Sunday, September 16, 2018

Triumph Hacking

It's pretty rare that I am able to combine my day job and my hobby. It's probably not accidental that 20 years in IT Security may have made me gravitate toward the "no tech" world of vintage motorcycles. I guess it's an escape.
Several news outlets reported this week that A team of researchers at the KU Leuven university in Belgium were able to exploit a weak 40 bit cryptographic key utilized in wireless key fobs used on the Tesla Model S. With $600 worth of radio and computing equipment researchers were able to cryptographically attack and clone a fob in less than two seconds. This cloned fob would allow the attacker to drive away with the car as in effect they would "have a key."

Pektron, the company that supplies the key fob system, also provides the fobs used by McLaren and Triumph motorcycles. Researchers did not have access to a Triumph motorcycle for testing but it's very likely the same attack would work on a Triumph. That said, the Triumphs I really care about you could steal with a tickle and a kick. No key required.

No comments:

})();