Well..I’ve been victimized. Someone broke into my car got to the fuse box behind the glove box and tried to use a device to steal my car..Well at least that’s what I’ve came up with through my reading..there would be no other reason for the fuse box to be open and for the entire glove box AND blank fuse to be on the floorboard. Luckily I had a faulty battery that I was notified about by Onstar 2 days before this happened so my car couldn’t crank at all. What I’m getting at is has anyone installed a kill switch or have any suggestions on securing the car on my own.

 

No experience myself. Perhaps a battery disconnect?

 

This is interesting. The old fashion club and a garage would be a good idea.

 

Interesting…. Is that even possible? Where did this happen?

Glad they were unsuccessful.

 

How do you even open the C8 door w/a dead battery? And I guess that's why the alarm didn't sound....
Plenty of track / racing kill switches available for you to purchase & then install at your select / discreet location.

 

If you have access to the manual key you can unlock the driver side door. Otherwise a broken window provides access.

 

My question is... if the battery were good, could whatever the potential thief(s) was trying to do potentially have succeeded? Anyone know where/how this ploy came about? Bear in mind Hyundai-Kia had a software fault for several years that came to light and was/is used for many thefts, at least until the software update was recently released for dealers to install... and, that only after insurance companies started refusing to insure the cars. Could there be something similar with the C8? Does anyone know?

 

Club is a joke. You cut the steering wheel and bend it out of the way, then slide the Club off.

 

If memory serves, some throttle controllers provide a 'lock mode' setting where the gas pedal becomes disabled.

 

Kill switch is a good idea, there are some that can be controlled remotely with remotes and even with cloud based services. Best part is no need for a police report and you get gps tracking too on the fancy cloud ones.

There are so many ways to steal most cars. What's described here sounds like the old swap the computer to one with that will let your key fob start it trick. Some thieves are incredibly fast at doing this on certain car models they target. GMC Sierra is one of the most notorious, they steal them left and right here in Houston, gone in a minute or two. Hell the ECU in my Audi isn't even screwed in, it's clipped into a plastic tray under the hood and completely unobstructed. Bust a window, pop the hood, pry the ECU out with a pry tool or a screwdriver. It takes literally seconds, most the time will be spent unclipping the wire harnesses going into the ECU. Popping the new one in is even faster, because no prying needed as it just snaps in, and plugging in harnesses is easier than unplugging them too. This one is annoying, because you don't want to make any part of the car hard to service, including the ECU. Not sure how to solve that outside of a kill switch that's well hidden by the owner.

There are key fob relay attacks where two people bridge the remote to the car. For example one guy follows you and your key fob with a radio and his partner has a second radio that acts as the key fob. Once the car is started the thief can drive off and pick up his partner. This one wouldn't be too complicated to solve, but manufacturers aren't doing much about it as far as I know. My proposed solution would be trunking between multiple frequencies. For example you push the button on your fob, or get in range of the car, the ecu tells your fob which frequency to switch to so a token can be used to authenticate. This communication is already encrypted on any modern car as far as I'm aware of, the radios relaying won't know which frequency to go to. You could even have multiple radio receivers in the car that sweep the wrong frequencies to make sure the relay attacker can't spam different frequencies with your signal to eventually brute force the relay. If it sees the signal comes through on the wrong frequency, the attack is detected and ECU should refuse to start the car or unlock it, etc... for some amount of time.

There is another similar attack that is pretty interesting, but mostly being tested as a proof of concept, not aware of it being used by thieves yet. In simple terms the thief would have a device capable of jamming the fob's radio signal. The victim parks their car and uses the fob to lock the car. Careful timing is used for the jamming. When the remote is supposed to send the token to authenticate radio jamming takes place so the car never gets the token. The data that contains the unused valid token is stored by the thief's device. At the same time the jamming turns off. The victim pushes the fob button again thinking the remote is out of range or it was a bad button press. A new token is generated and used for authentication, everything seems fine now. The bad guys can replay the stored data that contains the unused token that the car never got because of the jamming once the victim walks off. The benefit here is that the thief doesn't necessarily need a partner and could potentially steal the car a bit later if the timing isn't opportune. Maybe you parked right in front of the restaurant and would notice if someone walked up to the car, but when you go to the bathroom you might come back to a missing car. I think the solution I described above would cover this.

There's always the old tow it away method, that one is pretty foolproof if you're parked in public. People generally don't question a tow truck. It's the equivalent of a clip board and hard hat.

Clubs have a downside, some thieves are very quick at removing them and some even like cars with clubs. It's a pre-installed leaver to break the steering lock with, don't even have to bring your own. Mostly relevant to hot wiring situations on older vehicles, since the methods described above would disengage the steering lock.

TLDR: I'd go with a well hidden kill switch, parking in a secured garage (alarms, cameras, etc...) at night, and having your car where you can see it if you're really paranoid about it when out in public during the day.

 

Sure glad the thief was not able to steal your car.

 

A kill switch is a good idea. I've installed them in many of my cars. There are several ways to render starting your car impossible. The Corvette is new to me but, you can wire a hidden on/off switch in the starter circuit so the car won't crank. There are other methods as well. Something simple like this makes it much less likely they will be able to take your car.

Mitch

 

Seems extreme but that may be what it takes.
I've seen ring camera videos where thieves have a device which mimics the key FOB, 1 press and they're off with the car.
i'd definitely be interested in a kill switch that would break/make the starter circuit!

 

This is a strange one. Is there even a control module back there behind the glove box? The Engine Control Module is in the tunnel and can only be accessed if the car is on a lift. All the module communications on the network are encrypted. I am under the impression that the modules register with each other and if a "strange" module was introduced to the network, it would not be recognized by the other modules. Most all module replacement procedures in the manual include a "Control Module Programming and Setup" procedure that must be performed before the module will work in that specific vehicle. I wonder if the thieves knew what they were doing?

 

Good to know.
Apparently, the thieves didn't know enough since they didn't actually get the car.

 

I think if tuners cant crack global 2 to tune c8s after almost 4 years of production, a petty thief is going to have a hard time hot-wiring it with a spare ecu or any other method. Probably overthinking it. The encryption is apparently incredibly hard to beat.

 

Did they try to steal it before the battery was dead? You said it was 2 days before you got an Onstar message. Did you see the car or notice anything during that time?

What about going after the air bag? Not sure if that makes sense or not.

 

Yea I wasn't sure where the ECU is on the C8, hadn't had a need to look for it, just figured it may be related as its a common way to steal cars. Not sure otherwise what they were trying to do, there is a fuse box back there I believe, maybe some other modules. Was thinking the ECU harness termination may be back there. Reading a post on the other forum (not sure if allowed to link), but if you google "My 2020 C8 was stolen two days ago", it seems wherever they hooked up their own computer was under the steering wheel. It's possible the guys here were just idiots and were going for the wrong panel.

You don't need to crack the ECU. Generally these guys just need an ECU with a matching key already programmed, so think ECU and fob from a wrecked car for example. You definitely can't hot wire the vast majority of modern cars. As far as other methods, relay attacks are generally pretty reliable across almost all cars today. No need to break any encryption either, but a lot of these guys are kind of dumb and swapping a part like the ECU is easier for them to grasp than modern technology. China sells these devices and better organized groups do use them. I can post a link to one on aliexpress, but I sort of feel like I'd be encouraging bad people. GM's attempt to stop relay attacks is the reason your key fob goes to sleep. If you ever left it in the cup holder while working on your car (washing it maybe) and got in, you'll see the message that you need to move the key fob before the car will start. The car wants to make sure you have the physical fob and someone isn't just relaying it. This is an attempt by GM to prevent those guys from skulking the perimeter of your house at 2AM hoping to get in range of your key fob on a counter somewhere. Unfortunately doesn't work well if they follow you in somewhere, which is a common tactic if it's an opportunistic theft vs. a planned one where they hope to steal the car while you sleep.

https://cdn.leasing.com/cms/relay-car-theft_3.jpg

Could keep your fob in a faraday pouch I suppose.

 

Or just leave a note on the steering wheel...

"If you're stealing this car, please make sure it's totalled. I've got full coverage."