Posted on 05/16/2022 6:01:34 AM PDT by Red Badger
Car thieves are turning to a two-person system that, with the help of technology, allows them to pop the locks on cars with keyless entry and then – if the vehicle has keyless start – drive off.
“They’re very bold,” Jason Flenniken of south Austin, Texas said, according to WOIA-TV.
Flenniken said his neighborhood has been hit by thieves using what are known as relay devices to get into locked vehicles.
“There were at least three people that were roaming around our particular street,” said Flenniken. “I know in the neighborhood that night we had a lot more valuables stolen, and two actual cars were taken that night.”
Two people are needed to make a relay theft work.
One goes to the front door of an unsuspecting house, because many people store key fobs near the front door.
Thief One captures and amplifies the signal from the fob just inside the door.
WARNING: Car thieves have been using “relay attacks,” where they use equipment to remotely amplify wireless key fob signals to gain access to a victim’s car & start the ignition. Here’s how to prevent it. #SFPD https://t.co/SSfHC4NQlh pic.twitter.com/iZhBBc6uZ3
— San Francisco SAFE (@SFSAFE) January 24, 2020
Meanwhile, Thief Two is waiting by the car, holding a second hacking device near the car door.
The car, engineered to do as the key fob says, opens the door, giving the thieves the opportunity to either take the car’s content or, in some cases, the car itself.
“With a relay attack all you’re really doing is kind of putting an extension cord on your key fob,” said Flenniken. “It’s too easy to do, unfortunately.”
“A lot of drivers are not aware of this ability for thieves to steal their vehicle by simply just standing outside of their home,” Daniel Armbruster of AAA Texas said.
“This can happen to you. It’s not something that’s just a high-tech idea or sci-fi fantasy. This really is happening and, of course, many drivers are finding out the hard way,” he said.
Armbruster said one simple solution is the best defense.
“Don’t leave your key fob in an area near the front door,” said Armbruster. “When you’re at home, store your car keys or fob in a metal cabinet or with some sort of device that protects the radio signal from being intercepted.”
Flenniken said that from now on, his key fob will go in a metal box to block the fob’s signal from being transmitted.
“We actually ordered one. Put that by your front door and just drop your keys in that,” said Flenniken. “You have to set yourself up to not be an easy target.”
Is that a Harbor Freight special? Sturdy little buggers!
Thanks for that idea...because I have several of those cans.
Key fobs DO NOT continuously transmit signal, and the article claims they do.
—
That’s true. The hacker’s device likely generates an RF field song enough to trigger a response from the fob. That’s why this hack relies on the keys being near door of the house.
So this hacking kit requires one part to generate a RF signal to get the key to “chirp” its encrypted response, which is picked up and transmitted to the second part of the hacker kit hear the car. The secure handshake is complete at that point as the car thinks the fob is nearby.
Ok, I looked into this. Supposedly in new cars if the fob is close to the car then it and the car will exchange a signal and open the car. In very high end cars, it might even start the car for you. (In that case, it might be worth doing)
Some manufacturers are countering the signal boost hack by measuring the timing of the signal, rejecting replies that take too long, longer than a half-meter or so.
Seems like a lot of technology to use to steal the Ray Bans from the front seat of your car.
How often has this happened? Based on the number of cited events, I’d guess rarely, if at all. Easier for the crook just to check to see if the car is unlocked, like the fellow stated in the article left his car.
UPDATE – If you have a keyless ignition and a keyless entry system, your key fob is constantly sending out a radio signal with the appropriate code. The technology does exist for a car thief to intercept that code, amplify it with a pirate fob and use it to open/start and drive your car away. To combat this, police suggest keeping your key fob in a metal container or even in your refrigerator or microwave!
see also:
https://www.remotesunlimited.com/technology.php
The thieves use a simply technique where they cause the car to send the unlock signal then transmit that signal close to the key fob. The fob responds with the correct codes and the the thieves send that code back to the car. That can work to unlock the car. To drive off, sure, some cars allow driving a short distance before checking for the key again. It’s a classic man-in-the-middle situation.
LOL, I have one of those I inherited from my Dad.
Don’t need it since I don’t put my keys anywhere near the front door.
The other piece of advice is to NEVER leave valuables in your car. In California, they’ll smash out your windows without hesitation - sometimes just to smash the windows (as in San Francisco, we saw this a lot).
People have taken to putting signs in their car windows saying there is nothing in the car - doesn’t matter, windows are still being smashed. I park my car outside of the city when I visit family and über in.
—”Do the keyless entry fobs continuously transmit?
All key fobs of U.S. manufacturers use a radio signal frequency of 315 MHz and foreign models us 433.92 MHz. Because all fobs use just one of two frequencies, the security relies on both the fob (transmitter) and car electronics (receiver) knowing the same code which changes after every press of the key fob button (or otherwise communicating with each other). Both the transmitter and receiver know the code numbers as they change because they are programmed with the same code generating algorithm. So, both the car and fob know what code number will be next due to sharing an algorithm.
If you have a keyless ignition and a keyless entry system, your key fob is constantly sending out a radio signal with the appropriate code. The technology does exist for a car thief to intercept that code, amplify it with a pirate fob and use it to open/start and drive your car away. To combat this, police suggest keeping your key fob in a metal container or even in your refrigerator or microwave!
https://www.theifod.com/how-do-key-fobs-work/
I don't think it's that easy. In the first place, I don't think they transmit continuously; I think they only transmit when you push the button.
Also, they employ a system that advances the code with each button push. When you press the button, a code is transmitted. Press it again, and a different code is transmitted, etc. The electronics on the car receives the code and compares to see if that's the next code in the sequence. If so, it opens the door. If not, it looks to the next code, and the next code, etc. until a match is found. And the car may not store a list of codes; it may store an algorithm that knows how to generate the next code from the last code.
One of my owner's manuals has a warning about pressing the fob button too many times because the car will only advance and compare so many places in the list of codes and you'll end up locked out.
It's real, as far as I know, and happening in Central Virginia as well. The Po-Po's here are warning folks about it, and there's even a video from one of our neighborhoods of a car's lights blinking as the thief (without a key fob) approaches the car. The victim said something like, "It's as if he has a key fob to my car."
So the thief has to be right outside my door? Like on the steps just outside the storm door? Operating some electronic device that may look like a firearm? There is a legal term here in Tennessee that deals with people intruding on your curtilage...plus the dog will begin barking and would use the doggie door to go investigate. I would probably follow up on the dog and be armed while doing it. Hope the thief doesn’t attempt anything stupid...
"once the fob is in the Faraday bag and it blocks all electromagnetic signals. "
How well do those things work? Why not put one in your pocket to carry the electronic keys around all the time?
Per this link...
“...If you have keyless entry and/or keyless ignition, then the key fob is constantly transmitting a code and then changes its code after an interaction with the car receiver...”
It may feel like BS, but this technique has been used for a number of years to steal cars in the UK.
What seems to ring false about this?
That's an easy solution when at home. I tend to keep my keys on the counter next to the microwave. It would be easy to keep 'em in the microwave itself. The hard part is persuading my wife to do that.
You think that blog is a good source of technical information?
Fido969 gave a good answer to what rang false to him.
From what I’ve read, modern keyless entry fobs change codes precisely to prevent capturing a code for later use. I don’t know the algorithm that keeps track of what code is valid at any given time, not my area of expertise.
My old fob doesn’t change codes, but ya gotta push the button on it to get it to transmit. Congratulations, you now have access to a 15 year old car with a quarter million miles on the clock...
So you drive the car off, and once you turn it off, how are you going to start it up again? YOu can’t.
So basically, it’s to take to a chop shop....
It seems that a similar tactic was used on “Bosch: Legacy” on Friday’s episode to blow up a gas facility. One guy holding a device got close enough to the one holding the fob with detonator. He “threw” the signal to his #2. #2 man activated the detonator and ... BOOM! (An actual “BOOM!”)
Who didn’t see this coming?
*permanently being defined as until a locksmith can get a new fob and sync it to your car. This might require waiting until you local car dealer's parts department opens, or FedEx delivers one from the factory. This will NOT be cheap!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.