topic Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models in Community Chat

Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

Say Nay — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 12:28:03 GMT

I don't know if this was posted before. Apologies if I'm repeating a thread.

Note in bold the makes and models which were marked vulnerable.

From Wired dated Mar 21, 2016:

For years, car owners with keyless entry systems have reported thieves approaching their vehicles with mysterious devices and effortlessly opening them in seconds. After having his Prius burgled repeatedly outside his Los Angeles home, the New York Times‘ former tech columnist Nick Bilton came to the conclusion that the thieves must be amplifying the signal from the key fob in the house to trick his car’s keyless entry system into thinking the key was in the thieves’ hand. He eventually resorted to keeping his keys in the freezer.

Now a group of German vehicle security researchers has released new findings about the extent of that wireless key hack, and their work ought to convince hundreds of thousands of drivers to keep their car keys next to their Pudding Pops. The Munich-based automobile club ADAC late last week made public a study it had performed on dozens of cars to test a radio “amplification attack” that silently extends the range of unwitting drivers’ wireless key fobs to open cars and even start their ignitions, as first reported by the German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. The ADAC researchers say that 24 different vehicles from 19 different manufacturers were all vulnerable, allowing them to not only reliably unlock the target vehicles but also immediately drive them away.

“This clear vulnerability in [wireless] keys facilitates the work of thieves immensely,” reads a post in German about the researchers’ findings on the ADAC website. “The radio connection between keys and car can easily be extended over several hundred meters, regardless of whether the original key is, for example, at home or in the pocket of the owner.”...

Here’s the full list of vulnerable vehicles from their findings, which focused on European models: the Audi A3, A4 and A6, BMW’s 730d, Citroen’s DS4 CrossBack, Ford’s Galaxy and Eco-Sport, Honda’s HR-V, Hyundai’s Santa Fe CRDi, KIA’s Optima, Lexus’s RX 450h, Mazda’s CX-5, MINI’s Clubman, Mitsubishi’s Outlander, Nissan’s Qashqai and Leaf, Opel’s Ampera, Range Rover’s Evoque, Renault’s Traffic, Ssangyong’s Tivoli XDi, Subaru’s Levorg, Toyota’s RAV4, and Volkswagen’s Golf GTD and Touran 5T.

Only the BMW i3 resisted the researchers’ attack, though they were still able to start its ignition. And the researchers posit—but admit they didn’t prove—that the same technique likely would work on other vehicles, including those more common in the United States, with some simple changes to the frequency of the equipment’s radio communications...

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

KingstonsMom — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 12:35:30 GMT

I just read the other day on a news site (forgot which one), that a 'driverless' brand new Corvette, which was parked, started itself, jumped the curb and crashed on a busy sidewalk.

I wonder if that's how this incident happened?

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

Say Nay — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 12:40:05 GMT

I hope no one was hurt!

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

Mominohio — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 12:47:19 GMT

We are in our mid 50's, and my husband is a mechanic. He has been tinkering since he was a small boy, and can completely build a car or any component in one, mechanical or electrical.

He has always been of the camp that believes 'the more complex it is, the more it breaks, and the more it costs to fix it'. And for that reason, we usually have the most basic of cars, when possible.

I'm outside the norm, but I only need a radio (not even a fancy one with any other uses), a good heater and air conditioning, and power windows are really nice. Other than that, they can have their fancy doo dads.

I have to wonder if keeping the key fobs in a metal tin or box would stop this from happening. Many people have a key rack inside their door, to hang keys on so they can find them when time to leave again, so I wonder if a decorative tin sitting there to put keys in would stop this from happening.

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

Marp — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 13:24:33 GMT

This should serve as a reminder that anything digital and/or using radio frequencies can be hacked.

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

gardenman — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 13:48:32 GMT

There are devices that are available on the black market today that let you sit in a parking lot and copy the signal used by a driver's key fob. They tend to be very popular on Black Friday when shoppers make multiple trips back and forth to their cars. The operator of the device will simply sit in a nearby vehicle with the device and wait for it to receive a signal from someone using a fob. The device will record that signal and play it back on command.

You come out to your car with a armload of goods, use your fob to open the trunk, then go back inside to shop and the bad guy waits until you're out of sight, uses his device and your trunk/hatchback pops open for him/her and they move your packages to their vehicle and away they go.

People do the same thing with garage door openers. There are devices out there that have been designed to steal/copy just about any signal any wireless device can use and use it against the owner of the origianl device. Even a house's alarm system that comes with a fob can be turned off by some of these devices.

There is no absolute safety. Whatever tricks the good guys can invent the bad guys can circumvent.

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

missy1 — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 13:51:40 GMT

Older cars rock!

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

aprilskies — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 13:59:05 GMT

@Mominohio wrote:
We are in our mid 50's, and my husband is a mechanic. He has been tinkering since he was a small boy, and can completely build a car or any component in one, mechanical or electrical.

He has always been of the camp that believes 'the more complex it is, the more it breaks, and the more it costs to fix it'. And for that reason, we usually have the most basic of cars, when possible.

I'm outside the norm, but I only need a radio (not even a fancy one with any other uses), a good heater and air conditioning, and power windows are really nice. Other than that, they can have their fancy doo dads.

I have to wonder if keeping the key fobs in a metal tin or box would stop this from happening. Many people have a key rack inside their door, to hang keys on so they can find them when time to leave again, so I wonder if a decorative tin sitting there to put keys in would stop this from happening.

I could of wrote this myself except the mechancial husband part. We have gotten too fancy with our technology and now it is in our cars. All they do is keep adding things so people will buy and it keeps getting more expensive to boot. All I need in a car is what you mentioned. It is a car, not a home.

Also, cars are so compact now and one part is attached to another. One part of it goes, you have to replace the whole thing.

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

bri20 — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 14:02:53 GMT

I was always skeptical of those keyless entries...

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

cookie16 — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 14:16:00 GMT

I want no part of the keyless entry/ drive cars. I addition to them being easily stolen, I am afraid of it starting by itself or not shutting down in the garage. I think it is a stupid, unnecessary thing to have. Does anyone know if it can be dismantled to function like always, with a key. I am refusing to allow my daughter to lease a new car, her current lease will be up soon, until I am assured that keyless drive can be dismantled.

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

BabyYoda — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 16:03:11 GMT

We found out a neighbor that was robbed a few months ago had his automatic garage door opened by thieves using this technology. They had copied his code when he came home one day and the next day while he was at work they entered through the garage door. Scary!

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

MaggieMack — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 16:46:35 GMT

@BabyYoda wrote:
We found out a neighbor that was robbed a few months ago had his automatic garage door opened by thieves using this technology. They had copied his code when he came home one day and the next day while he was at work they entered through the garage door. Scary!

This is the reason the door from my garage into my house is always dead bolted, whether I am home or not. That limits the burglars access to the garage (I hope).

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

MaggieMack — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 16:50:00 GMT

I had a friend who had a keyless entry n his suv. He was hundreds of miles from home, decided to park and go for a long run, leaving everything inside the car. When he returned, the keyless entry wouldn't work and he wound up having to borrow someone's phone to call AAA to come unlock his car. That story was enough for me to never trust the technology.

@Say Nay, thanks for posting this!

Re: Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models

Puzzle Piece — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 17:07:19 GMT

It was all only a matter of time.

Now, if some wacko or jerk wants to hack those autos with the latest technology they can and most likely will. One day we will hear that all the brakes didn't work on certain models at some time of the day and there was chaos everywhere.

Why do folks go ape just because some sales pitch sells them this cra- on a stick?