Texting, grand theft auto style; alarms pose risk

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Texting and driving don’t go well together –

though not in the way you might think.

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Computer hackers can force some cars to unlock their doors and

start their engines without a key by sending specially crafted

messages to a car’s anti-theft system. They can also snoop at where

you’ve been by tapping the car’s GPS system.

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That is possible because car alarms, GPS systems and other devices

are increasingly connected to cellular telephone networks and thus

can receive commands through text messaging. That capability allows

owners to change settings on devices remotely, but it also gives

hackers a way in.

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Researchers from iSEC Partners recently demonstrated such an attack

on a Subaru Outback equipped with a vulnerable alarm system, which

wasn’t identified. With a laptop perched on the hood, they sent the

Subaru’s alarm system commands to unlock the doors and start the

engine.

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Their findings show that text messaging is no longer limited to

short notes telling friends you’re running late or asking if

they’re free for dinner.

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Texts are a powerful means of attack because the devices that

receive them generally cannot refuse texts and the commands encoded

in them. Users can’t block texts; only operators of the phone

networks can.

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These devices are assigned phone numbers just like fax machines. So

if you can find the secret phone number attached to a particular

device, you can throw it off by sending your own commands through

text messaging.

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Although these numbers are only supposed to be known by the

devices’ operators, they aren’t impossible to find. Certain

network-administration programs allow technicians to probe networks

to see what kinds of devices are on them. Based on the format of

the responses, the type and even model of the device can be

deduced. Hackers can use that information to craft attacks against

devices they know are vulnerable. (In this case, the researchers

bypassed these steps and simply took the alarm system out of the

car to identify the secret phone number.)

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Actually stealing a car wouldn’t be so easy.

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You’d have to ensure that the phone number you found is attached to

the car you’re standing in front of, for instance. There are

hacking tools to do that – they listen for cellular traffic around

a particular vehicle – but in many cases it’s easier to take a car

that doesn’t have an alarm.

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The research from Don Bailey and Mat Solnik is unsettling because

it shows that such attacks are possible on a variety of other

devices that use wireless communications chips. Those include ATMs,

medical devices and even traffic lights. Hackers have already sent

specially crafted texts with commands to instantly disconnect

iPhones from the cellular network.

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Bailey, whose specialty is cellphone network security, also found

that similar techniques can be used to get a certain type of GPS

system to cough up its location data. Such information can be used

by stalkers or home burglars, for instance.

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The type of GPS system he studied is known as assisted GPS, which

means that it uses cellular signals in addition to the usual

satellite signals. That makes the system vulnerable.

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The research isn’t just about taking off with someone else’s car or

finding out where that person has been.

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It raises the possibility of other, more sinister dangers, such as

those potentially affecting braking and acceleration, said Scott

Borg, director of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a group that

studies hacking threats. That becomes possible as networked

electronics are more tightly coupled with physical

machinery.

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“Doing one that is harmful is quite hard, but we need to prepare

for people doing that,” Borg said.

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The research got the attention of a trade group for electric

utilities, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. After the

pair showed off the techniques at the Black Hat security conference

in Las Vegas this month, the group warned that the types of

wireless chips exploited by the pair are also used at power plants

and said that more caution is needed in their use.

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The vulnerable GPS system was made by Zoombak Inc., which promotes

its products’ usefulness in tracking children and automobiles. The

company said it has made changes to its devices, so that outside

parties can no longer get location data without

passwords.

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Bailey and Solnik are working with the manufacturer of the car

alarm system to fix its vulnerabilities. Bailey said the

unidentified manufacturer has fixed many of the security

issues.

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Bailey said stricter security standards are needed.

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“We’re so excited to use technology that we’re deploying it too

quickly and not really thinking about the impact of security,” he

said.

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—

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Online:

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Video demonstration of attack: 

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