Car electronics easily hacked says research

[fnkngrv]

Interesting article on Neowin.net today:



The many computer systems found within modern day cars are vulnerable to attack, according to a team of researchers from the University of California-San Diego and the University of Washington. Amongst other things, the researchers were able to turn a car's instrument panel into a 60 second countdown clock, which honked the horn as it reached zero before turning the engine off and locking the doors.

Led by Professor Stefan Savage from the University of California-San Diego, and Tadayoshi Kohno from the University of Washington, the researchers goal was to find out just how difficult it would be to take control of a modern car. Concentrating on the ECUs (electronic control units), of which there can be up to 70 containing over 100MB of code between them, the team soon found out just how easy it was to manipulate a cars behaviour.

Connecting to the car via the communication ports built-in as standard - so mechanics can gather data for servicing - the attackers then used a program they created called CarShark, which allowed them to first monitor what information the various ECUs sent, before sending their own data so as to manipulate the vehicle and see how much could be controlled.

The team soon found that there was little that couldn't be controlled. As reported by the BBC, the researchers were able to disable the brakes completely, engage them while in motion, turn off the engine, lock the doors and more. Almost every system, from the engine right through to the air condition, was vulnerable to attack. It was found that even sending malformed packets of data could result in a response from the vehicle.

Fortunately, in order to successfully take control of a car a hacker would still need to gain physical access to the communication ports. However, with many everyday objects hooking up to the Internet there is definitely room for a future risk from this kind of attack.

Talking about the researchers findings, Rik Fergson, a security analyst at Trend Micro said that, "As cars, and everything else in life up to and including even pacemakers or fridges, become steadily more connected and externally accessible, research such as this should be taken increasingly seriously by manufacturers." He added, "This represents an opportunity to head off a problem before it starts, in the not-too-distant future it may represent a real risk to life."

The research team will be presenting their findings at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in California on May 19th.


If it were so easy to hack ECU's then there would be a lot more options to modders as well so I am thinking that they are not talking about Toyota...


http://www.neowin.net/news/car-elect...-says-research

[Rain]

I wonder what car they tested

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

Interesting article on Neowin.net today:

If it were so easy to hack ECU's then there would be a lot more options to modders as well so I am thinking that they are not talking about Toyota...

Actually, via CAN bus commands one can do the things mentioned in the article. To do so requires knowledge of the Manufacturer specific CAN bus commands (beyond OBDII). In my case, I have figured out many of these commands by obtaining a Toyota Techstream tool and sniffing its comm to the ECM/ECUs.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by PK198105

how much was Techstream?

and as CTScott said , each manufacturer will have their own commands and PIDs, plus I believe Toyota ECUs are locked in factory so only Toyota software can unlock them.

I picked up the $500 Drewtech Mongoose, which is fully supported by the TechStream software.

There is protection for something overwriting the ECM's firmware, but knowing the manufacturer specific CAN commands, you can still raise havoc. You could build a tiny box that could be hidden within the dash that taps 4 wires (power, ground, canh and canl) to do the things mentioned above.

[127.0.0.1]

B F D

how do you think Baitcar works ?


It will still take a human to steal the vehicle, if that is the goal

and it will leave evidence (a control module) if someone wants to hack
in and kill someone CIA style. I can see this happening if you PO the
mafia and you happen to have a canbus car they can get to.
they follow you to 'deadman's corner' and kill your brakes and hit the throttle on you'

[yarrr]

Originally Posted by 127.0.0.1

B F D

lol seriously. I like how you have to scan through 4 paragraphs of scare propaganda to learn someone actually has to get in your car and leave behind a strange box.

oh, and someone will hack onstar and shut down 10,000 cars before this happens, without having to physically enter any car.

[bkrownd]

Originally Posted by yarrr

lol seriously. I like how you have to scan through 4 paragraphs of scare propaganda to learn someone actually has to get in your car and leave behind a strange box.

oh, and someone will hack onstar and shut down 10,000 cars before this happens, without having to physically enter any car.

Well that's the thing - the time to nip this vulnerability is now, before it becomes an issue. Manufacturers may soon start integrating some sort of wireless communications in their cars (maybe not telling anyone at first), and then the poop hits the fan quick.

[severous01]

ok, lets go back to cables, relays, switches and carbs

yeah right. you lose navigation, automatic air, automatic windows, auto lock and anti=trapping windows, DRL, high intensity or 'dynamic' lights, and way too many things to even think about right now

you think people who drive mercedes/bmw/lexus will allow that to happen? i had someone come in the other day telling me they had to hit a button to turn on the air conditioner and they were unsatisfied with the car. he wanted it on the steering wheel so he can access all the ac functions from the wheel...right, what am i supposed to do there???