Hackers find way to unlock car doors via SMS | Hacker News Reader

Hackers find way to unlock car doors via SMS

computerworlduk.com

I have probably posted this too many times, but these guys had a lot of fun with this sort of stuff:

http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-oakland2010.pdf

"Even at speeds of up to 40 MPH on the runway, the attack packets had their intended effect, whether it was honking the horn, killing the engine, preventing the car from restarting, or blasting the heat. ... In particular, we were able to release the brakes and actually prevent our driver from braking; no amount of pressure on the brake pedal was able to activate the brakes. Even though we expected this effect, reversed it quickly, and had a safety mechanism in place, it was still a frightening experience for our driver."

Random fact - if your breaks fail, try the handbrake. It isn't powerful enough to beat the engine (but that can be solved by pressing the clutch which will disconnect the engine from the gears) but it is required (at least by Danish law, I assume it is the same in the rest of Europe) to be directly attached to two wheels on the same axle and to work exclusively mechanically (no electronics can get in the way).

If you do at high speeds your car will twist but that can be countered by steering in the direction you want to go.

I agree with your advice, but I'd probably suggest doing so in the opposite order.. that is, to put the car in a neutral gear first, then to use the hand/parking brake to slow the car. Part of me wonders if the excessive revving will blow the engine, but in that kind of situation I'd take that over a fatality any day of the week.

I'm not aware of how the hand brake electronics work here in the States, so I can't comment on that part.

Every passenger car handbrake I've seen (in the US) is purely mechanical to the back brakes.

You don't want to slam on the emergency brake--it can lock up the back wheels esp on a front-wheel drive car, and the braking force from the rear brakes is really low compared to the front. Skidding wheels have less control and actually slow you down more slowly than non-skidding wheels.

If I were in the situation (because I'm such a hacker target--or something--wait, I drive a 2000 model year car!), I would not put the car in neutral until the engine began fighting the brakes. I'd aggressively downshift to use engine compression braking to help slow the car. Any time the engine is turning over faster than you're giving it gas for, it's sucking up energy. (I also haven't driven an automatic for some time--the effect is much more pronounced with a manual transmission.)

Then I'd put it in neutral or disengage the clutch once the car was at an idle crawl.

For practice, find an empty straight bit of road, and accelerate to 15-20 mph. Then put the car in neutral and very gradually apply the emergency brake, getting a feel for how it slows the car. You might be surprised at how slowly you slow down--and how quickly the rear wheels lock up!

That's good information, I wasn't aware of how it was mechanically linked like that. My assumption was based off of an automatic transmission... I just figured it was better to disconnect the engine from the drive train and add in braking, but yeah, adding it slowly would be important.

So happy I have anti-locks! And hopefully a car that isn't hacked by SMS(I just got a 2011 Honda Accord... looks like I have research to do haha)

The open source GSM stack they're talking about is the Osmocom project. It starred in some dramatic demos at various hacker conferences last year.

http://osmocom.org/

What cars were they using?

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