DEF CON Safe Mode - Wesley Neelen and Rik van Duijn - Hacking Traffic Lights
Channel: DEFCONConference
Date: 2020-08-05

New systems are connected to the internet every day to make our lives easier or more comfortable. We are starting to see connected traffic and smart traffic lights innovations to improve traffic flow, safety and comfort. With smart systems entering and controlling our physical world, ethical hacking such systems to find possible ways of manipulation becomes even more important to society.

In the Netherlands there are some public innovations where traffic light systems are being connected to smartphone apps. We have looked at these innovations to see if these systems could be manipulated and how manipulation could benefit an attacker. Specifically, we found a way in two different platforms, that allows us to successfully fake a continuous flow of bicyclists that turns the cyclist traffic light instantly green or decreases the time to green.

More than 10 municipalities in the Netherlands connected a part of their cyclist traffic lights to the affected platforms. It was possible to perform these hacks from any remote location, which allows someone to remotely influence the traffic at scale. The hack results in turning the cyclists lights to green, while other lights on the intersection will turn to red.

The regular security systems that make sure lights are not turned green simultaneously stays intact. There are similar projects that turn the car traffic lights green for ambulances or trucks. If an attacker succeeds to exploit these projects with a similar attack, he could remotely influence the car traffic lights directly.