Thieves Are Boosting the Signal From Key Fobs Inside Homes To Steal Vehicles (www.cbc.ca)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC.ca: According to Markham automotive security specialist Jeff Bates, owner of Lockdown Security, wireless key fobs have a role to play in many recent car thefts, with thieves intercepting and rerouting their signals -- even from inside homes -- to open and steal cars. According to Bates, many of these thieves are using a method called "relay theft." Key fobs are constantly broadcasting a signal that communicates with a specific vehicle, he said, and when it comes into a close enough range, the vehicle will open and start. The thief will bring a device close to the home's door, close to where most keys are sitting, to boost the fob's signal. They leave another device near the vehicle, which receives the signal and opens the car. Many people don't realize it, Bates said, but the thieves don't need the fob in the car to drive it away. Bates says, if you have a key fob that can wirelessly unlock/start your car, you should not keep it by the front door.

"If you do live in a house, try to leave your keys either upstairs or ... as far away from the vehicle as possible," he said. "The other thing that you can do is there are products out there that you can put your key fob into," such as a faraday cage -- a box used to block radio signals -- a key pouch, which works similarly, or even a steel box.

Comments

Wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

First, key fobs are NOT constantly broadcasting a signal. Their tiny coin cell battery would go dead really quickly. The CAR is constantly broadcasting a signal, which, when the fob is in range of, it answers with an unlock code. Next, sure, you can use a Faraday cage. You can put it in the refrigerator (which some people actually do!), etc. But you can simply park your car in your garage. Don't pile up crap in the garage and actually use it for the car. Boom, attack defeated.

Re:Wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be part of the 1% club. The rest of us who only make six figures can't afford garages. Silicon Valley is just too god damm expensive.

needs motion sensor

[Bruce Perens]

At the very least, the key fob should have a motion sensor, and should not be beaconing when it's not been moving for a few minutes. That would defeat this particular exploit.

Why not put buttons on the key fob?

[OrangeTide]

Perhaps design a key fob that doesn't constantly broadcast, it would be harder to intercept and perhaps save battery life. This revolutionary keyfob design could have a set of buttons to unlock your doors, start the car, maybe open the trunk, or set an alarm mode.

I should patent that idea before anyone else! Ladies and gentlemen, we may have solved this key fob hacking trick and added a whole suite of features in the process. Well done!