TeddyFreddy

For those into electronics or having access to GM information: please tell me that our C6 Z06 does not use this primitive technology for the key-less entry system from this lame Microchip company.

This article http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/08/researchers-say.html made me worried.

TeddyFreddy

Anyone read the article?

I guess that is pretty hard to find which company makes our key-less stuff. Let's hope is safer than the one described in the article.

greendot

Let's hope someone inside GM reads this and gives some feedback.

As an aside, I had a really freaky occurance Saturday. My 07 was parked among 160+ other Corvettes at the Corvette Corral at the ALMS race on Belle Isle. Late in the afternoon somebody in the Corral tent said to me "are your lights on?"

Well, of course they can't be. Car is locked! I have fob in my pocket, but sure enough the headlights WERE on! The switch had been rotated to turn them on manually. Was not me. Somebody must have been able to open the door.

Hatdude

Someone's got *****. Even for a silly prank like that they'd end up with a mouthful of elbow, no questions asked, if I saw someone I didn't know reaching in my car.

2KZ28CAM

I dont know the actual system GM uses, but having a rudimentary engineering/security background, I'd say OnStar is of bigger concern than this. (the pranksters/thief could figure out some way to impersonate you through a phishing/social engineering scheme of some sort, call OnStar, and get them to unlock it -- assuming your vehicle has it, of course).

I wouldn't be too worried about theft on this keyless entry thing. Even if they unlocked the doors, it's doubtful they could get past the "fob not detected" part.

Too much trouble just to get the doors unlocked. Only real worry would be vandalism, but thats even more unlikely.

With all that being said, if a thief wants your car - they will get it. Its a fact of life. They may just pull it onto a flatbed and forgo all the above nonsense.

Truth is, they're more likely to steal your wheels or airbag then they are to steal the car or badly vandalize it.

EDIT: believe it or not, I've even heard catalytic converters are also a prime target for theft due to the raw materials they are made of.

TeddyFreddy

You didn't get the whole message from that article. Once the bad guys break the encryption, they practically have a valid FOB! By generating the message to the car with a device that would send the previously found code!
Meaning they will be able to drive the car; way better than having a locked car on a flatbed (for the thiefs).

The only hope is that GM didn't use a Microchip manufactured system...

2KZ28CAM

your right, i didnt see that part of the article.

might be worth a call to GM customer service or the dealer?

TeddyFreddy

GM should be warned about this. But neither the GM customer service or the dealer would do. The info should be sent to a higher level.
Maybe somebody in the forum knows where to send it.

But again, the article mentions the vulnerability of the Microchip-built systems. Maybe GM uses a different provider for the key-less system and we are fine. On the other hand the article and the PDF is recent (2007) and clearly says that GM is using Microchip and the faulty KeeLoq encryption scheme. The scariest thing is that the manufacturer's master key can be determined, meaning that the high-tech thieves would be able to steal ANY car very fast after they have found manufacturer's master key.

Adam Boca

Do not worry folks...GM does not use this system. I am not sure what they use, but I am told it is more sophisticated.

This info is from an email I sent to a friend in GM..

Adam

2KZ28CAM

Thank You, Adam. I appreciate the time you took to ask your friend!

smurfy

The C6 FOB uses the Philips remote keyless entry transponder system. It's a second generation system with mutual authentication, challenge-response and encrypted data communication. They consider it unbreakable.
The article also says: "There are other tools criminals can use today (to steal cars) that are easier", so don't worry about the FOB.

tjwong

The average theif isn't going to have the brains nor the capability to mimic a fob to steal your car. If he wants into the car bad enough a large rock would suffice. Once in he can't drive away in your car other than to steal whats inside. Defeating the RCDLR module and its anti-theft mechanism is very hard to do, even if he gets it to crank over, he still has to over come the fuel enable mechanism in the PCM. Without that it will never run.

AtlBlkZ06

totally.

A guy with a degree in math will have the brains to know its stupid to steal cars .

There is NO code that cant be cracked. Its all just a matter of time. And a whole day is pretty nuts. I was unimpressed

TeddyFreddy

Thanks for the info, it's great that is Philips.

As for the "unbreakable", that's lame, anything can be broken given enough resources.

TeddyFreddy

The guy with the brains won't steal the car, he will just sell the method of cracking the system or maybe a device to do it!

I agree, any code can be broken, just a matter of resources.

You were not impressed?? Have you read the PDF from the article? They would need actually 2 days and some serious computer power, but after that they would have the manufacturer's key (or master secret) and they could open+start in seconds ANY car that uses the lame KeeLoq!

whosurdaddy

Keyless entry is about as secure as one can get. That doesn't mean cars won't get stolen - just that we'll be able to conveniently access our vehicles and someone will have to work hard to steal it.

Here's a piece that came out last year when a European ring was busted stealing X5's with about 20-minutes worth of work. Can't loose sleep over it.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/gone-in-...teal-cars.html

TeddyFreddy

Good find. That article shows that some bad guys already did it, but not Corvettes, BMWs.

This is not about loosing sleep, it's about being aware.
I hope Philips or whoever supplies GM the system in the Corvette reads these articles as well.