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GM's OnStar System Hacked

Posted by michael on from the think-outside-the-box dept.

Makarand writes "According to this Mercury News article users of GM's OnStar system are finding that they can modify their OnStar unit to make it work with commercially available mapping software after disconnecting it from the OnStar network. Websites and message boards are rife with step-by-step instructions to personalize OnStar's navigational and communications components. When a driver requests directions from OnStar his GPS data is routed over an analog cellular network to OnStar computers and the directions are read back to the driver on the same network. The price for this service is around $400 each year. Those who tap into their OnStar systems pay no such fees."

1 of 404 comments (clear)

  1. Finally its been halfway done! by billsf · · Score: 0, Troll

    AFAIK this is used nowhere in Europe and therefore the very long wait and very crude hack. My first encounter with this was when I visited my parents in California a few years ago. It was an obvious hack object to me.

    You have a GPS system and a (crude) mobile phone. Both of these can be used seperately. If you are overly honest, register the phone to yourself! (I doubt "OnStar" is going to notice a few local calls however.)

    To go into how I'd "skin the cat" would be offtopic, but you want to acheive these objectives:

    1) Safety
    2) GPS service
    3) Privacy
    4) A free mobile phone

    Very quickly, the system should be 'intact' at most times. Incoming calls (that are not for the user) should be blocked in the name of privacy in normal situations. It should then be trivial to get both your GPS coordinates and have use of the phone.

    Only by 'doing something' can abuses be avoided. It certainly could be used by police to monitor your position and average speed! It is however important to allow emergency help know your exact position. Only by taking control of what you own can you accomplish this.

    The hack presented is about as low class as it can get. If this system were in Europe, you would have seen it done right before the the first units were deployed for production use!