How many of you have heard of or used key fobs for your car’s security? We know for a fact that a lot of people have, so our question to you is, do you feel secure? A security researcher has recently revealed how a key fob can be hacked wirelessly while employing a regular laptop, transmitter and some technical know-how.
Meet Researcher Dr. Silvio Cesare, who has found this way of hacking the key fobs and he did so by replicating the frequency used by key fobs. He was able to unlock the car wirelessly within minutes and the material needed was a software defined radio, transmitter, amplifier and an antenna. All of these materials were attached to his laptop. The complete assembly costs $1,000, however, a different choice of components will result in lesser cost. He used a radio which has been designed to communicate with frequencies that range across FM, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in order to be able to transmit the frequencies used by the key fob.
The use of a brute force attack carried out the hack and Dr. Cesare, via Australian Computer Emergency Response Team, contacted the manufacturer of the car informing them about this loophole that could possibly be exploited. Despite all this, Dr. Cesare stated that the hack is not as easy to operate as it seems since it would require the hacker to know the frequency before the hacking can take place.
The hack comes as the latest installment in car hack series and raises a serious question about how secure our cars really are.