“Kia Boys will be Flipper Boys by 2026,” one person in the reverse engineering community said.

The tech used here is the popular Flipper Zero, an ethical hacker’s swiss army knife, capable of all sorts of things such as WiFi attacks or emulating NFC tags. Now, 404 Media has found an underground trade where much shadier hackers sell extra software and patches for the Flipper Zero to unlock all manner of cars, including models popular in the U.S. The hackers say the tool can be used against Ford, Audi, Volkswagen, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, and several other brands, including sometimes dozens of specific vehicle models, with no easy fix from car manufacturers.

  • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
    68·
    6 months ago

    It is true that this device can be used nefariously. But it’s just a computer with a wide variety of very basic and common communication methods along with software to exploit them. There are many other computers like it that are just less popular. And to ban it is to ban said basic communication hardware like radio, WiFi, NFC, etc.

    The solution is to mandate companies to provide a minimum level of security. Even giant companies with good reputations have giant security holes, like Apple or your bank, implementing mandatory SMS as 2FA. That shit should be illegal.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      23·
      6 months ago

      Fear of the Flipper Zero is fear of people having direct control of consumer grade radio hardware. “You can’t let people have universal TV remotes, what if they push the buttons?!”

    • MTK@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      6 months ago

      Oh, you sound so optimistic, my bank has a mandatory 4 digit code as login with 2fa sms for new devices. I sometimes consider going to shoot the cto there but I don’t own a gun.