14 DAY TRIAL // Some interesting presentations will be held at the upcoming edition of DEF CON, one of the world’s most important hacking conferences. One of the presentations will be made by Twitter security engineer Charlie Miller and IOActive Director of Security Intelligence Chris Valasek.
The security experts will show how to hack into the Control Area Network bus and the Electronic Control Units (ECU) of a car.
“This presentation will examine some controls in two modern automobiles from a security researcher’s point of view. We will first cover the requisite tools and software needed to analyze a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus. Secondly, we will demo software to show how data can be read and written to the CAN bus,” reads the presentation abstract.
“Then we will show how certain proprietary messages can be replayed by a device hooked up to an ODB-II connection to perform critical car functionality, such as braking and steering. Finally, we’ll discuss aspects of reading and modifying the firmware of ECUs installed in today’s modern automobile.”
Miller is famous for his iOS and Android hacks, while Valasek is renowned for identifying vulnerabilities in the Windows heap manager. The fact that the two teamed up and decided to look at the security of modern cars will certainly be interesting.
Hacking cars is not a new topic, and several research papers have been published over the past years.
Now that many cars are connected to the Internet, experts have started focusing more and more on the risks associated with the computer systems integrated into vehicles.
Miller has said on Twitter that their talk is similar to what has already been presented by others. However, they will also reveal additional details and release the tools that can be used to accomplish the task.
DEF CON 21 will take place in Las Vegas between August 1-3.