A couple of hackers show off a series of nasty new attacks on cars—with Forbes' Andy Greenberg behind the wheel.
"Stomping on the brakes of a 3,500-pound Ford Escape that refuses to stop--or even slow down--produces a unique feeling of anxiety. In this case it also produces a deep groaning sound, like an angry water buffalo bellowing somewhere under the SUV's chassis. The more I pound the pedal, the louder the groan gets--along with the delighted cackling of the two hackers sitting behind me in the backseat.
Luckily, all of this is happening at less than 5mph. So the Escape merely plows into a stand of 6-foot-high weeds growing in the abandoned parking lot of a South Bend, Ind. strip mall that Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek have chosen as the testing grounds for the day's experiments..."
10 Comments
mysdrialI'm not going to claim this stuff isn't worrying...but it currently requires physical access to the inside of the vehicle...none of those signals are wireless and accessible without popping in and messing with the wires, I believe. The scary thing will be if they do make the control systems externally accessible...
kir_mokummichael hastings says "hi".
radxBack in 2009, I saw the model of a vehicle with "full connectivity" during a presentation by an R&D bloke from Audi. Not a model of the car itself, but of the control software. It included a downlink to provide remote access for maintenance, troubleshooting and, most importantly, the reception of position and movement vectors for vehicles in your proximity "to improve safety and traffic flow".
That was before all the fucked up multimedia/social networking bonanza in cars went into high gear, providing an even easier access to the cars systems...
deathcowThere is access to the CAN bus, so as long as you could pop a radio enabled device on that bus... this seems pretty doable. Also you can get CAN bus decoders for fairly cheap so you could learn a cars signals pretty easy.
poolcleanerOr someone installs a wireless connection inside of your vehicle?
I'm not going to claim this stuff isn't worrying...but it currently requires physical access to the inside of the vehicle...none of those signals are wireless and accessible without popping in and messing with the wires, I believe. The scary thing will be if they do make the control systems externally accessible...
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DeanoFor me this all points to a situation where driverless cars rule. If you can have hardened protocols and the necessary failsafes traffic would flow more quickly and accidents should be rare.
I could then actually have a car because I don't like driving yet I'd benefit enormously from running one.
oritteropoOr compromises it via the existing wireless link to your tyre pressure sensors?
Or someone installs a wireless connection inside of your vehicle?
Franskysays...Jeez, any Ford with SYNC is a wireless hotspot.
That is......concerning
PaybackOther than tuning all your stations to Radio Free N.A.M.B.L.A. and making calls to Necrophiliac 900 numbers, I don't see where the concerns come in.
The Sync system has no data connection to the Engine Management, or in the case of the above video, Anti-lock Brake and Traction-Control Systems. It's a glorified stereo.
Jeez, any Ford with SYNC is a wireless hotspot.
That is......concerning
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