Car Security Code Theft

[ISO2015]

Just come to know from whatsapp that when you lock your car using remote, the code which is transmitted in the air can be cached by remote device in near vicinity.

Later using the same code, your car is unlocked to steal things from the car.

Police has advised locking car manually in the public places.

Now is the matter serious for the car with push button start?

Whole car can be stollen.

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

Nope in case of Start stop button / push button start, unless keyfob is present in car the car can't be started and also engine immobiliser systems are activated if car is force started without key.

 

[vijay_968]

Vishnu,
Its not about driving the car away. The 'forward' says people could gain entry into the car. With some valuables in car, that's a problem. I've decided to use the "physical" key to lock car in public places.

BTW, my Whatsapp msg was delivered at 11:51AM from a friend in Delhi. The OP time was 12:05 PM. Is there some synchronised rumour spreading happening ?

 

[saroya]

Fake massages are very common on whatsapp nowadays .
Car security system uses encrypted codes and it is not possible to hack that code during single click of lock or unlock button.

 

[ameyam]

Hi,

from the experience of a colleague, this is right. Thieves do have such system that records and plays back the lock code to gain access.
The common sense thing is to not have any valuable in the car. If you need to keep something inside for a short time, keep in the trunk or under the seat.
Mostly thieves are not interested in the whole car. Those that are, can bypass the engine immobiliser and ignition key check using the wiring and move the car that way, but this is more rare. They are usually more interested in any valuables in the car that are visible and speakers and header units. So dont leave these in the car

Ameyam

 

[rselva]

Older car used fixed code security in Key fob so it was easy to capture the code. Now all cars use rolling code and sniffing those code over air is not possible (yet!). However if someone has access to your key, he can duplicate the code using Chinese devices which can be bought off the net.

 

[Lameassonwheels]

IMO this is just another false information that gone viral in whatsapp like 'medicine for cancer' etc. Its near to impossible for a petty thief to steal the encrypted code and use it to unlock the car unless he is someone like Agent Q or Benji Dunn from those Hollywood thrillers. Desi thieves have their "proven" techniques like 'inserting scale through the window', 'Crashing hooter through blinkers' etc in place of this highly complex hacking stuff. The hoax creator could have added a story about hacking immobilizer chip too in order to make it more convincing.

PS: This is a clear case of ruse!. Hear it and the technical details about why it is not possible from an authentic source here.

 

[bhvm]

rule no 1. if the information is on facebook or whatsapp, it's mostly fake.


If you are locking the key manually, youre actually being stupid. the 'lock' button on. remote not only activates the door locking motors but also the 'immobilizer'. it instructs ecu into lockdown mode.

try this-
if you lock car using manual key, you can open it using manual key, remote button or even a fake key!!

if you lock using remote button, a fake key will sound alarms.

personal experience.

 

[Lameassonwheels]

Totally agree with what bhvm said. What is possible to some extent is jamming the RF signals by creating a total mayhem of frequencies. You can find TV remote jammers "for fun" available in online stores. While this is for IR signals, similar circuits can be made for RF signals as well. It creates a storm of radio signals which will confuse the 'RF Receiver' and it will miss the signal from car remote due to interference.

So what car owners can do?. Once you stepped out of your car and locked it with remote, double check by pulling 1 or 2 door handles to confirm it really got locked. Let others make fun saying "typical Indian attitude" or something like that but you can be assured of your car's safety and have peace of mind. But practically speaking, thieves using "signal jammers" also have a very rare possibility.

 

[bhvm]

circuits can be made for RF signals as well. It creates a storm of radio signals which will confuse the 'RF Receiver' and it will miss the signal from car remote due to interference.

So what car owners can do?. Once you locked your car with remote after stepping out of it, confirm it really got locked by pulling 1 or 2 door handles. Let others make fun saying "typical Indian attitude" or something like that but you can be assured of your car's safety and have peace of mind. But practically speaking, thieves using "signal jammers" also have a very rare possibility.

1. The RF jammer will just reduce the range of remote. If you go close enough, It should still work. I don't Think anything lesser than NASA or some government backed agency could have enough money and expertise to make such jammers. Also, All Brands use proprietary Band/ Frequency (Which is not disclosed) for remotes so one would need many jammers to work on all cars.

2. Thats what I do and what I instruct others to do. Thanks for reminding.
The Small Motor that moves Locks can fail or get stuck, This could leave one of the doors open. It happened on my Safari 1.9L TCIC. Thankfully my habit of checking saved the day. If I'm parking my vehicle in a stray location Eg. Hotel parking or some odd dhaba, I will take a round around vehicle with my standard inspection code-
Check Locks
Check Tyres
Check for any scratches or Chipping
Check windows and doors, Check sunroof (easy to forget open)
Add some sun shades for privacy if you have luggage inside vehicle.
http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...n-shades-review-your-answer-sun-film-ban.html

 

[ISO2015]

Totally agree with what bhvm said. What is possible to some extent is jamming the RF signals by creating a total mayhem of frequencies. You can find TV remote jammers "for fun" available in online stores. While this is for IR signals, similar circuits can be made for RF signals as well. It creates a storm of radio signals which will confuse the 'RF Receiver' and it will miss the signal from car remote due to interference.

So what car owners can do?. Once you stepped out of your car and locked it with remote, double check by pulling 1 or 2 door handles to confirm it really got locked. Let others make fun saying "typical Indian attitude" or something like that but you can be assured of your car's safety and have peace of mind. But practically speaking, thieves using "signal jammers" also have a very rare possibility.

But when you lock car there is brief flashing of headlight and hooter sound to confirm.

I gave some thought to this

There are two button one for lock and other for unlock.

there must be two separate codes for the same.

what is the use of catching lock security code?

you need unlock security code to break in

here I'm assuming there are no multiple lock/unlock.

in majority cases you will press lock and leave.

 

[Lameassonwheels]

1. The RF jammer will just reduce the range of remote. If you go close enough, It should still work. I don't Think anything lesser than NASA or some government backed agency could have enough money and expertise to make such jammers. Also, All Brands use proprietary Band/ Frequency (Which is not disclosed) for remotes so one would need many jammers to work on all cars.

Brands use proprietary frequency but there is a spectrum of frequency in (300-500MHz) which all these includes. I think the frequency can be scanned if the thief can be in the vicinity for a number of times and he can successfully make use of a jammer. If some of those thieves got access to TAI website they will start thinking 'out of the box' seeing our discussion .
In the meantime we are discussing 'code grabbing', there are some recent developments in this regard contributed by Samy Kamkar, a security researcher and ethical hacker.

But when you lock car there is brief flashing of headlight and hooter sound to confirm.

In another scenario consider your central locking is not working but the keyless entry system is intact, the light will still flash and your door won't get locked. Its always safe to ensure it manually IMO. For an instance check the below quote.

The Small Motor that moves Locks can fail or get stuck, This could leave one of the doors open. It happened on my Safari 1.9L TCIC. Thankfully my habit of checking saved the day.

I gave some thought to this. There are two button one for lock and other for unlock. There must be two separate codes for the same.

The code let the 'RF receiver' inside the car identify the 'Remote transmitter', and its not just about the frequency matching. AFAIK most of the keyless entry system uses 'Rolling code' and not a single 'fixed code' to be captured easily. The process of encryption and programming the code is much more complex already, than we can conclude in a one sentence design.

Though we are discussing a lot about code grabbing here, its almost impossible on today's date for any ordinary skilled person to steal a car using this technique as bhvm mentioned in his earlier post.

 

[ISO2015]

@Lameassonwheels- My point was when we lock car we send locking code. whats the use of it to the hacker/thief? They need unlock code.

 

[Lameassonwheels]

I was randomly searching some products in Snapdeal and the Autocop XS6000 central locking system appeared in the suggestions list. Just like that checked the specification of it and it had "using KEELOQ code hoping technology" mentioned in the details. It got my attention and further search lead me to this page which have got some interesting information regarding the code scanning, grabbing and code hoping concepts. Some excerpts:

Code Scanning

The limited number of possible combinations available in most remote control systems makes it possible to transmit all possible combinations in a relatively short time. A hand held microprocessor based system for this purpose (called a code scanner) can easily be constructed.
In systems using eight DIP switches (256 combinations), this scanning process can typically be accomplished in less than 32 seconds (when trying eight combinations per second). Even in systems using 16-bit keys (yielding roughly 65,000 combinations), only 2.25 hours would be required to try all possible combinations. It should also be noted that the scanner may gain access in far less than this maximum time— the average time would in fact be half of the total time.
Scanning is counteracted by increasing the number of possible code combinations. A 66-bit code will yield 7.3 x 1019 combination and will take 2.3 x 1011 years to scan.

Code Grabbing

A remote control transmitter of the type normally used in vehicle security systems, is nothing but a small radio transmitter that transmits a code number on a certain frequency. This code number is normally generated by an integrated circuit encoder. The transmit frequency is normally fixed by legislation within a particular country, enabling anybody to build a simple receiver that can receive signals from all such transmitters.
It is a simple matter to build a circuit to record such transmissions captured by the receiver. Such a device is known as a code or key grabber. A would-be vehicle thief would typically lurk in a parking lot, waiting until a vehicle owner arms his alarm with a remote control. The key grabber would capture the transmitted code, enabling the thief to retransmit this code as soon as the owner leaves the parking lot. Typically, this would leave the alarm and/or immobilizer disabled and even the central locking unlocked.

The Solution

It is apparent that secure remote control systems can only be implemented if two conditions are met. The KEELOQ® code hopping system meets both these conditions with ease.
• A large number of possible combinations must be available.
A 66-bit transmission code is used to make scanning impossible. The 32-bit encrypted portion provides for more than 4 billion code combinations. A complete scan would take 17 years! If the 34-bit fixed portion is taken into account, the time required for a complete scan jumps to 5,600 billion years!
• The system may never respond twice to the same transmitted code.
The random code algorithm will never respond to the same code twice over several lifetimes of a typical system.
Every time a remote control button is pushed, the system will transmit a different code. These codes appear random to an outsider – there is no apparent relationship between any code and the previous or next code.

Go through this document here for some detailed explanation of Keeloq algorithm, coding, decoding etc.