Downgrade possible?

[Kyrne]

Has anyone looked into the specifics of downgrading the car software? I'm not asking if it's possible but more if anyone has tried a man-in-the-middle attack posing as teslas server to provide downloads.

Tesla obviously still hosts older versions on their server since some people take a while to update, would it be feasible to trick the car into thinking I needs to "upgrade" to a lower version?

 

[smogne41]

Has anyone looked into the specifics of downgrading the car software? I'm not asking if it's possible but more if anyone has tried a man-in-the-middle attack posing as teslas server to provide downloads.

Tesla obviously still hosts older versions on their server since some people take a while to update, would it be feasible to trick the car into thinking I needs to "upgrade" to a lower version?

I think it might have been possible for some of the early S'es, but no longer. There is all sorts of cryptographic signing going on now to prevent that. I would throw donations to anybody that could come up with a reliable way to do that though.

 

[Kyrne]

I think it might have been possible for some of the early S'es, but no longer. There is all sorts of cryptographic signing going on now to prevent that. I would throw donations to anybody that could come up with a reliable way to do that though.

I haven't done any testing or research but assuming they are signing releases, you should be able to store the signature and send it back to the car later.

 

[GtiMart]

Even if you had signatures, it would be fairly easy for the car to only accept going forward with software versions unless a technician is on the car in service mode. I know that's the type of thing I would have implemented in it

 

[jjgg]

There is an obvious danger associated with downgrading if this scenario is not designed and tested for by Tesla. A software upgrade may introduce new configuration or state data, or migrate them to a new format that the old software cannot understand. When this happens and the software is downgraded, the consequence can range from losing data/configuration, crashing to bricking.