Tesla Model S Proves Easy To Hack
Tesla Model S Proves Easy To Hack
Last month a team of hackers from a university Belgium found a critical security flaw in Tesla's keyless entry algorithm transmitted through their keyfobs. Using an inexpensive minicomputer called a Raspberry Pi, it took only seconds for the team to gain entry into their target.
The Raspberry Pi has long been praised for its versatility and relative strength in computing. It can run scaled-down version of software most often used by desktops and can connect to a variety of devices. It can run somewhat complicated operating systems and has a robust community of developers that work tirelessly to find new applications for the hardware. In this case, a second generation Pi had almost everything necessary to hack the weak encryption involved with Tesla's RF receivers. The only custom piece of hardware they needed was a transmitter. It did take quite a lot of research to determine what algorithm and encryption cipher, DST40.
What the hackers found surprising is that the chipset in the Tesla itself is capable of running much more complex and harder to hack algorithms, but for some reason they were not used. Once they gathered the prerequisite information, it was a simple matter of launching a "relay attack," which gained entry almost instantly.
Thankfully the hack was discovered by ethical hackers, as it gave Tesla the opportunity to patch the hack before it was used in the wild.
For their efforts, the team earned a $10,000 bounty from Tesla and a ton of prestige in their school. We and our partners at Service King Galleria in Houston, TX agree that it's through these efforts that we can identify and correct vulnerabilities before thieves have the opportunity to discover them for themselves, and companies that offer bounties for this kind of information could be saving a ton of money in the future.
Written By: Todd Hendrickson
Source: autonews.com
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