Breaking a Car's Cipher

An anonymous reader alerts us to research out of Belgium and Israel that claims a practical attack on the KeeLoq auto anti-theft cipher. Here are slides from a talk (PDF) at CRYPTO 2007. From the researchers' site: "KeeLoq is a cipher used in several car anti-theft mechanisms distributed by Microchip Technology Inc. It may protect your car if you own a Chrysler, Daewoo, Fiat, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Volvo, Volkswagen, or a Jaguar. The cipher is included in the remote control device that opens and locks your car and that controls the anti-theft mechanisms. The 64-bit key block cipher was widely believed to be secure. In a recent research, a method to identify the key in less than a day was found. The attack requires access for about 1 hour to the remote control (for example, while it is stored in your pocket). The attacker than runs the implemented software, finds the secret cryptographic key, and drives away in your car after copying the key." Update: 07/23 15:27 GMT by KD : One of the researchers, Sebastiaan Indesteege, pointed out that the link to the paper was incorrect; their paper has not yet been released to the public. I also managed to mis attribute his nationality. He is Belgian, not Dutch. My apologies.

Comments

learn to read, you insensitive clod

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, what part of "Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium" looks like "researchers in The Netherlands"??

In other news: The Canadian president George W. Bush invaded Iran because of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center of Chicago.

Re:Old reliability data

[Technician]

It's simply not worth it to have to deal with electronics that break, batteries that die, etc.

That has turned out to be FUD now that they are getting lots of miles now. The battery pack is easier to change than a typical transmission and now costs less. In addition it has been proven more reliable. (Google search Prius Battery Failures). The little 12 volt battery is a much higher failure rate item needing a 3-5 year replacement cycle just like their conventional counterparts.

In the trade of of mechanical parts for electronic, most mechanical high failure items on the Prius has been eliminated.

Here is a short list..
No belts, not even for a water pump or AC.
No Hydraulics hoses or lines except the brakes.
No leaky AC rubber hoses or shaft seals.
No clutches, pressure plates, bands, or hydraulics of any kind in the transmission

Here is how the improvements work.
The AC is a sealed electric unit like a home refrigerator. The compressor is body mounted eliminating Leaky shaft seals, belts, clutch, and hoses.

The transmission has 7 moving parts. None of them is any kind of friction, shift, or hydraulic part. It's built like and as reliable as a differential. The battery pack is composed of 7.2 volt modules. A module failure does not equal a battery pack replacement.

The Power steering is a linear electric motor for assist. This eliminates the power steering pump, hoses, and power steering fluid issues.

The power brakes use a compressor so it is a trade off for the vacuum module for a compressor.

The cooling system is powered by electric pumps. It traded belt driven problems for electric pump problems. I haven't seen reliability reports on these pumps yet which is a good thing.

Even the starter moter with it's brushes, solonoid bendix gear and other failure items has been eliminated. The brushless AC Motor/Generator set in the transmission starts the engine.

I studied all these issues before I bought a Prius. TCO is an important number to me.

For me personally, Here are some of my stats.

I have 120,000 on my Prius. At 20,000 and 80,000 miles I changed tires (the originals don't wear well). At 70,000 miles I had to change the 12 volt battery in late 2005 so it lasted almost 4 years.
At the last tire change, I had the brakes checked. I have 80% remaining. Other than give it gas and regular oil changes, it has required zero repairs except a rock chip in the windshield.

Most other cars I drove with over 100,000 miles were getting into needing starters, alternators, brakes, belts, power steering, Air Conditioner, and transmission service.