Hackers Wirelessly Crash Car's Computer At Highway Speeds

[burnz]

A team of university researchers has been able to hack into a car's warning systems via wireless sensors, sending fake tire pressure messages at highway speeds and eventually frying an onboard computer. The dawn of the carhacker approaches.

We've told you before about experiments to hack into the increasingly complicated programming in modern vehicles. How complicated? A typical luxury sedan will carry three miles of wiring, scores of processors and close to 100 million lines of software code, or roughly 20 times more than used in a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Those previous experiments showed what could be done with a physical connection to a vehicle's computer. The new work by teams from the University of South Carolina and Rutgers tried a different tack: spoofing the wireless sensors in wheels used by tire pressure monitoring systems, required in all new U.S. vehicles since 2008.

The researchers didn't find a wide-open door so much as the security employed by a 1920s speakeasy: once they learned the secret knock, the unidentified test car's controls let them in no questions asked. The team sent fake warning messages from 40 meters away, and in another experiment, got the test car to flash a warning that a tire had lost all pressure while beaming the signal from another car as both drove 68 mph.

Because each sensor uses a unique ID tag, it was also possible to track specific vehicles, in a way that would be far less noticeable than roadside cameras.

The hacked car usually reset its warnings after the spoofed messages stopped. But after two days of tests, the electronic control unit for the tire monitors fell off its twig and had to be replaced by a dealer. The researchers note that it took several hours of graduate-level engineering to devise their tools and crack into the monitors, but that the actual technology for doing so cost about $1,500.

The teams suggest some basic software rules could provide at least a lookout for the speakeasy door. it's not the auto equivalent of the Conficker worm, but such experiments suggest the tools for an actual hack may exist. Thankfully, many Americans already have a strong defense of ignorance: Nearly half apparently don't understand what a tire pressure warning light looks like, and a third don't even know such systems exist.

http://jalopnik.com/5610373/hackers-...ce=twitterfeed

[Fled74]

"Possible to track specific vehicles"? This does not bode well.

[MO]

Originally Posted by Fled74

"Possible to track specific vehicles"? This does not bode well.

Another good reason to keep the classics alive.......no computer to worry about.

[Road_Warrior]

I can just picture someone with malicious intent overrunning a car's electronic driving aids to cause a crash.

[Boosh Brus]

Originally Posted by MO

Another good reason to keep the classics alive.......no computer to worry about.

But then you need to get out and look at your tires... who has the time for that?

[billy302]

Originally Posted by burnz

http://jalopnik.com/5610373/hackers-...ce=twitterfeed

Guys this is a load of old rubbish and don't listen to the crap.
Firstly the computer is a solid state unit with no wireless capability.
The only thing wireless in any car is the blue tooth phone system. This is not repeat not integrated into the engine management system

[StrokedXT]

Originally Posted by billy302

Guys this is a load of old rubbish and don't listen to the crap.
Firstly the computer is a solid state unit with no wireless capability.
The only thing wireless in any car is the blue tooth phone system. This is not repeat not integrated into the engine management system

Not exactly, the article says they hacked the tyre pressure monitoring system that is obviously wireless, but you are correct there is no threat of hacking the cars ecu wirelessly and taking it down and killing all the occupants.

[OzJavelin]

Originally Posted by StrokedXT

Not exactly, the article says they hacked the tyre pressure monitoring system that is obviously wireless, but you are correct there is no threat of hacking the cars ecu wirelessly and taking it down and killing all the occupants.

So .. there is an airgap between the tyre monitoring all other more critical computer systems?

Malicious Dynamic Stability Control over-ride would be an interesting exercise.

[Phyber]

Wireless in my car - do not want. I work in IT and if you can connect to it (wirelessly or otherwise), you can get into it seems to be the inevitable way of the world. Viruses even exist in still pictures and music files!

Scary.

[Franco Cozzo]

You could probably do it with Honda's, but ONLY if they had the wireless modual connected.

Then you'd die of old age because of its 512kbps bandwidth between moduals.

[gemini]

How ever did we manage without wireless tyre pressure monitoring.

[Luke Plaizier]

There was another article where this was done with a wireless device plugged into the OBD2 port. So you do need physical access to the vehicle before it hits the road for the really bad stuff.

This is definitely possible on the BA or BF which have the one CAN bus with all modules accessible directly via the OBD2 port. Interestingly, in the FG, the PCM / Gearbox / ABS messages are now carried on a CAN bus that isn't presented to the OBD2 port any more. And the security system is on a LIN bus not shown to the OBD2 port either. However many speedo, envrionmental and audio messages are still visible on OBD2.

And Chrysler are known to now have a firewall between the OBD2 port and the rest of the bus, so you don't see broadcast messages, and can't issue them, and like any internet style firewall, you are only allow to issue certain commands or you'll be blocked.

Next thing you know we'll have to apply virus pattern updates to our cars on a daily basis.

The big worry is with those cars like Tesla that 'phone to base' on a regular basis and report ECU diagnostics. When you go in for a service, they already know what is wrong. The path from ECU to home base had want to be pretty damn secure.


Lukeyson

[MO]

And from 'phone to base' ecu diagnostic how long before the locals are plugged in and send you your fine in the mail without ever pulling you over?

[vztrt]

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/11/c...essire-monito/

Cars hacked by researchers through wireless tire pressire monitors

by Sam Abuelsamid (RSS feed) on Aug 11th 2010 at 7:30PM

We heard the first reports of researchers proving that you could hack into automotive electronic systems earlier this year. That work was based on tapping into the OBD-II port normally used by mechanics for reading diagnostic codes. That method of car hacking, however, is of limited value to cyber criminals because it requires having physical access to the underside of a car's dashboard.

Another group of researchers from Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina have just discovered that you can hack into a car's electronics wirelessly, which means any modern vehicle could be vulnerable to an attack at any time, even while it's being driven down the road.

The researchers used a car's tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) as their entry portal. Tire pressure monitoring has been mandatory on new cars since 2008 and uses a sensor on each wheel that transmits data over radio frequencies to a vehicle's electronic control unit.

By sniffing for signals from the TPMS, these researchers were able to track two different vehicles and even interfere with the signals. At this point, the real world implications are limited because TPMS sensors have a very short range and update the car's ECU only every 60-90 seconds. However, these findings underscore how as vehicles get more wireless connectivity, it's important to ensure those wireless connections are secure and encrypted to prevent mischief.

[Source: Ars Technica | Image: TRW]