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A NY Times columnist had his car stolen by kids who were possibly using a repeater to rebroadcast his key fob:
Keyless entry systems typically only communicate with their remote fobs over the distance of a few feet, but he thinks that the gadget is capable of extending this range, fooling the car into thinking that the remote is within range even though it was actually in Bilton's House, about 50 feet away. He arrived at this theory after he consulted with Boris Danev, a Swiss-based security expert:
"It's a bit like a loudspeaker, so when you say hello over it, people who are 100 meters away can hear the word, 'hello,'" Mr. Danev said. "You can buy these devices anywhere for under $100." He said some of the lower-range devices cost as little as $17 and can be bought online on sites like eBay, Amazon and Craigslist.
Sounds creative and easy. Maybe those clubs aren't so silly after all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @08:49PM
> The article didn't say anything about starting the car.
So, you are saying ikanreed picked an appropriate login?
> Regardless whether the fob is using a constant broadcast or a response broadcast, the digital encoded key is unlikely to be globally unique.
> Probably there is under 500 combinations, just like physical keys
That's an awful big assumption. There is no reason it needs to be true. Unlike physical keys the namespace is huge. With just 128 bits there technically could be identical combos but practically there would not.