Criminals find the key to car immobilisers
6th December 2010
For 16 years, car immobilisers have kept car thieves at bay – but that may now be changing.
A device fitted within the key fob of a modern car broadcasts an encrypted radio signal to the car as the driver starts the vehicle. If the signal is recognised by the car’s receiver, it responds by sending an encrypted signal to the engine control unit (ECU), which allows the car to start. If the driver tries using the incorrect car key fob, the ECU locks down the engine.
But the proprietary encryption keys used to transmit data between the key fob, receiver and engine are so poorly implemented on some cars (see “Castles built on sand”) that they are readily cracked, Nohl told the Embedded Security in Cars conference, in Bremen, Germany, last month.