<story><title>A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt</title><url>https://mrooding.me/a-dutch-first-ingenious-bmw-theft-attempt-5f7f49a96ec8</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Rjevski</author><text>I used to fix cars for a living. Sometimes it involved “cracking” alarm &amp;amp; immobiliser systems.&lt;p&gt;My clients all claimed they broke&amp;#x2F;lost their keys to their car - most of the time they were believable (car stuck in front of their driveway, etc). Sometimes less so, but I’d do it anyway because I needed the money and I had no proof of the contrary (innocent until proven guilty right?), although given the sad conditions of the cars I really doubt anyone would bother stealing them.&lt;p&gt;Car security is based on obscurity. There is very little cryptography involved (if any), and where there is, the car’s “computers” would happily install new, untrusted firmware through the diagnostics (OBD) port, which means you can do pretty much anything - program new keys, disable the immobiliser or alarm completely (by installing patched firmware) or even rewind the odometer.&lt;p&gt;I’m frankly surprised it took this long for “high tech” car theft to appear, unless it’s been going on for a while but executed perfectly so nobody would find a trace.&lt;p&gt;Happy to answer any questions if anyone’s curious.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vbezhenar</author><text>In Russia and, I guess, similar countries, it&amp;#x27;s quite rare to encounter a car which isn&amp;#x27;t protected by an external protection system (not sure how it&amp;#x27;s called in English, in Russian it&amp;#x27;s usually called &amp;quot;Сигнализация&amp;quot;) which includes shock sensors, alarm system, remote control and car block which protects some vital engine circuits. There are systems with dialog protocol between remote control and car with actual encryption inside, so it might be not so trivial to break it. In practice such cars are either stolen inside trucks or an entire system is by-passed by a separate automobile computer connected directly to necessary engine sensors, ignition coils, etc. Quite clever technique, you don&amp;#x27;t need to bypass protected electronics if you can bring and connect your own electronics.</text></comment>
<story><title>A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt</title><url>https://mrooding.me/a-dutch-first-ingenious-bmw-theft-attempt-5f7f49a96ec8</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Rjevski</author><text>I used to fix cars for a living. Sometimes it involved “cracking” alarm &amp;amp; immobiliser systems.&lt;p&gt;My clients all claimed they broke&amp;#x2F;lost their keys to their car - most of the time they were believable (car stuck in front of their driveway, etc). Sometimes less so, but I’d do it anyway because I needed the money and I had no proof of the contrary (innocent until proven guilty right?), although given the sad conditions of the cars I really doubt anyone would bother stealing them.&lt;p&gt;Car security is based on obscurity. There is very little cryptography involved (if any), and where there is, the car’s “computers” would happily install new, untrusted firmware through the diagnostics (OBD) port, which means you can do pretty much anything - program new keys, disable the immobiliser or alarm completely (by installing patched firmware) or even rewind the odometer.&lt;p&gt;I’m frankly surprised it took this long for “high tech” car theft to appear, unless it’s been going on for a while but executed perfectly so nobody would find a trace.&lt;p&gt;Happy to answer any questions if anyone’s curious.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>outworlder</author><text>&amp;gt; program new keys&lt;p&gt;Yeah. We bought an old Elantra which only came with a single key and no FOB. I bought a cheap gizmo on Amazon that you plug to the OBD port and allows you to program other FOBs.&lt;p&gt;Modern-ish cars are computers. Once you have physical access, all bets are off.</text></comment>