Won’t be long before it gets out in the public domain and we see a surge in thefts of RRs, Bentleys etc 🙂

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/26/scientist-banned-revealing-codes-cars

Nice of VW to just try and keep it quiet rather than refitting the cars with proper security….

*pops tinfoil hat on*

They just want to ‘neutralise’ the scientists, like they did with Barnaby Jack, who was going to reveal how to hack medical devices next week.

For christs sake. You work hard, you earn your money, you buy a Honda Accord and then someone comes out with a way to crack the key fob.

It makes you sick.

When I first got my defender I worried that it was a bit behind the times with security but seems all the modern stiff is no better just different methods

Think my landrover best method of anti theft is to be broken most of the time

I welcome this, the battery is going in my c-class’ keyfob so if some young hooded scrote can open the boot for me with his iphone who am I to complain?

I welcome this, the battery is going in my c-class’ keyfob so if some young hooded scrote can open the boot for me with his iphone who am I to complain?

Will they do a tasteful brass padlock and hasp?

I think this is positive. No mechanical lock is perfect – safes are rated by the time it takes to open them, chains by the time with different classes of tools.

Electronic locks are generally good but a single “picking” can unlock lots of locks. Think D-locks and biros for a real world analogy.

This should stop manufacturers and insurance companies from blandly claiming that their locks are unpickable. It should come down to balance of probability like every other civil case. If a particular class of locks has been hacked, that should reduce the insurances companies chance of claiming that the owner had left their keys out etc.

I’d also like some liability to come back from the insurance companies to the car manufacturers. That’s the only thing that will cause them to take this seriously.

Well, I’ve got an app for my dads car.
I can unlock it, start it, open doors/windows, put on heater/aircon.
I imagine that thieves could hack the app easily enough! Don’t think this will change much.

What exactly have these so called “scientists” actually discovered?? er, nothing that wasn’t known already. They have just been clever enough to reverse engineer an existing system. Hardly ground breaking knowledge that needs to be in the public domain. I bet if i went round and picked the lock on their lab, and let a load of chavs nic all their laptops they’d be a bit miffed!

If man can devise something, then another man (or woman!) can hack it. Car security is a compromise. Afterall, we could supply an armed guard who stays with every car after it is sold and only lets the actual owner drive it. That would be relatively secure, but a bit expensive and a PITA to actually implement!

Car keys codes cracked? Crikey

What exactly have these so called “scientists” actually discovered??

The point of cryptography is that if you devise a strong encryption method you can publish the algorithm and there is no concern as without the private key you cannot crack the code without a hugely disproportionate effort (taking many years or more).

The trouble is that most systems using cryptography seem to poorly implement a strong method, making it very vulnerable eg early Wifi was a good example as every encrypted packet started with the same data, unscrambled, making cracking it very easy as you knew what you were looking for.

The point of the research is to expose poorly implemented methods so people change them and also are more aware of best practice. If they can crack the key codes easily then it is the manufacturer at fault for either choosing a weak encryption method of poorly implementing it.

Putting the information out there that it is insecure and has flaws so that the manufacturers look for solution is fine IMHO

Providing the exact method so i can knick the cars is not fine