Hackers Are Stealing Cars by Injecting Code Into Headlight Wiring

Hackers Are Stealing Cars by Injecting Code Into Headlight Wiring (thedrive.com)

Hackers Are Stealing Cars by Injecting Code Into Headlight Wiring

https://kentindell.github.io/2023/04/03/can-injection/

CAN Injection: keyless car theft

Once the device is on and plugged in, it wakes up the CAN network by sending a frame—similar to if you were to pull on a door handle, approach with a passive entry key, or hit a button on your fob. It then listens for a specific CAN message to begin its attack. The device then emulates a hardware error which tricks other ECUs on the CAN network to stop sending messages so that the attacking device has priority to send its spoofed messages to CAN devices.

 

The pause of valid messages is when the device is able to go into attack mode. It then sends the spoofed "valid key present" messages to the gateway which makes the car think that an actual valid key is being used to control the vehicle. Next, the attacker simply presses the speaker's "play" button, and the car's doors are unlocked.

Given that the manufacturer of these CAN injection devices claims that the devices are so effective against a myriad of makes and models, it would seem that this could be an industry-wide problem that may take some brainstorming to fix.

The good news is that this type of attack can be thwarted. While there are quick-and-dirty methods that could potentially be re-defeated in the long run, an automaker looking to prevent this type of attack by encrypting its CAN Bus network. According to Tindell, Canis is working on a similar project to retrofit U.S. military vehicles with a similar encryption scheme, similar to what he suggests as the fix for commercial vehicles experiencing this issue.

If thieves are already exploiting this in the wild (which they are), it means that it's already a problem. And if it continues to grow in popularity, perhaps it could lead to a repeat of what Hyundai and Kia are currently experiencing on a significantly more low-tech level.