Relay box key fob signal theft captured on home video

Kawboy12R

Kawboy12R

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Nov 18, 2014
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VIDEO: Car Thieves Use New Gadget To Easily Steal Cars - Blue Lives Matter

The TL;DR is that there's a scanning box that can steal your keyfob's signal from while you're in your house sleeping and allow crooks to drive off with your pushbutton-start car while your keys are still in your house.

Shame this homeowner hadn't visited here first and learned a better camera location to get ID of folks screwing with his cars. At least he got
 
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drunkpenguin said:
I don't worry much about my car. I bought the greatest security system available these days. A stick shift!
Click to expand...

Sweet! Me too. You get anything sporty? I have a focus ST. I wanted a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo ever since I was younger but when I went to look at them they were in there last year and they were like 50K and I didn't feel like I even fit in the car since I am 6'2". Honestly now I want a truck since I am so tall but I had to get something with a manual transmission since I consider myself somewhat of a car guy.
 
"New gadget" ... imho really not so new, this attack iirc is fairly well known.
 
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What I believe they are hacking is the key in the house. That info then is stored in the box the guy gets in the car with. You can't drive away without the fob or a clone. Just put your key in a metal box overnight.
 
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My solution is old fashioned- it's harder to steal a physical key that's inside my house. From what I've seen (mainly my father in law cursing at his), these pushbutton-start cars that just need the key "near" them are too much trouble. And yes, my car is stickshift too. My wife can't steal it either.
 
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I usethis one from Amazon.comand it works great. I had bought a different one previously and it didn't last, it worked well to begin with but soon started allowing the signal to permeate.

edit-corrected typo
 
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
For nearly every expensive security measure there's an inexpensive exploit. Constant cat & mouse.
 
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I have an extra unused (and unplugged) microwave oven where I keep the keys. The microwave door is easy to open & close with one hand and they are pretty well sealed against RF leakage. The fob for my 2017 Toyota shows a replacement list price over $500 (!) so for that money, you'd think they would be designed to measure actual distance between fob and car using signal time-of-flight or somesuch.

This repeater or remote amplifier attack has been reported by Swiss researchers as early as 2011 according to Radio Attack Lets Hackers Steal 24 Different Car Models
 
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