Prop or Arduino?
erco
Posts: 20,256
Which processor is preferred by discriminating auto hacker thieves? "Law enforcement technology experts" are working to identify the mysterious new little black box that opens locked cars and defeats security systems. Probably not something featured on Hack-A-Day or Kickstarter. 
https://www.youtube.com/embed/l7OadDz3Ums
https://www.youtube.com/embed/l7OadDz3Ums
Comments
Someone has fingered out the communication protocol for the "key-less" fobs. Once that's done, just start spewing unlock codes until a car opens up. The approach may not unlock every car, but walking through a parking lot would present many opportunities for nefarious business.
...and to answer your subject line question: which ever works.
Sorry, but I doubt it is eithr a Propeller or an Arduino, but it could use a Raspberry Pi for the storage resources.
It is all rather silly.. First you put $50,000USD more of value on wheels with the ability for a quick getaway. And then you expect to safely lock and unlock it by remote control.
If you think about it, having a timed lockout that won't open the car doors until morning would prevent these guys from operating in the wee hours of the night. In an emergency, a normal key could open the car.
Why do you home in on the Raspeberry Pi as a solution to car lock hacking?
Sure it's possible but then so are a thousand other solutions that are easily available.
Anyway isn't this a story a year or more old? I'm sure of seen that same video, or very similar, of guys opening cars a long, long time ago.
Two amusing points:
1) "Not even the auto makers know how it is done". Well of course not, they never do. If they knew they would not have designed their crappy locks like that.
2) The insurance guys name, "Bender"
Further: "In an emergency, a normal key could open the car." Yeah right, normal keys are even less secure. Checkout DEFCON for why.
Sure there are a thousand other solutions, but these guys grab whatever they can that is easy and cheap. I don't think the 32k Propeller would be the easiest for them. They do know Linux and C.
Don't be so sensitive. I did say any microprocessor will support it. But databases do usually mean a file system and an SOC chip provides all that.
I suppose it may just be an IPhone modification. R U happy.
I was just curious why you homed in on the Pi. Database probably implies file system. File system can be done on a Propeller or a million other devices.
The big question here is what is the hole in the wireless link protocol?
I wonder how the bad guys operate. Is it a franchise, and a commission, or a pyramid scheme? I'll tell two friends and we all get the hardware for free if we give 20% of the loot back? Honor system, right?
Since he was a medical doctor he demanded that we never lock the car and leave nothing of value in it. There was always a hospital parking lot decal on the windows. And that meant drug addicts would smash windows or break the lock if the car wasn't open.
The Alfa was stolen though. The next door neighbor's son took the space house key and went joy ridding while the family was on vacation.
+++++++++++++++++
Given a big data base in a file system, won't the Raspberry Pi out perform the Propeller. It is about the search speed that I am thinking. And with millions sold, the police would never track down the source that is modifying them.
I guess I just have a criminal mind.
If the database only contains fixed-length fields, you don't really need a traditional file-system.
Actually, you don't need a file-system even if the fields aren't fixed-length.
All you really need is a storage that is large enough and a way of accessing it in a timely manner.
But my guess is that the device is a simple recorder/player. It may have been placed near the car earlier(in a parking lot maybe.) and it recorded the unlocking sequence when the owner got into his car and drove off. Then they just follow the owner(or find his address sme other way) and do a late night visit and replay the code sequence.
They may also have used a sensitive antenna to 'snipe' the transmission at a distance.
These keyless entry systems youlc *easily* be programmed to simply stop accepting the codes after the first five or six bad ones in quick succession. You're not going to get that many even in a packed car garage. The only time it would occur is when someone is trying to hack into the system.
As for recording the codes, the *good* security systems don't allow this either. The keyfob sends out a keyed signal that is a hash unique between the car and the controller. The system will never use the same code twice, because the hashed result is always different.
Car theft is very lucrative. There are two ways to largely prevent it: either get an alarm system that was programmed by someone with more than just a basic understanding of security, or drive a Corvair.
Not an acceptable solution.
A brute-force system needs to spew out thousands of codes to find the right code to unlock a car. So even a short period where the lock doesn't accept new codes will be an effective deterrent, especially if the lock doesn't signal in any way that it is in 'denial' mode.
The Hashed codes...
This assumes that the algorithm used to create these codes is any good...
If the algorithm is as poor as many others used(ever seen one of those that has been peer-reviewed?) it may be possible to guesstimate other codes if you can recover one or more transmissions.
Not at all how they work. The time out only has to be for a few seconds. In that period of time, hundreds of codes would have been ignored. Makes it much harder to come up with a match. In any such system I've seen the reset is less than a minute.
GM, there's probably not a completely secure system anywhere on the planet, but being one-way only, hashes are pretty good while maintaining simplicity. If the hash solution ever got out there, the fobs for that model would be susceptible. But of course, you never rely (like they did for DVD encryption) on one system for everything going forward. Manufacturers have all the freedom to change their algorithms frequently. These things require matching keysets anyway.
Phew, I haven't driven a Corvair in ten years!
If you don't leave anything of value in the car, you don't have to lock it and these thieves will move on.
There was a time in San Francisco when just about everyone in the city that parked on the street had a busted trunk lock. Thieves would just hammer in a big screwdriver and turn until something gave and the trunk opened. It stopped when people just quit fixing the locks.
If you make the perfect lock, they will just smash the window.
Bet you somebody outsourced this .... ;<)
But you can't catch fish if your net is impenetrable.
-Tor
But you need to know where the fish is beforehand so that you an set the net around it...
I haven't bought a new car in a long time, but most of the really good security systems are third-party add-ons. Unless it's built into the car, you should never buy the security system installed by the dealer. The thing costs maybe $35, and they charge something like $350. If you fall for that, they have some undercoating protection to sell you, too...
The parking attendent can help some one copy the key, the radio codes, and gain the home address off the car registration and insurance info in the car. It seems obvious that this is why the theifts are happening in a place like Long Beach. You dine out frequently and park your car overnight in the open.