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Using Laptops to Steal Cars
Ant writes "Thieves are using laptops/notebooks to steal the most expensive luxury cars. Many of these cars have completely keyless ignitions and door locks, meaning it can all be done wirelessly. Thieves often follow a car until it gets left in a quiet area, and they can steal it in about 20 minutes..."
There is a student on campus that was bragging that he could do just as the article describes. A professor put down $100 and bet the student that he couldn't get into his car in 15 min without breaking anything. The student took the bet. Needless to say, the whole class was out in the parking lot 5 min later to watch. It took the student about 5 minutes. The car chirped and the lights flagshed. I assume this meant the doors had been unlocked. Next, the car started, the student opened the door and got it.
This was really cool to see live. There is a something about seeing it done live that is very impressive.
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One thing they're doing these days is to store some state information so that each code is different than the previous one. However, this only goes so far in terms of increasing the complexity of breaking in. There are generally a limited number of possible codes, so you can eventually guess the right one. And since the car will be ignoring bogus codes (to avoid being fooled by other cars' remotes), you can pretty much send it crap until you hit the right value with impunity.
If you really want your car to be secure, what they need to do is make the keyless entry devices carry a public/private key pair. On each key device, put a mini-USB jack on them and have a USB jack on the dashboard hooked up to the car's computer. Use this to copy the public key from each "key". Require that after the first key is loaded, one known key must be within radio range in order to associate a new key.
When you push the unlock button on the key, the device would send an unencrypted "unlock" message. Upon receiving this, the car would reply with a random string of data (say a 2k packet). The key device would receive this, sign the data using its private key, apply a random back-off timer to minimize collisions, then transmit the signed copy of the data, skipping a random time interval between each attempt, and stopping after 5 seconds or when the car transmits a "verified" message.
Of course, the car would stop listening after 5 seconds as well. Since the message to be encrypted changes each time, this would essentially thwart any attempts to fool the car by transmitting random data until it gets it right.
If you're really paranoid, you could design it so that the key also knows a public key for the car and uses that to get a session key so that the entire communication path is encrypted.
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And thats why people will want a regular key. Its worked for hundreds of years on other things, so a car should be no problem.
No, they're not safe. The key merely turns a lock that closes a contact telling the computer it's okay to proceed. After my 2001 Sukuki GSXR was stolen and recovered, I had to learn a thing about hot-wiring ignitions because the thieves had changed the locks. Within the ignition tumbler was a small PCB that connected circuits to ground for parking lights, accessories and the ignition. The added "security" was that a resistor was used in the circuit for the ignition.
Turns out, the wiring harness for the ignition has a molex connector underneath the right side fairing, right about where my fairing had been shattered by blunt-force-trauma. With nothing more than some knowledge, a spare connector, some wires, a switch and a specifically rated resistor, you could build a plug that would "start" any modern GSXR in about 20 seconds.
Keys are no safer. As far as the computers are concerned, they're either on or off. RFID, challenge/response, better encryption, failed-attempt lockouts, these things are going to become more common because they do a better job slowing the thieves down.
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