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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.
"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.
I drive a crappy old car that cannot be started with a key fob signal. You can't steal my car!
Oh....
Seriously, get one of those wire baskets sold as desk organizers, hang it next to your key rack. Drop your key fob in that basket, and you are safe.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
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.
The mechanism in a fob that lets the vehicle start is not the same mechanism that operates the locks. Additionally there's different programming needed to add the convenience controls versus programming the fob to where the vehicle will start with it.
This "hack" was possibly demonstrated on an old Top Gear when one of the presenter's cars was moved into the street by another presenter while they were at a restaurant. Basically supposedly it was close enough that the the fob and car could communicate. Given that this was for entertainment it's difficult to say if it was real or not.
Either way though, I guess I'm still a fan of having a physical key that must be inserted into a slot, used in combination with an immobilization system that communicates with a chip that's embedded with the key.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
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.
Bruce Perens.
"always broadcast a signal". They only do that when within the low-frequency radio signal generated by the car. They work much like RFID if you don't press a button on it. This is also really only usable on vehicles that don't use the standard "press a button to do something" fob. My 2011 Hyundai uses a standard fob like this; the 2018 Yukon XL I rented used the more modern type since it was a push-start.
https://youtu.be/bR8RrmEizVg
It doesn't continuously emit. It's false information in the article. The fob listens constantly, and when it receives a valid query from the car, then it broadcasts a response. So when someone touches a door handle, for example, to unlock, the car broadcasts the challenge, and the fob then broadcasts the response. Same for pressing the start button.
The coin battery in the fob would die within days (if it even lasts that long) if it was constantly broadcasting.
...car theft. Once autonomous cars are perfected, thieves can remotely start the target car and have it drive itself into a Faraday caged trailer. The vehicle pulling the trailer will be autonomous too.
Turns out the thief is an autonomous AI as well, that figured out making money for new GPU's to increase processing power was a lot easier stealing cars!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Lots of modern cars have fobs that don't have to be pulled out of a pocket or purse. I can walk up to my car, and as long as the fob is very close (in my case, about a foot), putting your hand inside the door handle will unlock the car. It definitely recognizes which side of the car it's on, and might even recognize which door (haven't tried). If you use this technique on the driver's door, it will only unlock that door. Any other door, it opens all four. Then it's a normal push-to-start fob. That's a 2009 Lexus, so the tech has been around a while.
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!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
That statement is incorrect for the proximity fobs too. That would kill the battery in the fob. Anyone such a fob can easily test it.
Go stand next to your car. You probably won't hear it unlock.
Touch the door handle. You'll hear it unlock.
What's going on is:
The handle has a capacitive sensor to detect your hand.
When your hand is on the handle, the car sends an *inductive pulse.
The fob has a coil in it, which works like a transformer to catch the pulse from the car.
Note this pulse is more like a transformer than a radio.
When the fob is triggered by the inductive pulse, it sends a radio packet to the car.