Hackers can now unlock and steal vehicles, NCC warns Nigerians

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned the public of an ongoing cyber-vulnerability that allows a nearby hacker to unlock vehicles, start engines wirelessly and make away with cars.

In a statement on Saturday, Ikechukwu Adinde, NCC’s director of public affairs, said the notice was in accordance with the latest advisory released by the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) of the commission, the cybersecurity centre for the telecom sector.

In a statement on Saturday, Ikechukwu Adinde, NCC’s director of public affairs, said the notice was in accordance with the latest advisory released by the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) of the commission, the cybersecurity centre for the telecom sector.

NCC said the vulnerability is a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack or, more specifically, a replay attack in which an attacker intercepts the RF signals normally sent from a remote key fob to the car, manipulates, and re-sends them later to unlock the car at will.

It added that the latest type of cyber-attack can manipulate the captured commands and re-transmit them to achieve a different outcome altogether.

“Multiple researchers disclosed a vulnerability, which is said to be used by a nearby attacker to unlock some Honda and Acura car models and start their engines wirelessly. The attack consists of a threat actor capturing the radio frequency (RF) signals sent from your key fob to the car and resending these signals to take control of your car’s remote keyless entry system,” the CSIRT said.

It, however, offered some precautionary measures that could be adopted by car owners to prevent falling victim.

“When affected, the only mitigation is to reset your key fob at the dealership,” it said.

“Besides, the affected car manufacturer may provide a security mechanism that generates fresh codes for each authentication request, this makes it difficult for an attacker to ‘replay’ the codes thereafter.

“Additionally, vulnerable car users should store their key fobs in signal-blocking ‘Faraday pouches’ when not in use.”

It added that car owners in the stated categories are advised to choose passive keyless entry (PKE) as opposed to remote keyless entry (RKE), which would make it harder for an attacker to read the signal as criminals would need to be at close proximity to carry out their operations.