Electronically hijacking a car through the Internet.
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Instructor
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 163
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From: Central AZ
Electronically hijacking a car through the Internet.
Here's an article from WIRED magazine that gives pause for thought. It describes how a WIRED staffer participated in a test of the ability of a couple of "tame" hackers to take control of a Jeep Cherokee from a far-distant location by working through the vehicle's onboard phone and CAN system. They did, controlling everything but steering. I think my ONSTAR is about to go away.
http://goo.gl/4akRw5
Pilgrim
http://goo.gl/4akRw5
Pilgrim
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Currently somewhere in IL,IN,KY,TN,MO,AR,MS,AL, or FL
Too bad OnStar is now standard. When I ordered my 2007 I had no use for it so I still have the $700 that it would have cost to add to my car.
But I would take all of this article with a grain of salt. Wired is known to exaggerate claims and fabricate stories. Computers only do what they are told to do. Who would design an entertainment system to accept commands from the Internet? It should be the other way around. The entertainment system sends commands to the Internet (other computers) to provide data, not instructions.
OnStar is VERY different. OnStar WAS designed to listen through the Internet for some commands such as shutting down the car but running the wipers? Nonsense! Possible with a major code rewrite of the BCM but that is a HUGE task to get right and keep the car functional. And it isn't going to happen through OnStar because OnStar does not have the ability to tell the BCM to reflash it's code. Reflashing he BCM code would have to be done on a C6 through a physical connection to the CAN port. Computers do what you tell them to do. If you don't tell them to accept commands they will never accept commands. If the BCM code does not accept new code through OnStar then OnStar can not change the BCM code.
But I would take all of this article with a grain of salt. Wired is known to exaggerate claims and fabricate stories. Computers only do what they are told to do. Who would design an entertainment system to accept commands from the Internet? It should be the other way around. The entertainment system sends commands to the Internet (other computers) to provide data, not instructions.
OnStar is VERY different. OnStar WAS designed to listen through the Internet for some commands such as shutting down the car but running the wipers? Nonsense! Possible with a major code rewrite of the BCM but that is a HUGE task to get right and keep the car functional. And it isn't going to happen through OnStar because OnStar does not have the ability to tell the BCM to reflash it's code. Reflashing he BCM code would have to be done on a C6 through a physical connection to the CAN port. Computers do what you tell them to do. If you don't tell them to accept commands they will never accept commands. If the BCM code does not accept new code through OnStar then OnStar can not change the BCM code.
