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Electrek article regarding improved cryptography key fob and PIN

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Because pin to drive is a really poor "solution".

French cars had a small keypad in the beginning of the 90s, you had to enter the pin code to be able to start the car.

Having a pin to drive, in a state of the art car from 2018, is just - stupid, and clearly a dirty hack.

Well. I definitely agree, that the P2D is a poor solution, however at the moment is the only solution to the relay attack problem. I was not questioning the quality of the solution, I was questioning the reason to pay for the FOB replacement when it in reality doesn't solve anything...
 
Well. I definitely agree, that the P2D is a poor solution, however at the moment is the only solution to the relay attack problem. I was not questioning the quality of the solution, I was questioning the reason to pay for the FOB replacement when it in reality doesn't solve anything...
P2D is a (poor) solution to a very rare problem here in the USA. The only reason it showed up was to placate the media trying to stir up panicky people, and it was software only, so minimal cost for good PR. It doesn't solve thieves stealing from your car or damaging it. It doesn't solve a tow truck taking your car. It doesn't even solve someone with Tesla knowledge from "hotwiring" your car.

Relay attacks are not new, they've been there since before the first Model S, so why is this suddenly an issue? Is there some recent crime wave sweeping across with Teslas being stolen with relay attack? There are technological solutions to the problem, but they cost money and often are less power efficient (keyfobs run out of batteries sooner). If this was a real problem, auto manufactures would have moved to those already just to keep the insurance down for their customers (if a car is being stolen a lot, its insurance rates go up).
 
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Relay attacks are not new, they've been there since before the first Model S, so why is this suddenly an issue? Is there some recent crime wave sweeping across with Teslas being stolen with relay attack?

I think P2D was introduced as a response to the demonstration of a fob cloning attack by Belgian researchers - although, AFAIK, this exploit has never been used "in the wild". There have been some Tesla thefts in Europe, using the relay attack. While some have been recovered, others have never been seen again, so it seems likely that these are sold for parts. Other prestige marques (Mercedes, BMW, Audi, etc.) are also stolen in relay attacks and according to police, they are also stolen for parts. Tesla parts are hard to acquire, especially in those countries in Europe where Tesla does not have an official presence, so this likely generates a market for stolen used parts. It does seem strange that various ebay sellers in Lithuania have so many used parts from RHD Teslas, while cars sold in Lithuania and the rest of continental Europe are LHD.
 
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After purchasing the fobs with higher encryption and learning that these not block a relay attack as I had hoped, I will either shrug and ignore the issue because it is rare and probably non-existent in the US so far, or maybe use PIN to drive if I get paranoid.

But what I won’t do is give up on passive entry or put the fob in a pouch, because that eliminates the wonderful convenience of being able to leave the fob in my pocket at all times, never having to mess with it. It is terrific to be able to just walk up to the car, get in and drive away, then park and leave it, knowing that it will lock itself.

By the way, based on an excellent suggestion by a TeslaTap member, I even worked out a way to preserve the above functionality, and yet make it stay unlocked in the garage and stop presenting the handles when I am walking by: define a driver profile called “Home” or something, set that profile to turn off the walk-away lock and turn off the “auto-present handles”. You still have to remember to manually change the profile to “Home” when you park in your garage, but that is not too much trouble. When you get in and drive it away it will always switch to some other profile.
 
FYI here is the original article from the security researchers in Belgium, detailing a key cloning attack that is based on the encryption weakness of the key fobs supplied by Tesla with cars manufactured before June of this year:
Fast, Furious and Insecure: Passive Keyless Entry and Start in Modern Supercars

I have gotten confirmation directly from the researchers that the higher encryption fobs will not block a relay attack, the current normal mode of hacking a car with passive entry. Also, their opinion is that the new fobs do not provide a basis upon which to build a defense to relay attacks with software updates to the car.

So bottom line, higher encryption fobs defend against an attack that no one will bother to exploit when relay attack is so easy. Furthermore, blocking relay attacks while preserving passive entry and not having to use a pin-to-drive will require new key fobs yet again, because the whole security exchange protocol will likely have to be updated. It may be that the bump in fob encryption was just a step along the way to further fob (and car system) updates that may provide real defenses to relay attacks.
 
For fob based systems, a 3D LF antenna in the fob plus 2 or more transmit antenna on the car provides a spatial signature that a single antenna relay attack can't duplicate, but imposes extra hardware cost.
The 3 style card cuts relay attack due to minuscule range, but is less convenient.
Phone based keys could thwart relay via motion/ position and signal strength tracking.
 
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For fob based systems, a 3D LF antenna in the fob plus 2 or more transmit antenna on the car provides a spatial signature that a single antenna relay attack can't duplicate, but imposes extra hardware cost.
The 3 style card cuts relay attack due to minuscule range, but is less convenient.
Phone based keys could thwart relay via motion/ position and signal strength tracking.

Good points.

The hardware solution sounds good, and I would expect the hardware cost to come down. It already should be a small percentage of Model S/X price.

For my 2018 MS, a phone-based solution that wouldn’t require hardware updates would be sweet. Of course right now I can unlock and even drive the car with phone only no fobs, but the fatal flaw is that I get in a bit of trouble if I go out of cell range and the car auto-locks itself;) So some way to use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth direct to the car seems like it would do the trick. Problem is, not sure how passive entry be preserved with a phone as the unlock device, without opening another huge risk from lost or stolen phone.
 
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Although there are no known instances of key fob cloning attack being used, and it is very likely blocked by S/X built after June 2018, the researchers point out some advantages: this method allows someone to clone your fob on one day, then steal your car some other time.