Latest Samy Kamkar Hack Unlocks Most Cars

msm1267 writes: Samy Kamkar has built a new device called Rolljam that is about the size of a wallet and can intercept the codes used to unlock most cars and many garage doors. The device can be hidden underneath a vehicle and when the owner approaches and hits the unlock button on her key or remote, the device grabs the unique code sent by the remote and stores it for later use. The device takes advantage of an issue with the way that vehicles that use rolling codes for unlocking produce and receive those codes. Kamkar said that the device works on most vehicles and garage doors that use rolling, rather than fixed codes.

Comments

Re:Or just use the key

[timrod]

The real question is, what are the odds that a car thief is going to spend the money (likely more than $30 if they're buying from someone who knows how to make one) or the time to learn how to make one of these? The barrier to entry just to get one of these working (having to have technical knowledge to put one together, having to hide it under the car and get the owner to open it first and potentially notice the device when it jams their unlock signal) means that thieves will stick to the tried-and-true $5 wrench method rather than try one of these.

Re:Or just use the key

[mjwx]

The real question is, what are the odds that a car thief is going to spend the money (likely more than $30 if they're buying from someone who knows how to make one) or the time to learn how to make one of these? The barrier to entry just to get one of these working (having to have technical knowledge to put one together, having to hide it under the car and get the owner to open it first and potentially notice the device when it jams their unlock signal) means that thieves will stick to the tried-and-true $5 wrench method rather than try one of these.

Considering most cars are stolen to be parted out, if it only costs $30 to get $5000 odd of parts, even the dumbest crims will figure the economics of that one out.

This is a bigger problem in Europe where the car can simply be driven over the border and resold. It may cost 600 Euro to put a new lock and immobiliser system in, but you can sell it for thousands of euro in a variety of places in eastern Europe (not to mention the illegal car export industries that exist in these places).

If you honestly dont believe that this technology will find its way into the mainstream criminals hands, just look at the number of card skimmers out there.