Submission + - Researchers Create Tiny, $20 Car-Hacking Tool (forbes.com)
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: At the Black Hat Asia security conference in Singapore next month, two Spanish researchers plan to demo a small gadget they built for less than $20 that can be connected to a car’s internal Controller Area Network to allow hackers ot wirelessly inject malicious commands affecting everything from the vehicle's windows and headlights to its steering and brakes. Their tool, which is about three-quarters the size of an iPhone, draws power from the car’s electrical system and can wait for minutes or years before relaying a wireless command to the car's network via Bluetooth or GSM sent remotely from an attacker’s computer. They call it the CAN Hacking Tool, or CHT.
Just what the CHT can trick a car into doing depends on the model--the researchers tried four different vehicles and managed to only fiddle with windows and lights in some cases, while triggering anti-lock brake or emergency brake systems in others. For some of the cars, the device could only be planted by gaining access under the hood, but in other cases, it could be attached to the network just crawling under the car.
"It can take five minutes or less to hook it up and then walk away,” says one of the researchers. “We could wait one minute or one year, and then trigger it to do whatever we have programmed it to do.”
Just what the CHT can trick a car into doing depends on the model--the researchers tried four different vehicles and managed to only fiddle with windows and lights in some cases, while triggering anti-lock brake or emergency brake systems in others. For some of the cars, the device could only be planted by gaining access under the hood, but in other cases, it could be attached to the network just crawling under the car.
"It can take five minutes or less to hook it up and then walk away,” says one of the researchers. “We could wait one minute or one year, and then trigger it to do whatever we have programmed it to do.”