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Mazda Switches To USB Keys
kv9 writes "The new Mazda Sassou while being 'cool and promoting a positive state of mind' has a most important feature, that every geek will love. Instead of the classic key it uses a usb flash drive for starting up. The key can also be used to transfer things like driving instructions or music to the car's hard drive."
RFID would be the way to go. I though that somebody (Mercedes, Lexus?) had one of their uber-expensive cars set up so that you carried an RFID chip in a credit card in your wallet. When you pulled up on the doorhandle it checked your ID and unlocked. Automatically locked when you got more than 20 feet away, and only had a push-button for a starter.
Or, it could have all been a dream.
"Mazda switches to USB keys"
Um, no.
Mazda put a USB key in a freakin' concept car. There's no USB keys in any Mazda at any dealership now. It might happen some day down the road.
"Switches" my ass. "Tries out"? "Messes about with"?
Come on guys.
I have a PNY Attache.
I've gone swimming in the lake with it in my bathing suit pocket, worn fuzzy sweaters on thick carpet, and accidentally slammed it against some concrete (swinging it on a cord when the cord broke).
The thing is really durable, and I'm certainly not gentle with it.
Still works beautifully. YMMV.
Most car models that don't have a radio immobilizer of some kind (which is most cars) only have maybe 30 different keys for the whole model production. A lot of repo guys have key rings with all the standard keys for high-repo models.
I've actually found a color/key collision before when I was a kid. My mom and I almost drove off with someone else's car until we realized it was WAY too clean to be our car and we were in the wrong one.
Thats also why you can go online and order key dupes using the number stamped on the key or in some cases the VIN.
(Not many people seem to know all you need is the VIN and a contact at a dealer to get a key, as well... and the VIN is visible on modern cars through the windshield)
There is no real security with cars. If someone wants it, they can take it.
There are many USB tokens on the market. Probably a few of them will handle 2048 bit RSA keys. This is as strong asymetric encryption as you'll ever need.
What you do is you send a challenge (random bytes) from the car to the token. It encrypts (read: signs) the challenge with the private key. Now the encrypted challenge can only be decrypted by the public key. The car does this and if it finds the challenge it knows that the token has the secret private key of the public/private key pair.
These chips can keep the private key pretty safe, so safe that it is really, really hard to get it ever out of the chip, even in a big lab. And with USB it is pretty easy to put some MB's or GB's next to it.
All this said, such a key would be easy to loose (forget you put it in a computer somewhere), and USB has not such a strong connector (even if better than most computer connectors). I hope they used one that was designed from scratch. It's not so much the security that I worry about.
No, without commands from the computer to fire the injectors, etc, it won't start.
If you work in a facility that requires you to not bring media into work so that you can't remove secret information, you deserve to be fired for bringing in a flash drive. Trusted insiders are the greatest threat, hence the need for policies. Such policies are very enforceable, and hold up under the law for the dismissal of employees who violate them. A good policy sets up not only what's forbidden, but also what to do if a security breach happens. Check http://www.sans.org/. If an employee is determined enough, he or she might just find a less restrictive job.