{"id":9493,"date":"2015-08-06T20:46:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T00:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/?p=9493"},"modified":"2019-11-15T22:58:06","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T11:58:06","slug":"blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/9493\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Hat USA 2015: The full story of how that Jeep was hacked"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently we wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/remote-car-hack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the now-famous hack of a Jeep Cherokee<\/a>. At <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackhat.com\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Black Hat USA 2015<\/a>, a large security conference, researchers <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/0xcharlie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Charlie Miller<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nudehaberdasher\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Chris Valasek<\/a> finally explained in detail, how exactly that hack happened.<\/p>\n<p>At the start of their research Miller and Valasek tried to hack the multimedia system of Jeep through Wi-Fi connection \u2014 Chrysler, the manufacturer of the vehicle, offers this option by subscription. It turned out, that it isn\u2019t that hard to hack this Wi-Fi due to the fact that the Wi-Fi password is generated automatically, based on the time when the car and it\u2019s multimedia system \u2014 the head unit \u2014 is turned on for the very first time.<\/p>\n<p>In theory, considering the second precision of the date\/time, it\u2019s a rather secure method which gets you lots of possible combinations. But if you know the year when the car in question was manufactured and if you successfully guess the month you can bring the count down to just 15 million combinations. If you suppose the time was during the day, it gets you to about 7 million combinations. For a hacker, this number is pretty workable \u2014 you can brute force it within an hour.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Shock at the wheel: your Jeep can be hacked while driving down the road <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/40h8StaLFG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/40h8StaLFG<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/bOvjzQb9K4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/bOvjzQb9K4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaspersky\/status\/624291836996284418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">July 23, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The problem is, that you need to follow that very Jeep for that hour to stay in touch with its Wi-Fi connection. The researchers tried to find another way. And \u2014 <i>surprise, surprise!<\/i> \u2014 they found one: it turned out, that the Wi-Fi password for Chrysler\u2019s cars is generated before the actual time and date is set and is based on default system time plus a few seconds during which the head unit boots up.<\/p>\n<p>So the January 01 2013 00.00 GMT it was, or more precisely 00.00.32 GMT in this very case. The number of combinations is very small, and it\u2019s a piece of cake even for amateur hacker to guess the right one.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2015\/08\/06024433\/blackhat-jeep-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2015\/08\/06024433\/blackhat-jeep-3.jpg\" alt=\"Black Hat USA 2015: The full story of how that Jeep was hacked\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9500\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After connecting to the Jeep\u2019s head unit, Miller and Valasek were able to find a possible way to hack the multimedia computer, which runs on a Linux operating system. Exploiting some pretty guessable issues in the software, they finally took control over the head unit\u2019s system.<\/p>\n<p>Possibilities of this hack are limited, but quite impressive: researchers were able to completely control the music player, set the radio to whatever station they wanted and its volume to any level. Imagine what can happen if someone is driving on 70 mph speed and suddenly his music changes to loud static.<\/p>\n<p>Another possibility researchers found is to track the car with its GPS navigational system. To exploit this possibility you even don\u2019t need to change the head unit\u2019s software, it\u2019s a built-in option.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2015\/08\/06024431\/blackhat-jeep-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2015\/08\/06024431\/blackhat-jeep-2.jpg\" alt=\"Black Hat USA 2015: The full story of how that Jeep was hacked\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9501\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is how to hack Wi-Fi connection of the Chrysler\u2019s car if its owner is paying for the subscription. But currently there are not a lot of people who pay for this service. On the other hand, all of the head units are connected to Sprint cellular network, even if their owners have not purchased any wireless service. It\u2019s just a standard for the automobile\u2019s type of head units.<\/p>\n<p>Miller and Valasek tried to exploit this way \u2014 it took a lot of time and efforts, but these efforts weren\u2019t fruitless. With help of \u2018femtocell\u2019 (compact cellular base station) which they bought on eBay, they were able to get into Sprint internal network and manage a mass scan of IP addresses listening to the certain calls they already knew about after hacking through Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Recall Alert: Fiat Chrysler is recalling 1.4 million hackable vehicles. Check affected cars: <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/sErJGgCxqL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">http:\/\/t.co\/sErJGgCxqL<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/8HuTxKYIY0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/8HuTxKYIY0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CNN Business (@CNNBusiness) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CNNBusiness\/status\/624745649267806210?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">July 25, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Employing this trick you can find all of Chrysler\u2019s cars equipped with this kind of head unit. Over a million of them <a href=\"https:\/\/threatpost.com\/fiat-chrysler-recalls-1-4-million-cars-after-software-bug-is-revealed\/113936\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">were actually recalled by Fiat Chrysler<\/a>. After that all you need is to choose the right one. Funny thing is that it\u2019s rather hard to do, \u201cit\u2019s much easier to hack all the Jeeps than the certain one,\u201d as the researchers say.<\/p>\n<p>However, picking the wanted Jeep is doable as well, thanks to the option of the GPS tracker. After that you can make all the tricks with multimedia system you want. But this is not the end though.<\/p>\n<p>The next step was to find a way to access <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/can_bus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CAN bus<\/a>. This bus is a vehicle\u2019s internal network, which interconnects all of the vehicle most important components \u2014 engine, transmission, sensors and so on and so forth, almost everything you have onboard, since almost every part of the vehicle is electronically controlled nowadays.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-pullquote\"><p>#BlackHat USA 2015: The full story of how that #Jeep was hacked<\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fkas.pr%2F42Xu&amp;text=%23BlackHat+USA+2015%3A+The+full+story+of+how+that+%23Jeep+was+hacked\" class=\"btn btn-twhite\" data-lang=\"en\" data-count=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tweet<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<p>The multimedia system is not connected to CAN bus directly. This is the thing that all the manufacturers always refer back to when it comes to IT-security of cyber-physical systems: there is an isolation they say, the air gap between connected and physical parts of these systems.<\/p>\n<p>As it turned out, this air gap is not that thick, at least in Chrysler\u2019s cars. Despite the fact that multimedia system\u2019s controller itself can\u2019t communicate directly with CAN bus, it actually can communicate with another component which is connected to CAN bus, the V850 controller. He knows a guy, who knows a guy situation, simply put.<\/p>\n<p>The V850 controller\u2019s software was designed in some cautious way, making it possible to listen to CAN bus, but not to send commands over it. But you know, it\u2019s a computer after all. And if there\u2019s no capability you need out-of-the-box, you can simply add one by reprogramming the computer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2015\/08\/06024429\/blackhat-jeep-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2015\/08\/06024429\/blackhat-jeep-1.jpg\" alt=\"Black Hat USA 2015: The full story of how that Jeep was hacked\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9502\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers discovered an opportunity to change firmware of the V850 controller for their maliciously crafted version through the connection to multimedia system\u2019s controller. This firmware \u2018upgrade\u2019 can be done without any checks or authorizations. Even if there was authorization, researchers have found a couple of vulnerabilities that make possible taking control over this V850 controller.<\/p>\n<p>And that was it: after this move Miller and Valasek were able to send commands through the CAN bus and make every \u2014 every! \u2014 component of the car to do whatever they wanted. They were able to control steering wheel, engine, transmission, braking system, not to mention dull things like windscreen wiper, air conditioner, door locks and so on. Moreover, they were able to control all this things completely remotely, over the Sprint cellular network.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thanks to everyone who came to our talk.  I know there were lots of other cool talks at the same time. <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/2RSLHKYJuK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/2RSLHKYJuK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charlie Miller (@0xcharlie) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/0xcharlie\/status\/629095410322178049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">August 6, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The good news is that it took years for Miller and Valasek to make their research. And the main trick \u2014 learning how to manage CAN bus connected components of the car \u2014 still stays unexplained by them. It\u2019s not like everyone can do all the stuff, that the researchers have done. The bad news is that impressive hacks like this one are pretty possible. And the impact is hard to overestimate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> 10 August 2015 Valasek and Miller <a href=\"http:\/\/illmatics.com\/Remote%20Car%20Hacking.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">published their research via whitepaper<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently we wrote about the Jeep Cherokee hack incident. At Black Hat security researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek finally explained, how exactly the now-famous Jeep hack happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":421,"featured_media":9498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2646],"tags":[770,440,651,1189,78,527,1188,422,268],"class_list":{"0":"post-9493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-threats","9":"tag-black-hat","10":"tag-blackhat","11":"tag-cars","12":"tag-chrysler","13":"tag-hackers","14":"tag-hacks","15":"tag-jeep","16":"tag-threats","17":"tag-vulnerabilities"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/9493\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/5749\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/6065\/"},{"hreflang":"es-mx","url":"https:\/\/latam.kaspersky.com\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/5899\/"},{"hreflang":"es","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.es\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/6552\/"},{"hreflang":"it","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.it\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/6423\/"},{"hreflang":"ru","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.ru\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/8540\/"},{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/9493\/"},{"hreflang":"de","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.de\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/5940\/"},{"hreflang":"ja","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.co.jp\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/8480\/"},{"hreflang":"ru-kz","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.kz\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/8540\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained\/9493\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/tag\/black-hat\/","name":"black hat"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/421"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24709,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493\/revisions\/24709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}