DEF CON 23 - Samy Kamkar - Drive it like you Hacked it: New Attacks and Tools to Wireles
Channel: DEFCONConference
Date: 2015-12-02

Gary Numan said it best. Cars. They’re everywhere. You can hardly drive down a busy freeway without seeing one. But what about their security?

In this talk I’ll reveal new research and real attacks in the area of wirelessly controlled gates, garages, and cars. Many cars are now controlled from mobile devices over GSM, while even more can be unlocked and ignitions started from wireless keyfobs over RF. All of these are subject to attack with low-cost tools (such as RTL-SDR, GNU Radio, HackRF, Arduino, and even a Mattel toy).

We will investigate how these features work, and of course, how they can be exploited. I will be releasing new tools and vulnerabilities in this area, such as key-space reduction attacks on fixed-codes, advanced "code grabbers" using RF attacks on encrypted and rolling codes, and how to protect yourself against such issues.

By the end of this talk you’ll understand not only how vehicles and the wirelessly-controlled physical access protecting them can be exploited, but also learn about various tools for car and RF research, as well as how to use and build your own inexpensive devices for such investigation.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. And other people’s engines.

Samy Kamkar is a security researcher, best known for creating The MySpace Worm, one of the fastest spreading viruses of all time. He (attempts to) illustrate terrifying vulnerabilities with playfulness, and his exploits have been branded:

“Controversial”, -The Wall Street Journal
“Horrific”, -The New York Times
“Now I want to fill my USB ports up with cement”, -Gizmodo

He’s demonstrated usurping typical hardware for surreptitious means such as with KeySweeper, turning a standard USB wall charger into a covert, wireless keyboard sniffer, and SkyJack, a custom drone which takes over any other nearby drones allowing them to be controlled as a massive zombie swarm. He’s exposed issues around privacy, such as by developing the Evercookie which appeared in a top-secret NSA document revealed by Edward Snowden, exemplifying techniques used by governments and corporations for clandestine web tracking, and has discovered and released research around the illicit GPS and location tracking performed by Apple, Google and Microsoft mobile devices. He continues to produce new research and tools for the public as open source and open hardware.

Twitter: @samykamkar