There are a lot of different things going on here but the article is very vague and may not be reporting anything new. Or perhaps it is. First off there are tw

There are a lot of different things going on here but the article is very vague and may not be reporting anything new. Or perhaps it is. First off there are two generations of keyless entry systems. The older rolling code system, KeeLoq, was developed by a South African company and bought by Microchip in the '90's- a near full break was widely published in 2004/2005 and tools released a few years later[1]. The newer system is called HiTag2/3/Pro. Vulnerabilities also exist in HiTag2. Additionally there is a vehicle immobility device known as Megamos (which Land Rover is known to use) - a break was published last year but an injunction by the UK High Court prevented release of much of the technical details at the time.[2] If criminals are breaking Megamos than this is news. To paraphrase HN user brians: "given sure confidence that there is a vulnerability, skilled security [criminals] can find it very quickly. " [3] Most talks and articles that come out focus on Keeloq. It's trivial to capture a packet from the remote when not near the vehicle and replay that packet when near the vehicle to gain access. [4] Once one has access to the vehicle there is a separate attack on the OBD-II port to start the vehicle. This was a a widely published attack on BMW's involving this.[5] Also, the equipment required to clone a modern electronic car key is widely available. I personally saw a number for sale in the security malls around Shenzhen. Banning ownership of key-recoders probably won't work as most of this can be done with an SDR. The price for an SDR is about the same as a 3D printer (thousands last year, hundreds this year.) SDR's are already cheaper than most dedicated programmers.[6] Even though most of the protocols are vulnerable or broken it should be noted they are not ineffective. For instance there was an 88% decrease in theft between the pre-98 and post 98 Honda Civic models which began implementing (broken) anti-theft keys.[7] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_crMuwBp8I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_crMuwBp8I [2] https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity13/dismantling-megamos-crypto-wirelessly-lockpicking-vehicle-immobilizer https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity13/dismantli... [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8456206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8456206 [4] http://www.wired.com/2014/08/wireless-car-hack/ http://www.wired.com/2014/08/wireless-car-hack/ [5] http://www.bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=135599&sid=66cdcd99d0403af2d27e6ec2d40a5daa http://www.bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=135599&s... [6] https://www.avtotools.com/index.php?productID=409 https://www.avtotools.com/index.php?productID=409 [7] http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-honda-accord-most-stolen-car-20140814-story.html http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-honda-accord-...