“By infecting a Tesla owner’s phone with Android malware, a car thief can hack and then steal a Tesla car, security researchers have revealed this week,” Catalin Cimpanu reports for BleepingComputer.
“Previous attempts to hack Tesla cars attacked the vehicle’s on-board software itself. This is how Chinese security researchers from Keen Lab have managed to hack a Tesla Model S last month, allowing an attacker to control a car from 12 miles away,” Cimpanu reports. “Security experts from Norwegian security firm Promon have taken a different approach, and instead of trying complicated attacks on the car’s firmware, they have chosen to go after Tesla’s Android app that many car owners use to interact with their vehicle.”
“Since the attacker has already rooted the user’s phone, the attacker can alter the Tesla app and send a copy of the victim’s username and password to the attacker,” Cimpanu reports. “With this data in hand, the attacker can perform a series of actions, such as using the car’s keyless driving functionality and start the engine, open doors, or track the car on the road. Other actions are also theoretically possible, but researchers haven’t tested all of them.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Now you just have to find a fragmandroid cheapskate who owns a $70,000+ Tesla.
Good luck with that.
SEE ALSO:
Poor man’s iPhone: Android on the decline – February 26, 2015
Study: iPhone users are smarter and richer than those who settle for Android phones – January 22, 2015
Why Android users can’t have the nicest things – January 5, 2015
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
iPhone users smarter, richer than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
Study: Apple iPhone users richer, younger, more productive than other so-called ‘smartphone’ users – June 12, 2009
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edison Carter” for the heads up.]
FREE ride! Free OS! Free Phones! All for Free! We are Free! Android users are nothing more than Google’s Biaches! Ignoramus dolts comes to mind.
Some people you just can’t reach.
70k? Heh, try 140k+ if you want all the bells & whistles. Hard to imagine Fragmandroid users spending that kind of money.
It is the tech clueless elitists that purchase these cars with too many bells & whistles. They have no clue about what OS these Model S cars boot. HELLO! World, Elon! news flash! Ever heard of the concept, “Less is More”? Simplify. Get back to basics. Does SECURITY ring a bell? A secure OS? eh? Would love to see AAPL acquire this money bleeding entity. SpaceX My Ass. Not my circus NOT my Monkey’s.
Maybe a Samsung executive (who still has his job after Note 7 fiasco).
Notice, the owner of the Tesla uses a ScamScum phone? Dumb, Dumber and out right STUPIDITY.
BUT! that ScamScum BOGO promo saved him OH SO MUCH $$$$$ gmafb…. Baffling.
😄 Oh man, story of the day!!
Three tesla owners i know all have droids
Big deal. That’s what insurance is for. Plus the car can be tracked. It will need to be charged at some point. Then guess what, bad guy goes to jail. Makes no sense to still a Tesla, it makes a lot of sense to buy one.
Just another good reason to buy an iPhone. I’m sure this could happen with my Volt if they could get into my phone. This is quite the public service these guys did because it won’t be long before all newer model cars have remote phone controls like the Tesla or others.
Well, they could have used iOS, but…
-It’s not available.
-They would be giving away the company.
-They were afraid it would restrict where the vehicle would be allowed to go.
MDN Take: “Now you just have to find a fragmandroid cheapskate who owns a $70,000+ Tesla. Good luck with that.”
Need no luck for that, I know about at least three Tesla vloggers who use Android!
I have no idea why they use android phones, two of them has MacBooks for editing!
Off topic, but anyone else frustrated with the MDN app? Every time I watch an embedded video, if I turn the phone to landscape, the app crashed. Frustrating.
Now that I’ve watch the embedded video, I laughed at how the hacker unlocked the doors, started the car, but then left the seatbelt chime annoying on
Isn’t this a good case for 2 point verification? You may be able to control the car via an app but to actually drive it the key must physically be inside the car.
My Prius works in a similar way. Keyless start but the key has to be inside. If I switch the car on and then get out of the car it starts beeping. What I don’t know is whether once the car is on, that someone else could get in and drive it away.