Analysis of an attack on automotive keyless entry systems

Interview with Dr Dennis Kengo Oka, Principal Automotive Security Strategist, Synopsys Software Integrity Group.

With increased connectivity capabilities and larger and more complex software in automotive systems, modern vehicles are becoming more susceptible to cyber security attacks. Over the years, security researchers identified a number of vulnerabilities in automotive systems that have raised awareness about the need for automotive cyber security. One example that was made public in November 2020 was a set of vulnerabilities in the Tesla Model X keyless entry system discovered by Lennert Wouters at the University of Leuven in Belgium.

It’s important to note that the issues were responsibly disclosed to Tesla in August 2020 by security researchers, and Tesla released an over-the-air (OTA) patch to address them in November 2020.

Since there is limited information publicly available, please note also that some assumptions have been made about the target systems and type of weaknesses/vulnerabilities in order to facilitate this discussion on security solutions.