With all the technology that has emerged in Tesla cars, they were expected to be immune to safety issues. The truth is different and shows that there is still a lot of room for improvement and for fixing flaws.
Experience shows that Tesla’s faults are many and that they easily open access to these cars. This has a new proof, with a new flaw, which allows you to register a new key in a car in just 2 minutes and then make it easily accessible.
Another flaw present in Tesla cars
Security issues have been recurring in Tesla cars. These allow full control of these cars in a simple way and without any additional intervention from the attackers. Just be close and with the right software for everything to be possible.
THE latest failurediscovered in an almost random way, gives the attacker the possibility to register a new key in a Model 3. In just 2 minutes this process happens and in a transparent way, without any alert in the user's car console.
It only takes 2 minutes to steal a Model 3
In fact, this flaw was caused by the launch of an improvement in Tesla cars, about 1 year ago. By eliminating the need to have the NFC card in the console, the brand opened a door for attackers to register their keys or apps.
For 130 seconds, and after the NFC key is used, it is possible to register new keys silently and without any control. This is where the security investigator got his attack vector and for that he created an app to simulate the registration protocol.
Problem is in the keys and how they are registered
From that moment on, and with a new registered key, the attacker only needs to use the app to open Tesla's Model 3 and have full access to the car. Despite having been tested only on this model, it is certain that the fault should be present in more cars of the brand.
The recommendation for now is that additional security is activated in Tesla cars, or that the NFC key is not used. The presence of new registered keys in the brand's cars must also be regularly checked.