F6 to accept information.
  5. View message stating that the system is checking the registers.
  6. Watch PSP status change from OPEN to CLOSED.
  7. Collect the Sales by Department and Sales by Tender Type reports once they print on the printer for the Vault and Computer Room [extensions later].
  8. Watch for message to signal that Batch has started successfully.
  9. User will be logged off of the system.

As anyone can plainly see, communication with the payment service provider is paramount. Questions then arise - How do they communicate? What is the medium? Is it secure? Encrypted? I believe that retail transaction security is untested and any countermeasures would be reactive.

Enough heavy stuff. Let's say you've got access to a terminal and want to see how Home Depot is doing. Whip up some reports from the POS Menu with the following commands: 

            30            Sales by department
            31            Sales by tender type
            32            Tax exempt
            33            Sales comparison by hour
            34            Sales comparison by department
            35            Cashier log number

If a terminal crashes, be a nice hacker and fix it:

  1. Write down the TTY# of the terminal and go to a working terminal.
  2. From a main menu select 28 System Admin.
  3. Choose 3 Terminal Control.
  4. Choose 6 Kill Terminal Processes.
  5. Enter Y - yes you want to run this process.
  6. Choose the number of the reason why the terminal is locked up [no, you can't choose "31337 - h4x0r3d"].
  7. Choose 2 for Enter the TTY number.
  8. Enter the TTY# - i.e. tty4p2
  9. Go back to the original terminal. You should get a login prompt.

Researching the Home Depot phone system was a more enjoyable experience. Home Depot uses a Lucent phone system with main phones at the service counters and black, 2554-style extensions throughout the store. In addition to these, there are probably five or six mobile phones and four or five fax machines in any given HD. The fax machines would be found in the computer room, kitchen design department and at the contractor desk.

The extensions of the 2554 phones throughout the store are three digit numbers in the 100's and they are usually written on the phone or near it. To get an extension, just pick up and dial. This extension list is unique, but useful nonetheless: 

            408            Bookkeeping
            476            Break room
            423            Carpet center
            471            Computer room
            413            Contractors
            425            Decorating
            406            Ads
            401            Manager
            422            Millworks desk
            450            Operator
            424            Paint desk
            467            Receiving
            301            Returns
            322            Special services
            475            Training room

Other extensions for the operator include 452 and 453. The extension for the paging system is 7#80. Pressing 7# on an extension phone gets you a cool tone. Press 7#** to get a different cool tone. I'm sure there are other 7# codes, possibly an outside line. Inter-store calling is possible from main phones. Dial 1-700-888-store #. I still want to try calling a store in a long distance exchange and being transferred to an outside line.

If you plan to mess around at Home Depot, bring a small phone (not a beige box) with you. As you saunter about the store, you're bound to see empty RJ-ll jacks where extension phones should be. See what you can do.

I bet there's still a lot to learn at Home Depot. I could keep figuring stuff out, but this article would never get written. Keep exploring.

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