The omnipresence of electronics in our vehicles might make them more refined, but it can also have its fair share of risks. That’s the conclusion of two researchers at Black Hat, an annual meeting of hackers and security specialists taking place in Las Vegas.
They demonstrated that it was possible to unlock the doors and start the engine of a Subaru Outback with the help of an Android phone, by using a technique called "war texting". The latter operates the remote control and intercepts password authentication messages over the cell network between the server and the car.
This security breach, however, is not unique to Outback or to Subaru; most automobile manufacturers using similar electronic devices for their remote start devices.
While all of this may seem alarming, there's no need to panic – at least not yet. The two researchers admitted that they may or may not have been able to actually drive it away. In addition, it is likely that the time required to perform any such password must be considerable.
Don Bailey, a senior security consultant with iSEC Partners and a member of the team that made the discovery, believes that the addition of better quality components would kill the problem in the bud. However, he also added that the amount of money that the builders would have to invest to do so would be "significantly higher".
Source: CNN
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They demonstrated that it was possible to unlock the doors and start the engine of a Subaru Outback with the help of an Android phone, by using a technique called "war texting". The latter operates the remote control and intercepts password authentication messages over the cell network between the server and the car.
This security breach, however, is not unique to Outback or to Subaru; most automobile manufacturers using similar electronic devices for their remote start devices.
While all of this may seem alarming, there's no need to panic – at least not yet. The two researchers admitted that they may or may not have been able to actually drive it away. In addition, it is likely that the time required to perform any such password must be considerable.
Don Bailey, a senior security consultant with iSEC Partners and a member of the team that made the discovery, believes that the addition of better quality components would kill the problem in the bud. However, he also added that the amount of money that the builders would have to invest to do so would be "significantly higher".
Source: CNN