There is a hacker threat hiding in your car’s tire pressure system

If you drive a car newer than 2008, a new study has found that your car’s tire pressure monitoring system could be used to track you.

A group of researchers in IMDEA Networks Institute – an English-speaking research organization in the field of data networks based in Madrid – discovered this privacy risk at the end of a year Study for 10 weeks Where they collected approx 6 million wireless signals From more than 20,000 cars. Their findings suggest there is a serious threat from hackers hiding in the tire sensors in most modern vehicles.

An IMDEA representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

the Trade Act 2000 Assume that modern cars come equipped with a TPMS road safety system. The system works by emitting wireless signals through small sensors attached to each tire, which transmit each tire’s pressure information to the vehicle’s electronic control unit. The warning light on your car’s dashboard indicates low tire pressure.

Instead of using a camera with a clear line of sight to the car, hackers could hypothetically track it using wireless signals emitted from the car’s tire sensors. This signal is transmitted continuously as a unique, unencrypted ID number.

Essentially, anyone nearby with a cheap radio receiver could pick up the signal and later identify the same vehicle without seeing the license plate.

The information can help users track drivers

“Our results show that these tire sensor signals can be used to follow vehicles and learn their movement patterns,” Domenico Giustiniano, a research professor at the IMDEA Networks Institute, said in the peer-reviewed report. “This means that a network of inexpensive wireless receivers could quietly monitor vehicle patterns in real-world environments. Such information could reveal daily routines, such as work arrival times or travel habits.”

The researchers were able to pick up signals from more than 50 meters away from moving cars, through walls and inside buildings. Tire pressure readings helped detect the type of vehicle, its weight and the driver’s driving style. It’s a cheap, hard-to-detect, and potentially secret tracking method.

This is not the first time that a group of researchers has raised a red flag about this system in cars. 2010 study Researchers at Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina have warned of the potential privacy threat hiding in a car’s tire pressure system. Sixteen years later, the flaw remains.

“The TPMS is designed for safety, not security,” he said. Dr. Iago Lazarone of the study’s authors. “Our findings demonstrate the need for manufacturers and regulators to improve protection in future vehicle sensor systems.”

The study urges policymakers and automakers to design a safer, privacy-preserving tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) for future cars.