Car RFID Security System Cracked

jmichaelg writes "The NY Times reports that the security chip in new auto keys has been cracked. A team at Johns Hopkins have found a method to extract the 30 bit crypto key that tells your car that the physical key in the ignition switch is the correct key. Texas Instruments has sold some 150 million security chips that are stored in the car key. The devices are credited with reducing car thefts of some car models by 90%. Stealing a crypto key requires standing next to the victim and broadcasting a series of challenges to the key and capturing the responses. The team claims an iPod-sized device would suffice to steal the crypto key in under a second. They advise wrapping your keys in foil when you're not using them. TI admits the team has cracked their code but denies there's any problem."

Comments

30 Bit Key? That's like soooo 1990

[Bonker]

Seriously, who makes any kind of security device with only a 30-bit key any more?

Quite so.

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

No problem? Come again?

Lot's of things are possible. Will any statistically significant number of people try this? And how many will be successful? Not many. It's still safer than a regular key system, people should lose sleep over more realistic problems.

The More Appropriate Question...

[Caeda]

Isn't who the heck uses such a small secutiry key, but who the heck makes one that broadcasts at all? A metal key in a metal ignition has no reason to broadcast its code through the air!

In some places, this very well might be a problem

[Builder]

In some countries, car theft is not just something that happens occasionally - it's an industry. And as in all industries, there are the rank amatuers and the pro's - For the pro's, this looks like a good option.

Consider South Africa - an entire arms race grew up around car theft. First the thieves just took cars when they were parked, so the insurance companies insisted that everyone have alarms and immobilisers.

The thieves got around those pretty quick - rumour is that a lot of professional's signed up for work at installation centres, learnt their way around them, and went back to work.

Next step was the gearlock - a device that locks the gearstick into a specific gear. IIRC, you couldn't remove the key on the earlier units unless you had the gearlock in, and if your car was stolen, the insurance company insisted on seeing all 3 keys.

Now with cars being so hard to steal, the age of the hi-jack was ushered in. If they can't get your car while it's parked, they'll take it while it's roll rolling.

In response, anti hi-jack systems became the norm. I can't remember how it was activated, but basically the bad guys show up, you let them take the car, they roll 20 metres down the road and the car cuts out and an alarm starts going off.

Around the same time we also go Satellite tracking, although I seem to remember something about it actually using the cellular infrastructure (GSM) not satellite - I may be wrong on this. Initially, the recovery rate on stolen and hi-jacked cars went through the roof. Unfortunately, the bad guys just upped the stakes. Soon we started seeing more kidnappings and murders as part of hi-jacks because if you can't call the stolen car in, they have longer to chop it.

Many vehicles were stolen to order, and not just new cars. Older cars that were common on the road were often targetted, then broken for spares. Cars that you wouldn't normally think twice about were stolen for export to Botswana and Zimbabwe, because the availability of spares for these made them popular vehicles.

Of my close circle of family and friends, we have had at least 10 cars stolen. Of those, not a single one has been recovered, so it's not a huge risk occupation really :)

I'm willing to bet that if this flaw is used anywhere, it will be used in South Africa - it's just one more tool for the biggest growth industry around :)