Reports have begun circulating on the internet that malicious individuals can use a $199 device called Flipper Zero (a device we're actually quite fond of) to break into modern cars and steal them.
Certain dark net online stores have started selling “private” firmware for the Flipper Zero, claiming it can hack a wide range of modern cars. The shops claim that the new vulnerabilities can allow anyone to break dynamic protocols, such as the popular KeeLoq.
In a blog post, Flipper claims this information is misleading, though. It states that the methods to break KeeLoq were first published more than 10 years ago, and they're now being redistributed. "These vulnerabilities have nothing to do with real car theft, since they do not allow you to start the engine," the company wrote on its blog.
Can Flipper break into a car?
Our sister site TechRadar also covered the potential for car theft with the device, and it received a statement directly from Flipper. "We are not aware of any officially confirmed cases of theft using a Flipper Zero. The device has limited functionality and can’t be used as a repeater to attack keyless entry systems. It doesn’t have the hardware to suppress the radio signals, which would be necessary to crack systems that properly utilize rolling codes," the company said in a statement.
So, if Flipper is correct, the system can be used to gain access to cars using older protocols. "Ultimately, the real issue lies in how some car manufacturers continue to ship systems with outdated security models," said the spokesperson for Flipper.
That doesn't explain how users can gain remote access to Tesla charging ports with the device, but that's not technically car theft so much as it is an annoyance.
Modern cars use a more secure system than KeeLoq in most cases. These systems use two-way authentication, where the car and the key exchange messages to verify authenticity. Older systems use a rolling or hopping code system, which is secure in theory, but according to Flipper, many carmakers use the same key across an entire model line, making it easy to hack them.
So easy, in fact, that a piece of wire connected to an audio jack will do the job. Flipper's blog post features a video on how to do it, and it definitely seems like something that could be accomplished without tagging in the $199 piece of hardware.
Whether Flipper is being upfront and honest about this is important for the situation; the biggest thing is that if someone manages to get into your car with Flipper Zero (or the wire trick outlined above), there's no way for them to start the engine in a modern car, thus making actual car theft impossible.
Can they steal stuff from your car? Yes. But them taking the car itself is mostly impossible.
How do people steal cars?
Interestingly, Flipper also talked about how car thieves actually steal cars. It turns out that there are far more specialized tools than a cheap hacking device found on the internet. They have purpose-built relay tools, which Flipper actually describes in a separate blog post.
I won't go into the details here, but it does seem a lot more involved than simply downloading some firmware to a Flipper Zero and pressing a button.
Outlook
I can't say for sure that Flipper Zero can't be used to steal cars. But until there's a report that someone has actually managed to steal a car with the tool, I remain skeptical.
While it's in Flipper Zero's interest to distance itself from potential illegal activity performed with its device, an actively exploitable firmware that costs around $400, added to a $199 device, would likely cause a significant rise in car thefts. But there's no evidence to support this.
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