Reverse Engineering a Car Immobilizer
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Car immobilizers are devices that prevent car thefts by immobilizing cars if a specific token,
usually carried by the intended driver, is not in proximity to the car. This work documents
the steps taken to reverse engineer the Skybrake DD2+ immobilizer in order to discover its
security weaknesses. These steps include capturing the data that is transferred between the
components of the immobilizer and analyzing the captured data. The firmware image of the
immobilizer was dumped and analyzed. This work presents multiple possible attack vectors that
this immobilizer is vulnerable to. Most notably this work demonstrates methods for bypassing
the layer of security the immobilizer is supposed to provide.
Description
Keywords
immobilizers, reverse engineering, firmware analysis