Night curfew can be bypassed by tailgating another cat through the flap

[tux1980]

Night curfew can be bypassed by tailgating another cat through the flap

Hi,

I have a serious issue after the recent firmware update....

Two of my younger cats, Piwi and Peebles, are not allowed to leave the house at night. They should only be allowed to exit between 06:00 and 19:30 - which generals works - especially before the last firmware update.

However, I have now observed that Peebles can still get out at night by directly following another cat that is allowed to leave 24/7.

Example:

• Mäxchen is an older cat and is allowed to leave at any time, 24h!
• Peebles is a young cat and should be blocked from leaving after 19:30.
• Mäxchen triggers the flap first and is allowed to go out.
• Peebles follows immediately behind him within a few seconds.
• The flap still lets Peebles out, although Peebles is currently not allowed to exit.

In the OnlyCat app, this is shown as one combined event:

Mäxchen and Peebles went out

The event timeline shows:

• Mäxchen: went out
• Peebles: went out shortly after - which is not allowed at all because of the curfew.

This should not be possible. The policy should still block Peebles, even if she follows another authorized cat through the flap.

My current door policy is like that:

{
  "rules": [
    {
      "criteria": {
        "flapState": [
          1,
          2
        ]
      },
      "action": {
        "lock": true,
        "lockoutDuration": 5000
      },
      "description": "Anti-tailgating: briefly lock once flap starts moving"
    },
    {
      "criteria": {
        "rfidCode": [
          "276094500049507",
          "276098104420474",
          "276098510551110",
          "276098510551947"
        ],
        "eventTriggerSource": [
          3
        ],
        "eventClassification": [
          2,
          3
        ]
      },
      "action": {
        "lock": true
      },
      "description": "Contraband blocked quietly for Maddy, Mäxchen and Piwi"
    },
    {
      "criteria": {
        "rfidCode": [
          "276094500049507",
          "276098104420474",
          "276098510551110",
          "276098510551947"
        ],
        "eventTriggerSource": [
          3
        ]
      },
      "action": {
        "lock": false
      },
      "description": "Normal entry for Maddy, Mäxchen and Piwi"
    },
    {
      "criteria": {
        "rfidCode": [
          "276094500049507",
          "276098104420474"
        ],
        "eventTriggerSource": 2
      },
      "action": {
        "lock": false
      },
      "description": "Maddy and Mäxchen allowed to leave anytime"
    },
    {
      "criteria": {
        "rfidCode": [
          "276098510551947",
          "276098510551110"
        ],
        "timeRange": "06:00-19:30",
        "eventTriggerSource": [
          2
        ]
      },
      "action": {
        "lock": false
      },
      "description": "Peebles and Piwi allowed to leave during daytime only (night curfew)"
    }
  ],
  "idleLock": true,
  "idleLockBattery": true,
  "ux": {
    "onActivate": {
      "sound": "coin"
    }
  }
}

The first rule was intended to prevent tailgating:

{
  "criteria": {
    "flapState": [
      1,
      2
    ]
  },
  "action": {
    "lock": true,
    "lockoutDuration": 5000
  },
  "description": "Anti-tailgating: briefly lock once flap starts moving"
}

But this does not prevent Peebles from following Mäxchen out.

Could you please advise how this should be handled?

Expected behaviour:

• Mäxchen may leave at night.
• Peebles and Piwi must not be able to leave after 19:30.
• If Peebles follows directly behind Mäxchen, the flap should detect this and block Peebles.
• A combined event such as “Mäxchen and Peebles went out” should not result in Peebles bypassing the night curfew.

This is important because Peebles is a young cat and must not be outside at night.

Is this a firmware issue, a policy evaluation issue, or do I need a different anti-tailgating policy?

Thanks!
Wolfgang

[tux1980]

Here you can see one example Video the younger cat tailgating the older one:
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e42dbfe1-dee5-40a6-83a8-49f53114ccae

This is the first screenshot from the flap to the Video above:

This is the second screenshot from the flap to the Video above:

[tux1980]

New Comment from your "OnlyCat Door Policy Specialist" ChatGPT

Important correction: this obviously is not a 5-second tailgating problem.

The app timeline shows:

• Mäxchen went out at 0.7s
• Peebles went out at 26.7s
• Total event length around 45.1s

So Peebles did not simply slip through during the same physical flap movement within a few seconds. She exited around 26 seconds later, long after my 5-second anti-tailgating lockout should have expired and while the system still considered this one combined event.

This suggests a same-event policy evaluation problem:

1. Mäxchen is authorized to exit at night.
2. The door unlocks for Mäxchen.
3. The event remains active for a long time.
4. Peebles is detected/scanned during the same event.
5. Peebles is still allowed out even though her curfew should block exits after 19:30.

Expected behavior:
A later RFID detection within the same event should still be evaluated against the current policy. Peebles/Piwi should be denied exit at night even if another cat opened the event earlier.

Question:
After the latest firmware update, does the first authorized cat keep the event permissive for the rest of the event? If so, this allows curfew bypasses during long combined events.