Earlier quoted context omitted.
You need to connect your car to the internet?
It's likely the car has it's own always-on cellular connection.
Yeah, this is what I meant, but that sounds insane to me.
A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
251–260 of 325 posts
Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#252Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#253Reading this article is honestly a bit of a domestic culture shock for me, where does this guy live in The Netherlands? Here in downtown Amsterdam we called the police because the rear window of someone's car had just been smashed outside our office, and the police's response was "Has anyone been hurt? Nope? Then we're not coming". Meanwhile, wherever this guy lives they're sending officers because some BMW call cent…
Several years ago someone tried to climb into our apartment window in Amsterdam (with another guy waiting with a motorbike as getaway vehicle on the street). He was standing on the windowsill and tried to break open the window (it was open but we had one of those locks that limits how far the window opens, so he didn't fit through the gap). They fled once we noticed them. When we tried to report that incident to the…
Standing on someones windowsill isn't illegal?
Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Russia and, I guess, similar countries, it's quite rare to encounter a car which isn't protected by an external protection system (not sure how it's called in English, in Russian it's usually called "Сигнализация") which includes shock sensors, alarm system, remote control and car block which protects some vital engine circuits. There are systems with dialog protocol between remote control and car with actual encr…
> not sure how it's called in English "Immobiliser", usually. :)
"Сигнализация" would be more akin to alarm.
Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like an easy problem to solve - every ECU generates its own encryption/signing key at first boot and dumps it over the serial port, which then gets recorded somewhere. This is eventually passed down to the car’s owner in the documentation, and the key needs to be presented before any firmware upgrade or configuration change. This isn’t bulletproof either, but surely more than “hey I’m legit, here’s your new fir…
I'm not so sure. The key has to be stored somewhere on the car. Why not desolder that and examine it? (If we're going with "Theoretically possible," that is.)
My solution wasn't to protect against that - if you're up for desoldering stuff you may as well just replace the ECU with your own one which is happy to start the car.
This was just an idea to thwart installation of compromised firmware by thieves via the diagnostics port. It's just a little layer of security, not designed to be bulletproof, merely to slow down thieves by forcing them to actually swap the hardware.
Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thieves didn’t have to come back the first night. Could have done it weeks later.
Yeah but would you drive around in your brand new car for weeks with a big SOS error light in the dashboard? Knowing it's covered by insurance and/or warranty, too.
The theft relies on the few people who would actually ignore the error light, I mean theft shouldn't be so easy...
Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
no, there is no software that i know of where you can as a consumer make your i3 an i5 with just a software unlock, that you can get for like 10 eur. the difference on the base model mercedes c class between getting a less powerful engine and the one that is one level up is like 3.5-4k eur. that is a lot of money. if i could unlock the bigger engine with just 400 eur i would buy the base model. manufacturers don't wa…
It’s not just more power though. My car has two version 130hp and 155. For the 2 grand I got 25 more horsepower and bigger brakes ,bigger clutch , bigger wheels with wider tyres and an LSD. The only time I can recall where the engine has been exactly the same inside was the mini one and Mini Cooper where the ecu only allowed for 86% throttle on the lower powered version. Every other engine has had a mechanical differ…
f30 bmw 316d and 318d are exactly the same, 2011 325d and 330d also, 2013 114i and 118i of what i can rembember right now, i dont keep the exact list.
and if i would guess you are talking about mx-5 nd, those are natural aspired engines, where something like this is not really viable.
Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's not normal, it's just a problem in Amsterdam. Right, the two times we needed police in Limburg (Echt and Maastricht, few years apart) it didn't happen either. It had to be life-threatening and the people didn't literally shout "we'll kill you" so the police wasn't gonna bother. Meanwhile on TV they're cycling through parks to fine people some 99 euros for not having a well-behaved dog on a leash (could have us…
Poor dude? You don't park in a disabled spot unless you have a right to be there. That should be common sense.
Standing is not partking.
Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not so sure. The key has to be stored somewhere on the car. Why not desolder that and examine it? (If we're going with "Theoretically possible," that is.)
My solution wasn't to protect against that - if you're up for desoldering stuff you may as well just replace the ECU with your own one which is happy to start the car. This was just an idea to thwart installation of compromised firmware by thieves via the diagnostics port. It's just a little layer of security, not designed to be bulletproof, merely to slow down thieves by forcing them to actually swap the hardware.
if you're up for desoldering stuff you may as well just replace the ECU with your own one which is happy to start the car.
I demand a source that teaches me how to do this. :)
Orrr if you're in Chicago let's go figure it out ourselves!
Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's not normal, it's just a problem in Amsterdam. Right, the two times we needed police in Limburg (Echt and Maastricht, few years apart) it didn't happen either. It had to be life-threatening and the people didn't literally shout "we'll kill you" so the police wasn't gonna bother. Meanwhile on TV they're cycling through parks to fine people some 99 euros for not having a well-behaved dog on a leash (could have us…
Poor dude? You don't park in a disabled spot unless you have a right to be there. That should be common sense.
I think his point is that there are much bigger problems that they should be tackling especially since a disabled person can easily give a good old honk to tell the person to move if they came around and actually needed the spot.