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Car Thieves Arrested After Using Laptop and Malware To Steal More Than 30 Jeeps (abc13.com)
New submitter altnuc writes: Two thieves in Houston stole more than 30 Jeeps by using a laptop and a stolen database. The thieves simply looked up the vehicles' VIN numbers in a stolen database, reprogramed a generic key fob, started the cars, and drove away. Chrysler has confirmed that more than 100 of their vehicles have been stolen in the Houston area since November. Chrysler/Jeep owners should always make sure their vehicles are locked! The Wall Street Journal issued a report in July with more details about how hackers are able to steal cars with a laptop. The whole process takes roughly 6 minutes. CrimeStopHouston has posted a video on YouTube of one of the thieves in action.
but is there a reason it's so easy to reprogram the key fobs to start a car? I mean, my bloody credit card has a chip in it for Pete's sake and I got it free with my account. Heck my crummy bank card has one.
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The thieves simply looked up the vehicles' VIN numbers in a stolen database, reprogramed a generic key fob, started the cars, and drove away. Chrysler has confirmed that more than 100 of their vehicles have been stolen in the Houston area since November. Chrysler/Jeep owners should always make sure their vehicles are locked!
They're duplicating the key fob. If it's good enough to start the car it's good enough to unlock the damned thing.
Even better, the VIN is easily readable from outside the car. This whole thing smacks of TSA level security. That is, look like you're doing something while creating a bottleneck, when in reality all you're doing is creating a bottleneck.
Next year, the thieves will start up the car and drive it by remote and autonomous drive from their laptop. Good thing its a bit trickier to remotely refuel.
I'm not sure locking the car will make any difference. My guess is they can hack into the electronic ignition they can hack into the electronic door locks as well.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Trying to make a getaway driving 15 cars each.
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
The programming on the key has nothing to do with the door locks, but everything to do with starting the car. You have to insert the key into the door to unlock it, while mere possession of the smart key allows the car to be started. Admittedly basing the smart key code on the readily visible VIN is short-sighted and foolish, the act of locking your car up will at least prevent the casual access.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Is it really?
Doesn't the fob unlock the door as well? The standard place for a VIN is under the wind shield; hence any car parked in the open could be a target as someone could easily walk by and snap a picture of the vin through the wind shield with their phone while walking by and nobody would think of it as odd. You won't be doing yourself any good to lock your car if that is the case.
Besides, if they are stealing Wranglers the parts are so easily obtainable that a broken window is trivially easy to replace. Maybe Grand Cherokees are slightly more difficult to obtain quickly but likely not by much.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Remove the rotor from the distributor... or you can always put a banana in the tailpipe
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Old school. But effective.
My 1991 Cadillac DeVille isn't susceptible to this sophisticated hack!
You wouldn't download a baby!
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"Chrysler/Jeep owners should always make sure their vehicles are locked!" And other people shouldn't?
As a Chrysler owner who has lived in Houston, I thought the advice was to never lock your car. They'll just stick a knife through the convertible top.
It has happened to me before. The alarm still went off though. It costs more to replace the top than it would have to replace the stereo.
but I owned a Chrysler, I didn't replace the top. I just lived with it.
But really, are there people out there who don't lock their cars up if they are not convertibles? Why would you do that?
[my car will have ] a homemade switch in one of the ignition wires, hidden somewhere discreet.
My car does. The switch does two things, disables the ignition and also the starter motor. Very discouraging to a thief if the starter will not even turn. My switch is not "home made" of course and is in fact a multi-pole key switch and even if the thief realises there is such a switch he is unlikely to be bothered to find it. Even if he did, he is not going to be able to hot-wire it without seeing my circuit diagram or alternatively being familiar with the fuse box area and handy with a soldering iron.
The advantage of "home made" is that it is unique.
With a level of knowlege of the car model, and undisturbed time, and additional batteries and cable, any car security can be defeated. However my thief will probably look for something easier. I did not mention that I sold that particular car recently and removed the feature, restoring the wiring to standard. It took me most of an afternoon, with the aid of my own and the manufacturer's circuit diagrams.
Don't forget I still have all the standard anti-theft features of the car as well.
Data doesn't ever get 'un-stolen'. That database is out there, maybe for a price, or maybe posted for anyone with access to the right dark website. Basically, this should mean that G.M. should now be recalling their entire fleet to reencrypt all their vehicle's remote locking equipment, unless they can prove that some of their vehicles cannot have been in that database.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
even if the thief realises there is such a switch he is unlikely to be bothered to find it. Even if he did, he is not going to be able to hot-wire it without seeing my circuit diagram or alternatively being familiar with the fuse box area and handy with a soldering iron.
Everything is color-coded behind the fuse box, and most professional car thieves have at least basic automotive electrical knowledge, which is not hard to come by.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
No one needs you to unlock anything. I've had doors kicked open and windows broken to get in. It just is not that hard to break into a house. In fact, when I suggested to the officer I should beef up the frame of the door so it cannot be kicked in, he laughed, he said they'll just break a window instead.
Reminds me of Ultima Online where locks on your house were useless against thief characters.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
What I mean is with public/private key pairs the hard part (and why you can't totally be sure on a web site) is getting a valid certificate on your PC in the first place. (Which means it comes with the OS and then there's a chain of certs going back to the original one.) But in this case you'd think they'd just leave a port on the car and the fob, generate a pair of certificates one for the car and one for the fob and then download them over a wire to each one. (Then all the wireless communication could be secured via public/private keys.) I know I know, in theory it's a solved problem but they just messed it up instead of hiring somebody who's actually an expert in this.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Are we allowed to agree even if we ain't servicemen?
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
How often were you actually using it?
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.