Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
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Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#2Seems like this might be relevant. http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-usenixsec2011.pdf
Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#3What's the big mystery here? There have been published articles on the ease of hacking car remotes (and even the onboard electronics) going back at least a couple of years. For example:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/01...
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/07/hacking_bmws_r...
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20085131-48/remote-unlo...
http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/03/researchers-car...
Here's a video (with no commentary, unfortunately) that shows someone who has apparently decoded the signals from a car remote and is using the remote and an arduino, to toggle some LEDs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doELL4g4cS0
I have little doubt that there are hackers out there who can easily build a device to remotely unlock / start cars that use keyless entry. In fact, I'd be far more surprised if there weren't.
Edit: to elaborate... when I say "What's the big mystery" I'm referring to a notion, which I interpreted from the article (rightly or wrongly), that people are totally unaware that this kind of thing is even conceptually possible. I don't claim to know the exact exploit or mechanism being used here! Just pointing out that this general class of attacks isn't something totally foreign and unknown.
Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#4Is there a way to disable remote access to the doors? Other than driving an old car :)
Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#5[deleted]
Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#6Moral of the story is don't leave valuable stuff in your car.
Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#7What's the big mystery here? There have been published articles on the ease of hacking car remotes (and even the onboard electronics) going back at least a couple of years. For example: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/01... http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/07/hacking_bmws_r... http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20085131-48/remote-unlo... http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/…
Oh, but according to SOMEONE (source for this claim is not given) "That code is encrypted and constantly changing — and should be hackproof."
American media at it's best!
Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#8What's the big mystery here? There have been published articles on the ease of hacking car remotes (and even the onboard electronics) going back at least a couple of years. For example: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/01... http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/07/hacking_bmws_r... http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20085131-48/remote-unlo... http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/…
"What's the big mystery here?"
That California PD haven't googled this yet...
Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#9What's the big mystery here? There have been published articles on the ease of hacking car remotes (and even the onboard electronics) going back at least a couple of years. For example: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/01... http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/07/hacking_bmws_r... http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20085131-48/remote-unlo... http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/…
If they were using key reprogramming/hacking there's no reason to 'always use' the passenger side front door as claimed in the video. So I don't think it's clear that these thieves are using any of those techniques.
I imagine it might be stupider, like maybe there's a way to induce the unlock button or motor to trigger via induction or something. Though I'm pretty poorly informed about that kind of thing scientifically and am likely completely wrong.
Re: Police admit they're 'stumped' by mystery car thefts
#10Is there a way to disable remote access to the doors? Other than driving an old car :)
You should be able to pull the fuse for the door locks; the mechanical lock buttons and key will continue to work. To find out which fuse, just Google "[car make] [model] [year] fuse diagram" and look for door lock actuators or similar.