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Everyone is focusing on the assassination angle but I stopped when it said that it could unlock the doors and trunks. Sure we exist in a world where people brea

Everyone is focusing on the assassination angle but I stopped when it said that it could unlock the doors and trunks. Sure we exist in a world where people break into cars a lot, but generally it's at least somewhat destructive. No-one is 'picking' locks (because picking increases the time they are 'on target' and could get caught), they are smashing windows or are forcing locks with leverage. These actions look to an observer like what they are. In this new scenario, someone could have a remote rootkit loaded on their phone. Trigger it from across a parking lot or approaching the target and then simply walk up to the car and pull anything valuable out of it. They would look like the owner to most observers.

HALtheWise 6y ago
In some parts of Europe, digital attacks on proximity unlock systems are becoming a common way to break into cars. Especially for a system based on Bluetooth, it's difficult to defend against an amplification attack. The key here is that one person can make a tool and sell it to many common criminals, and even if the auto manufacturer notices that they are doing this, there isn't an easy way to patch the issue. For something like a Tesla, it's difficult to imagine a software vulnerability that cannot be fixed with an OTA update, but for a manufacturer that doesn't have OTA update capabilities, I could definitely see cyber hacking tools being distributed and used in a similar way.