In what seems like finding a way around a paywall on the internet, researchers have hacked Tesla’s infotainment system to access features that are typically paid for. The team behind this effort is scheduled to present their findings at a conference in Las Vegas.
If you’re imagining researchers hiding in a dark room filled with screens like a cartoon villain, you’re mistaken. Christian Werling, a student at Technische Universität Berlin who took part in the project, explained to TechCrunch that unlocking paid features requires physical access to the car. It can’t be done wirelessly, but once you gain access, everything becomes accessible. This process is known as “jailbreaking” a car, named after the strategy used by owners who separate their iPhones and other devices from Apple’s strict walled-garden structure.
“We are not the evil outsider, but we’re actually the insider; we own the car. And, we don’t want to pay these $300 for the rear heated seats,” he told the publication. He also mentioned that his team got heated rear seats for free by delving into the hardware that the system is based on.
By utilizing a technique called voltage glitching, the researchers were able to gain access to the system’s content. Werling explained that his colleagues simply had to manipulate the supply voltage of the AMD processor that powers the infotainment system. “If we do it at the right moment, we can trick the CPU into doing something else. It has a hiccup, skips an instruction, and accepts our manipulated code,” he stated.
Even more concerning, this method allowed the researchers to access a plethora of personal data stored in the car’s infotainment system. This included the driver’s list of contacts, calendar appointments, call logs, Wi-Fi passwords, and even information about the car’s previous locations.
The researchers have not fully exploited the potential of their discovery. They mentioned that they might be able to gain access to other paid features, such as the Full Self-Driving capability. Additionally, there may be a way to make region-specific functions available worldwide, and the researchers acquired the encryption key that identifies a specific car on the Tesla network, which could lead to other types of attacks.
Although Tesla has fixed various bugs, including a previous security breach, through its over-the-air software updating system, it seems that this vulnerability will be more challenging to address. The researchers believe that Tesla will need to replace the hardware that they are manipulating.
More information about how the researchers hacked Tesla’s technology will be revealed at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference, starting on August 5.
Tesla has not provided any comments regarding this matter.
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