
Hackers find way to unlock car doors via SMS - strawberryshake
http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/3293927/hackers-find-way-to-unlock-car-doors-via-sms/?cmpid=sbycombinatoranguyen
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cromulent
I have probably posted this too many times, but these guys had a lot of fun
with this sort of stuff:

<http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-oakland2010.pdf>

"Even at speeds of up to 40 MPH on the runway, the attack packets had their
intended effect, whether it was honking the horn, killing the engine,
preventing the car from restarting, or blasting the heat. ... In particular,
we were able to release the brakes and actually prevent our driver from
braking; no amount of pressure on the brake pedal was able to activate the
brakes. Even though we expected this effect, reversed it quickly, and had a
safety mechanism in place, it was still a frightening experience for our
driver."

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tomjen3
Random fact - if your breaks fail, try the handbrake. It isn't powerful enough
to beat the engine (but that can be solved by pressing the clutch which will
disconnect the engine from the gears) but it is required (at least by Danish
law, I assume it is the same in the rest of Europe) to be directly attached to
two wheels on the same axle and to work exclusively mechanically (no
electronics can get in the way).

If you do at high speeds your car will twist but that can be countered by
steering in the direction you want to go.

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artmageddon
I agree with your advice, but I'd probably suggest doing so in the opposite
order.. that is, to put the car in a neutral gear first, then to use the
hand/parking brake to slow the car. Part of me wonders if the excessive
revving will blow the engine, but in that kind of situation I'd take that over
a fatality any day of the week.

I'm not aware of how the hand brake electronics work here in the States, so I
can't comment on that part.

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beej71
Every passenger car handbrake I've seen (in the US) is purely mechanical to
the back brakes.

You don't want to slam on the emergency brake--it can lock up the back wheels
esp on a front-wheel drive car, and the braking force from the rear brakes is
really low compared to the front. Skidding wheels have less control and
actually slow you down more slowly than non-skidding wheels.

If I were in the situation (because I'm such a hacker target--or something--
wait, I drive a 2000 model year car!), I would _not_ put the car in neutral
until the engine began fighting the brakes. I'd aggressively downshift to use
engine compression braking to help slow the car. Any time the engine is
turning over faster than you're giving it gas for, it's sucking up energy. (I
also haven't driven an automatic for some time--the effect is much more
pronounced with a manual transmission.)

Then I'd put it in neutral or disengage the clutch once the car was at an idle
crawl.

For practice, find an empty straight bit of road, and accelerate to 15-20 mph.
Then put the car in neutral and _very gradually_ apply the emergency brake,
getting a feel for how it slows the car. You might be surprised at how slowly
you slow down--and how quickly the rear wheels lock up!

~~~
artmageddon
That's good information, I wasn't aware of how it was mechanically linked like
that. My assumption was based off of an automatic transmission... I just
figured it was better to disconnect the engine from the drive train and add in
braking, but yeah, adding it slowly would be important.

So happy I have anti-locks! And hopefully a car that isn't hacked by SMS(I
just got a 2011 Honda Accord... looks like I have research to do haha)

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JonnieCache
The open source GSM stack they're talking about is the Osmocom project. It
starred in some dramatic demos at various hacker conferences last year.

<http://osmocom.org/>

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sambenson
What cars were they using?

