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A duo of computer experts at the University of Birmingham, Flavio Garcia and David Oswald, have uncovered two flaws in VW's keyless entry systems that could allow hackers to remotely unlock over 100 million cars sold by the firm since 1995.
The first vulnerability gives hackers the ability to remotely break into nearly every car VW has sold since 2000, while the second impacts "millions" more vehicles including models from Ford, Peugeot and Citroen.
Source: The Inquirer
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100 Million Volkswagen Cars Vulnerable to Wireless Hack Due to 20-year-old Flaw
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Krogt, n. (chemical symbol: Kr):
The metallic silver coating found on fast-food game cards.
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday August 14 2016, @07:16PM
The fact this has been possible for years now makes me wonder if this is just a pile-on to VW because of their emissions fiasco. This is (sort of) like bluejacking with SDR for the RFIDs, instead of just being limited to 2.4ghz.
Anyway, the little keyfobs for keychains that allow you to walk up and it opens the door automatically, or the keys with RFID chips in them -- this isn't magic. At the time these came out, it was cost prohibitive to do any of this. (Popularity meant longevity, and why introduce any features to secure this when it's a theoretical problem at best. It takes a high profile demonstration to get security methods to change...)
The 6 foot range is the distance of the keyfob to the car, but that's because the car doesn't have a high end antenna to listen closely -- it waits until the person is nearby, and that the keyfob has the practical limitation of size and battery strength to limit the transmit power. It also has no concept as to what is listening -- press to send, no acknowledgement, etc. Just ultrasonic chirping of some kind. A good antenna on a device hidden nearby can pick up on it. You can even aim the antenna at about the height of the receiver in the car to get a better result, if using a directional antenna (right tool for the job and all that).
If you are recording for playback later at a more convenient distance, that's a 6 foot limitation for regular devices is hardly a problem, especially if it lets you record from an area that no one is looking in. If the goal is to steal the car, you won't be hanging around after you get in, and there will be no evidence nearby... no broken glass, no scratched paint, no anything. Or if you wanted to get inside and do something, same concerns. No physical proof of entry means one less detail to worry about--just don't mess up the deployment or retrieval after you get in.
20 years ago, no one remotely considered encrypting the commands from a device that essentially was a remote door opener button. They don't do much of that now; it's why universal remote controls can open garage doors and get furbys to talk (those may be infra-red or unlicensed radio bands, but they are now signals that are replayable on devices that didn't start out speaking Furbish and aren't expected to from a product design standpoint).
VW won't be the only one with this problem... and all sorts of 3rd party remote starters and stuff will be just as vulnerable, if not the exact same exploits. Anything with a convenience feature like this is likely to suffer from SDR based exploits if there is no security inherent in the design besides cost or obscurity.