Nissan’s New Infotainment System now Tracks You

When the car starts, that screen appears.

Default is ON.

To turn it off:  Settings > Vehicle Data Transmission Setting > OFF

I’d suggest turning it off for 2 reasons: to limit wireless traffic coming in and out of your car, and why help anyone track you.

Found on the 2016 Nissan Maxima, the upgraded infotainment system includes the debut of the new Nissan Connect Services – built-in safety & security telematics with SOS, automatic collision calling, smartphone remote access to vehicle including engine start, customizable alerts and maintenance notices.

Review for the paper prints in a couple weeks.

 

 

First Time a Vehicle is Remotely Hacked

WIRED magazine published a story yesterday about the world’s first documented wireless attack of a vehicle. A pair of security researchers put a journalist behind the wheel of a Jeep Cherokee and took control of it while he was driving miles away.

Read my synopsis on Autonet, here’s the original WIRED story by Andy Greenberg, and below are the key things to know.

This security update does NOT affect Canadian vehicles

I contacted Chrysler, and got this quote for Autonet:

“An FCA representative in Canada tells Autonet, “Due to market access to cellular connectivity in the Canadian marketplace, FCA Canada vehicles are not affected by this condition and therefore do not require a system upgrade.”

It does however, affect American vehicles, specifically American mid-2013 to 2015 Fiat-Chrysler vehicles that are equipped with the Uconnect infotainment system.

WIRED estimates about 417,000 are affected. Download the security update from FCA here, or take it to a dealership mechanic.

What happened to the car?

Radio, A/C and wipers were all turned on high, and Andy spun the control dials with zero affect. They altered the dashboard screen image.

They cut the transmission, and an 18-wheeler came barrelling up behind him, then they disengaged the brakes and sent Andy into a ditch.

They turned the SUV into a surveillance tool, tracking its GPS coordinates and tracing it on a map.

How was the car attacked?

The pair gain wireless control of the Cherokee via the vehicle’s Uconnect infotainment system which is connected to the Sprint network.

They enter the car through its cellular connection, then move to an adjacent chip in the head unit and rewrite the chip’s firmware to include their malicious code. Now they’re able to send commands through the car’s computer network – CAN bus – and control physical components like the brakes and transmission.

What’s next?

The pair will present their findings at the upcoming Black Hat online security conference in Vegas, as well as share their code. A key vulnerability will be omitted, but the code to do the dashboard tricks will hit the internet.

Why? They say 2 reasons: for peer review, and it “sends a message: automakers need to be held accountable for their vehicles’ digital security.”

Overall Takeaway

What Charlie said:

“We shut down your engine—a big rig was honking up on you because of something we did on our couch,” Miller says, as if I needed the reminder. “This is what everyone who thinks about car security has worried about for years. This is a reality.”

Related Blog Links

– I’d like to know if they can access the driver’s contacts? I don’t pair my phone to a car

– you’ve met this pair of security researchers – Charlier Miller briefly at Sector, and Chris Valasek for my column, and a press piece for Sector 2014

– sign I Am the Cavalry’s petition to the automakers, I did

– about the OBDII port

– there are over 100 computers in your car

– one of which is the black box – an EDR

– blog tag = auto security  – newspaper tag = auto security

– I was recently in Utah with Jeep, off-roading a Cherokee, Trailhawk trim.

They hacked a fun SUV.

 

 

The New Way to Steal a Car

A signal booster is the new shim.

The method exploits keyless entry, a once-luxury feature now found in entry-level cars.

I speak with Ted Harrington, co-founder of Independent Security Evaluators, a company that pioneered car hacking.

Very basically:

The Attack

Amplify the proximity radius, and now the key and car are talking when they shouldn’t be. Thief goes in, off he drives.

The Defence

Keep your key fob in a Faraday Cage (no signals can get in or go out)… do this by wrapping the fob in aluminum foil.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

Pretty geeky, and probably beyond the average criminal, right? The trouble is that the online black market is massive and lucrative.

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Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

Blog tag = auto security

 

 

How to Cheat a Tire Test

Let’s say I want you to test my tires, versus my competitor’s.

Sure I’ll send you around the same track, in the same car, on comparable tires… except…

… I’ve secretly deflated the competitor’s tires, which ensures they under-perform and makes mine appear even better.

Learned this trick when BFGoodrich invited me to test their all-new g-Force COMP-2 A/S tires.

It was one of the first things they said in the morning press conference, ” go ahead and test ’em, we inflated everything identically.”

Over the years I’ve attended hundreds of press events, and never once have I heard a company be this upfront. That’s good integrity, nice one BFGoodrich.

Cool eh.

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See also – How to cheat at motor-sports

 

 

Downloaded the 2015 Buick Regal

Found the “Save Vehicle Info to USB” when exploring inside the car’s Settings. Curiously, there was no mention of this feature in the instruction manual?

It took 4 attempts, but after I formatted the USB correctly, success.

USB goes into my laptop, and I’m looking at a small XML document.

Here’s a portion of it.

It was kind’ve anti-climactic.

I ended up with the car’s VIN number, that it passed its “last manifest status,” plus a bunch of boring part numbers.

And like all GM products, Buick’s infotainment system uses “Infotainment Silverbox“, which is built by Bosch, like so many are.

Blog tag = Buick Regal