Electronic car door locks have been hacked

[thewayne]

It seems that all of them buy encryption from one company, and that company uses 20 year old encryption. Normally it would still take a lot of brute force effort to break the code, but there is a flaw in the system.

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/08/researchers-say.html

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/09/keeloq_broken.html

Comments

[silveradept]

An hour's worth of listening, and then potential master keys for all the cars in the lot. Boy, wouldn't that net a thief some quick cash selling all the gizmos and things that people leave in their cars, expecting the locks to hold. And for those cars that might have remote startup, then the car itself might be vulnerable. Steal all the stuff, then steal the car and drive away. Wow.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Even with remote start, that wouldn't necessarily unlock the steering column.

[silveradept]

Ah, you're right. Someone would still need to unlock the column. And if they plan on stealing the car, I somehow don't think that they're going to spend all that time getting the key to then hotwire it. But that still means someone could potentially rob you of whatever's in your car if all this old tech meets the new tech.