Gadgets and PC’s aren’t the only electronics that get an update from year to year. Automobiles get them as well, such as keyless entry systems and remote ignition keys. A security company, called ETH Zurick in Switzerland, is exploiting these aspects and plans to present their work at this year’s Network and Distributed System Security Symposium being held in San Diego. The researchers successfully attacked eight car manufacturers' passive keyless entry and start systems—wireless key fobs that open a car's doors and start the engine by proximity alone. Normally, when a wireless key is within a few meters of the right car, it detects a low-powered signal that causes it to issue a command that opens the car enable the ignition. The researchers used a pair of antennas to transmit these signals from the car to the key when the key was farther away, tricking the car into opening without the ordinary authorization. One antenna needs to be very close to the car, and one needs to be within eight meters of the key. Most relay attacks require the signal to be converted from analog to digital and back to analog again causing delays in microseconds. These delays can cause the vehicle not to open or start. This was circumvented by keeping the signal in analog format, cutting the delay down to nanoseconds. For the complete report on these hacks please visit: http://eprint.iacr.org/2010/332.pdf
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