Hi-Tech Car Thieves Use Cheap Jamming Devices To Steal Cars

[HardOCP News]

This kind of stuff is getting pretty damn scary. Less than $50 and you can walk off with someone's car?

Hi-tech car thieves use £30 jamming devices in car parks, the devices allow them to bypass car coding and reprogramme vehicles before driving off in them. Investigators discovered that the incident was caused by a criminal gang operating in that area.

 

[Flakes]

theres an issue with this advice:

The suggestion for the car owners is to ensure their car is locked by checking the handle, look and listen for the lock to engage and the lights to flash.

This affects keyless entry vechiles, some of which will open as long as you have the key within proximity, so how do you check by using the door handle? you must give the key to someone and ensure they are a distance away before checking.

 

[Time2Kill]

theres an issue with this advice:



This affects keyless entry vechiles, some of which will open as long as you have the key within proximity, so how do you check by using the door handle? you must give the key to someone and ensure they are a distance away before checking.

My CTS doors are ALWAYS locked. They don't unlock until you pull on the handle and the fob is within proximity of the car. Soon as you let go of the handle, the door locks again.

 

[Brak710]

This isn't an interesting attack, and it is defeated by auto-locking doors.

The cool attack is the repeater one. Basically the car whispers looking for the key, and the key shouts the proper unlock codes. Using a repeater, you can make the car's key request reach a long distance (probably into the house) and use the key to remotely unlock the car.

That one is harder to protect against even when you start designing the cars with the problem in mind.

 

[bigstusexy]

My old car and my new one have a feature where if you insert the key into the lock and tap it to lock twice and it locks all doors.


I'm not sure what keyless cars do (although there is a key still) and I've always found them too convenient.

 

[Quix]

I'm so glad my car is not affected by this, it has this awesome security system that requires a "key" to be inserted into the steering column to start the car. It also has doorlock switches and a "key hole" to unlock it from outside. Hopefully all cars will have these advanced security systems soon.

 

[Quix]

I'm so glad my car is not affected by this, it has this awesome security system that requires a "key" to be inserted into the steering column to start the car. It also has doorlock switches and a "key hole" to unlock it from outside. Hopefully all cars will have these advanced security systems soon.

I should also mention that if you find yourself unable to lock your car somewhere that maybe you shouldn't park there.

 

[DrakonSan]

This isn't an interesting attack, and it is defeated by auto-locking doors.

The cool attack is the repeater one. Basically the car whispers looking for the key, and the key shouts the proper unlock codes. Using a repeater, you can make the car's key request reach a long distance (probably into the house) and use the key to remotely unlock the car.

That one is harder to protect against even when you start designing the cars with the problem in mind.

Protecting the network begins at layer 1. As a low level network tech, wireless continues to scare me to lead foil hat and house paint levels of paranoia.

 

[Brak710]

Protecting the network begins at layer 1. As a low level network tech, wireless continues to scare me to lead foil hat and house paint levels of paranoia.

Properly done WIFI deployments are more secured than wired, at least until you implement 802.1x on your wired side. Having the device not trust the network, and the network not trust the device until keys are exchanged is the Holy Grail of network authentication.

The issue with the car keys are they're proximity based. If you mess with what "proximity" means you break the whole system.

The fix would be having the keyfob talk back the car with a very low powered transmission.

 

[rivertown_rat]

The fix would be having the keyfob talk back the car with a very low powered transmission.

That could easily be circumvented by having the repeater take care of the keyfob response too. A better idea, but not fool proof, would be to make them frequency agile. This would add a bit of expense, but would make creating a repeater much more difficult, depending on the sophistication of the frequency hopping algorithm.

 

[Brak710]

That could easily be circumvented by having the repeater take care of the keyfob response too. A better idea, but not fool proof, would be to make them frequency agile. This would add a bit of expense, but would make creating a repeater much more difficult, depending on the sophistication of the frequency hopping algorithm.

That's reasonable.

Maybe also make the key have to be awake... Some sort of motion switch inside the keyfob enables the proximity transmitters.

Therefore if it's in your pocket the car will unlock when you're next to it - otherwise it's sleeping when sitting inside your house.

 

[nutzo]

That could easily be circumvented by having the repeater take care of the keyfob response too. A better idea, but not fool proof, would be to make them frequency agile. This would add a bit of expense, but would make creating a repeater much more difficult, depending on the sophistication of the frequency hopping algorithm.

They need to improve the technology.

I remember the early days of cordless phone (home, not cell phones). I could select the frequency on a digital scanner, and listen in on the call. I could even take a cordless phone, unplug the base station, and switch the channels to listen in on any phone in range.

Once they switched to digital spread spectrum (DSS) technology, it was almost impossible for the average person to listen in on the calls. They need to implement something like the DSS technology on cars, along with a rotating frequency (like most current garage doors), and feedback from the remote if there is a problem.

 

[Advil]

Or you can just stick with a classic key/keyfob. I have never once felt the need for more.

It's a problem in search of a solution. Expensive and fragile tech just for the sake of a feature list.

 

[EddieGarcia]

I heard that if you put your remote in the fridge or microwave, they can't steal your car because there I no signal to amplify.