203 points

hackers only need a simple $169 hacking tool called Flipper Zero, a Raspberry Pi, or a laptop to pull it off.

At that point, why mention the Flipper Zero or RPi? Just say it can be done without specialized hardware. I feel like they’re trying to piggyback off of the buzz from the Flipper Zero being banned in Canada recently.

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73 points

Flipper Zero doesn’t even have WiFi. At most it’s a screen and button input device for ESP8266, ect.

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37 points

You can buy a WiFi module and just plug it in as HAT, but I still think it’s stupid to even mention when you can use pretty much anything with WiFi that you control. You could probably do the same thing with a rooted Android phone if you wanted.

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7 points

Flipper Zero is kinda whatever it wants to be since it has ports for additional modules. It’s a hacking tool you need to hack for it to work to get around (most) legal issues.

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48 points

Maybe they’re trying to justify the stupidity of that ban. I’m still shaking my head over that, it’s like nobody bothered to ask the question “does this thing actually do the thing we’re mad about?”

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45 points

Given how often it happens in other industries, it wouldnt surprise me to find out that someone, somewhere along the line has an agenda to push and are trying to lump certain things into the same category as a thing people aren’t supposed to like in order to get the thing that’s only kind of related banned.

Heck, I personally know people who want 3d printing to be banned because “you can 3d print guns”. I can make a gun with a trip to the hardware store and a few hours. The extra hours are to make sure I can use it more than once. I’m just using this as an example, it’s not quite the same.

I also know people who have seen the drone headlines for Ukraine and give me the side eye when I mention I have a drone and can build my own at home. One coworker has even asked why I “need” to build drones and that having a bunch of hardware to do stuff like that is “sketchy”. Drones are already being regulated into the ground over a few high profile incidents. And some try to lump rc devices into the same category. Sorry I can’t fly my 8oz foam plane here, it’s in the same class as 200lb agricultural drones with 12 rotors and I need special FAA authorization. You can build an ultralight aircraft in your garage and fly it across country without running it by anyone first, though.

I rambled a bit but my point is every time you see things being lumped together and you’re scratching your head as to why, ask yourself “who wrote/published/shared this, who are they affiliated with, and do they have a reason to want one of these things or similar products regulated” and you’ll see a surprising amount of shady bs going on that’s all perfectly legal.

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29 points

People are weird. In my area, saying you run Linux because you hate ad tracking and don’t have a Facebook account makes people think you’re a child molester.

And the 3D printing thing is crazy. I’ve had 3D printers for well over a decade because I started out building my own before you could buy them, printed thousands of parts of varying degrees of toughness, but I would be damned if I would ever shoot a gun I printed off of one. I haven’t heard a word about banning lathes and mills though.

I just ignore the drone thing, our nearest neighbor is 2 miles away so I do what I want. I built a crop scouting drone that goes for a tour every morning and flies a 7 mile route unmonitored. Never heard a word about it from the neighbors.

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2 points

What is the thing used for?

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17 points

It can sniff radio packets, so if you have a ridiculously simple security system using RFID, you can record the pattern it emits off a tag when its pinged and play it back to defeat a security system. But no vehicle since the 90s has used a single code system that it would be able to defeat, so it’s useless for that.

The way thieves are defeating car locks is when the car listens for a fob within it’s security range (like the ones that unlock when you walk up with a fob in your pocket), and if people leave their keys close to a wall where the radio signal can be boosted so it reaches the car, it’ll pop the locks. The unit they banned, which is opensource and easily built from components you can get from Digikey or Mouser anyway, can’t do this. A common radio repeater or SDR can do this but banning that would be ridiculously onerous on industry.

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There was nothing in this article that wasn’t sensationalist click bait crap.

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13 points

In other words: you only need a computer. 😱

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9 points

I believe this method came out weeks ago and I had thought I’d read tesla already took care of it, but may be wrong. You still have to hang out long enough to get someone who actually wants wifi, but doesn’t want to stay at their car where the wifi is at, and then will also fall for a phishing attack and put in their verification code sent to their phone into the fake site.

All to swipe a car that’s going to be noticed as being stolen very quickly, and when all teslas come standard with GPS location tracking.

So what’s the point of stealing a car after possible hours and hours of waiting for a mark and then taking it while the owner can report it and it’s location the entire time.

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5 points

They haven’t banned it yet, they’re just looking to do so at some point

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1 point

Well, most laptops do cost more than $169

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121 points
*

It’s gotten to the point that whenever people see Teslas, they automatically start laughing.

Tesla also seems to have taken over the “douchebag driver” stereotype that used to be reserved for BMW’s and Mercedeses.

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47 points

If they weren’t all so abysmally bad at handling their cars, maybe I’d have a different take. I swear that I get cut off, stuck behind, blocked by, or otherwise inconvenienced for dumb reasons by Teslas every time I drive.

It’s like despite all the cameras, they have zero spatial awareness. Or it’s a direct reflection of what’s in their head.

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15 points

I’m not disagreeing, but having driven a Tesla for a couple weeks-- it’ll make a good driver look bad every time. Turning radius is surprisingly bad. Normal (through the window/mirror) visibility is bad. Handling is super weird and probably unlearnable in the default settings because the car seems to be constantly “correcting” your inputs even when not in autopilot. The default break style gives me motion sickness even when I’m the one driving. And the turn signals-- you just don’t know how long they’ll stay on, so I did start to feel reluctant to use them?

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2 points
*

Interesting take. Thanks.

Do you think that embarrassment of the purchase, ignorance of what’s good, or status prevent more buyers from talking about that? As a person who enjoys the act of driving (though not the experience of driving in this city), I should see if I can get behind the wheel of one and attempt to be objective.

Edit: relevant post. https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/ea297ad5-1e8f-45cd-abad-d2b50d53e2bf.webp

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14 points

Eh…

I hate to do it, but in fairness the worst drivers are going to be the first to adapt self driving cars.

The issue is Tesla misrepresents how “self driving” their cars are.

So idiots who are bad drivers think the car is a good driver. Because they’re comparing it to their own driving, and overestimate how good they are at it

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7 points

It’s not just to my own driving. It’s compared to other cars around them and to other cars around me. I just as often see Tesla drivers do stupid things unrelated to me.

I was at the mountain snowboarding this weekend. Two Teslas attempted to drive up the road to park. Both got stuck in the same place, one after the other. Then, instead of backing up or getting out of the way, they just got out and walked to the resort lodge.

This is just idiotic behavior and I see it time and time again. Seattle, where I live, has one of the highest Tesla ownership percentages in the country.

I’m all for electric cars. I am trying to understand why Tesla drivers have so many morons behind the wheel.

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11 points

There are a lot of roundabouts where i live and when i see a tesla, he’s either not using his turn signal or is on the phone or somehow very often both. Tesla people seem to be on their phone more often than other people in the road. Which is even weirder, because they all have that elaborate electronics on board, no?

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11 points

Who can bothered with silly driving when there are calls to make? They only bought a Tesla to have an electronic chauffeur. Even though it’s not supposed to be used for that.

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9 points

Only a few people at my workplace drive Teslas and let’s just say they have… specific types of personalities to them.

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3 points

Tesla people seem to be on their phone more often than other people in the road.

I don’t know, I see people in all different makes of cars talking on their phones while driving - usually that weird shit where they’re holding it flat in front of their face and yelling into the mic. I’m a school bus driver and whenever somebody blows past my flashing lights (which happens a lot), 99% of the time they’re on their phone and not paying attention. One time I even had a cop do this.

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1 point

Honestly, I was taught that you should not use a signal in a roundabout, especially when the exits are so tight it’s easy to get confused if someone turns it on too early. I see now though that it’s the law in my area when exiting and I’ll start using it. I’ll be in the minority here.

I’m still not going to enter a roundabout just because I see someone’s turn signal on. I never trust them when I’m the one merging into a lane.

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1 point
*

HamCo?

I see them all the time near 37. You always gotta be careful around them.

It seems like the Mustang EV is selling better nowadays at least. I see just about as many of them on the road compared to Teslas. They at least seem to be pretty good drivers.

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I live in the city and only really ever see them parked over the curb or in the sidewalk in front of a No Parking sign. At this point I’m honestly not even sure they’re capable of parallel parking.

I die inside whenever I call an Uber and a Tesla pulls up.

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7 points

whenever people see Teslas, they automatically start laughing

I dunno, I’m a school bus driver and little boys (like, grades 1-8) always go apeshit when they see a Tesla (or a Ferrari or Lamborghini as well). And a lot of adults still seem to be buying them.

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3 points

So, children and adults that never mentally matured past 8th grade still think they’re cool. Can’t argue with that.

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3 points

I’m relieved this is universal. I thought I was going crazy. I’ve actually begun to give them a ton of space on the road now. I’ll purposefully take a different road, or on the freeway, get over to right lane and slow down to get the fuck away from them. It seems like they are making a point to drive as terribly as possible. It’s fucking crazy.

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2 points

Agreed on the driver stereotype. Here in the SF Bay Area Teslas are abundant on the roads and a good 60-70% of their drivers are absolute shit.

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2 points

I hate the company, but where I live the drivers are definitely undeserving of general condemnation. Altimas, on the other hand…

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2 points

its always been lexis for my area.

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6 points

Pickups with Michigan plates here in Ohio.

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1 point

Everyone from Ohio anywhere else. ;)

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110 points
*

Once logged in, the hackers could even create a new “phone key,” allowing them to come back to the vehicle later and drive off with it without raising suspicion.

That’s because Tesla doesn’t actually notify the user if a new key is created, as Mysk and Bakry point out in their video.

Mysk tested out the vulnerability on his own Tesla and found that he was easily able to create new phone keys without ever having access to the original, physical key card. That’s despite Tesla promising that wasn’t possible in its owner’s manual.

Once he told Tesla about his findings, the EV maker underplayed the vulnerability, telling him it was all by design and “intended behavior,” an assertion that Mysk called “preposterous” in his interview with Gizmodo.

“The design to pair a phone key is clearly made super easy at the expense of security,” he said.

Mysk argues it would be easy for the automaker to plug the vulnerability by simply notifying users if a new phone key is created.

Weird the dudes name is so close to Musk, but it sounds like this would be something incredibly easy for Tesla to fix, they’re just not doing it and denying it’s a problem…

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34 points

I’m surprised Tesla hasn’t gotten to the point yet where it’s just replying with 💩, but I guess this response wasn’t too far off from that.

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12 points

Same kind of dictator mentality I’d expect from Musk himself honestly. Doesn’t fix the problem because he’s insulted that someone else pointed it out. Cutting off his nose to spite his face. He’s good at that. I’m really surprised the board still tolerates his shit.

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6 points

It’s something they “broke” recently. You used to require a physical card to pair a new phone key. I noticed when I replaced my phone that it was no longer needed. They should be able to fix it easily, but I’m sure they won’t.

You can enable pin to drive to reduce the risk, but if you have the creds and there is no 2FA on the account then you can use the app to bypass it.

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1 point

Really, crap, when I brought my Tesla home I promptly put the keycards somewhere secret even to me, expecting to never need them again

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2 points

You can get two more for $10 from teslas site… but I believe you need one to program them. My wife and I keep ours in our wallets, just in case phone keys don’t work or get stolen.

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3 points

Announcing and oarch security flaws might cause stock prices to dip. And Daddy Musk wint have that

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3 points

Easy to fix moving forward, but a really public admission of “oops” to all current phone key users who will have to reauth their phones.

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0 points

That’s because everything Musk touches turns to fucking shit. Everyone is aware of this in 2024.

STOP USING AND BUYING THIS GUYS BULLSHIT, YOU FUCKING IDIOTS.

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83 points

But hey let’s put wifi in our heads right Elon?

This is just… Completely avoidable and a great example of XKCD’s take on cyber security.

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20 points

Software engineers can be split into two groups: those who aspire to own a Tesla, and those who aspire to replacing every digital appliance they own with an analog alternative

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1 point

And which is better?

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4 points

Aaaaaahh! Wear gloves! Burry it in the desert!

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68 points

Wonder how long until jailbreaking your EV becomes common place to turn off shit like Wifi.

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20 points
2 points

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

jailbreak the tesla

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.

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16 points
*

Or you could click the setting. Or not login to a website you didn’t expect to see. Or most scammers won’t bother because it’s risky and not scalable: you need to be physically present. This doesn’t seem like a likely vector.

The recommendation of being notified when new keys are created, is a good one though.

… except I could swear it already does

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25 points

Proprietary software is often locked down to be idiot proof and tamper proof to the average consumer. Actually disabling the wifi (not just turning off SSID broadcasting) or other exploitable points might require a deeper level of access than just the settings page.

And it’s not websites people are concerned about. There’s a pretty common hacking concept where you attack the weakest connected device. If your car connects to your garage door opener, your coffee maker, your washing machine, all your smart devices - they only need to get access to one to get access to all of them since those devices are ‘trusted’. Your car doesn’t know why your coffee maker says ‘unlock’ but it’s gonna listen, it trusts your coffee machine.

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4 points

No. That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this work.

A car does not automatically accept commands to devices it connects to because of some inherent trust. The car would be programmed to only accept commands from devices it expects to send it such commands.

Anyone who allows the toaster to not only command the car but alap unlock the car should be fired and blackballed from the industry. That’s not a whoopsie, learning experience. That’s an unforgivable level of incompetence.

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3 points

What could that even entail? Unlock faster speeds for free instead of having to pay the premium?

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1 point

Except in the article here, they are counting on a driver connecting their phone to the wifi and logging in with Tesla credentials.

In this instance you don’t need to disable anything in the car.

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