4 ms·
Cars are different though, they aren't general-purpose computers (even if they are based on them). So you can have a chip that checks the checksum of every file
by bufferoverflow 9y ago
Cars are different though, they aren't general-purpose computers (even if they are based on them). So you can have a chip that checks the checksum of every file, checks if it's all signed with the correct certificate, and shuts down the car even if one bit is off.
That's quite different from your laptop or a smartphone, which can run pretty much any code.
It would be very very very hard to hack something like that. As in, steal the signing keys from Tesla hard without being noticed. I wouldn't be surprised if their signing server is air-gapped.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- beat 9y agoCars are also different in that software updates are harder to pull off. There are millions of cars out there on the road right now that have internet connections, and only minimal security between human-convenience internet like map software, and the embedded systems that do things like steering and brakes. And the average lifespan of a car is what, 15 years? Whatever the vulnerabilities, they're going to be there for a long time. And even if there's a firmware update mechanism available, the manufacturers' abilities to maintain older software will also degrade, like legacy systems do everywhere.
- rcxdude 9y agoCar software is designed with safety in mind. While there is some overlap in techniques with security, they are not the same goal. It is possible to be (and I think most cars are) very safe, but not very secure.