Chaos Computer Club Congress - Berlin hackers take Tesla's autopilot apart - and find secret driving mode
For months now, there has been speculation about a so-called "Elon Mode" that is supposed to lie dormant in Teslas and open up completely new possibilities for drivers(find out more here). In June, a hacker who only calls himself "Green" reported that he had discovered this mode using a very complicated method. He did not go into detail.
Three IT experts from Germany have also succeeded in penetrating the depths of the Tesla software and locating the aforementioned mode. Unlike "Green", the hackers not only shared their discovery with Tesla, but also presented the method publicly at the Chaos Computer Club congress"37C3" in Hamburg.
Tesla board outsmarted with complicated method
In a presentation entitled "Back in the Driver's Seat: Recovering Critical Data from Tesla Autopilot Using Voltage Glitching", Christian Werling, Niclas Kühnapfel and Hans-Niklas Jacob showed what they achieved in their research lab at TU Berlin using a circuit board from a scrapped vehicle. In the run-up to the presentation, the three doctoral students spoke to Der Spiegel about their work.
According to the report, they managed to uncover Tesla's company secrets using tools worth around 600 euros. However, this was not possible via the software. Reading out the system and accessing the data was only made possible by hacking the hardware on which the Tesla system operates.
The experts gained access via what is known as "voltage glitching". This involves changing or interrupting the voltage of a processor, leaving less time for processing commands. In some cases, this in turn causes the chips to deviate from their original behavior and various errors occur, such as incorrect loading of commands, disclosure of data or skipping of individual work steps. By precisely timing the manipulation, certain reactions can be reliably triggered.
The experts told Der Spiegel that they assume that every car from the manufacturer is affected by this error. It is therefore very likely that competitor companies will also use this method to gain access to company secrets.
Once they have access to the hardware, the way the assistance systems work can be reproduced and replicated.
No real danger for vehicles
However, the researchers are not interested in money, they confirmed to Der Spiegel. Rather, they want to show where the weaknesses of certain systems are and thus help to prevent attacks. They emphasize that Tesla's IT security is generally at a high level and that drivers do not need to worry about the security vulnerability found. This is because to carry out the "voltage glitch", you not only have to carefully remove the hardware, but also place it back in the vehicle together with the equipment after the hack.
A renewed wave of unauthorized vehicle access, such as the one that affected Kia and Hyundai vehicles last year, is therefore unlikely to occur. In contrast to the Tesla hack, a simple USB cable was enough to outwit the systems in the vehicles from South Korea(find out more here).
What is exciting is what the experts were able to find in the hacked Tesla system. In addition to a deleted but apparently not overwritten video of the driver whose vehicle was equipped with the hacked circuit board, they also obtained a secret driving mode. The option called "Executive Mode" allows the car to be driven without manual intervention, they say. The Berliners thus confirmed the mode known at the time as "Elon Mode", which "Green" had demonstrated in a YouTube video.
Sources: 37C3, Spiegel, CCC
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Source: www.stern.de
