At electronica 2016, Rohde & Schwarz is presenting a universal solution for testing vehicle keys and the associated electronic control units with their various wireless technologies. Thanks to the modular and scalable approach, the test system can be used to test at the printed board and device level in all product phases — from development to product qualification to mass production.

Modern vehicle key systems, such as remote keyless entry (RKE) and passive entry/passive start (PEPS) systems, use a variety of wireless communications standards to transmit encoded signals. In the past, both LF frequencies (e.g. 125 kHz) and UHF frequencies (e.g. 433 MHz) as well as a magnetic compass system that works in three spatial axes (e.g. 21 kHz) were used to locate the key in or near the vehicle.

Using ultra-wideband (UWB) radio, the latest generation of key systems only needs one wireless standard in the non-licensed frequency range between 3.1 and 10.6 GHz. Time of flight (TOF) measurement prevents the relay attacks used to steal vehicles. TOF also makes it possible to determine the location of the key. Some manufacturers use near-field communications (NFC) to use a smartphone as a digital key.

Rohde & Schwarz is showing how a new system solution can help manufacturers meet their testing requirements. The demonstration consists of a fully automatic R&S TS7124AS shielded test box

As we’ve mentioned previously, the integrity of your vehicle in an era where even your car can have a data connection could be a dubious bet at best. Speaking to these concerns, a soon-to-be published paper (PDF) out of the University of Birmingham in the UK, states that virtually every Volkswagen sold since 1995 can be hacked and unlocked by cloning the vehicle’s keyfob via an Arduino and software defined radio (SDR).

The process isn’t exactly as simple as putting together $40 of electronics and walking away with a vehicle. The would-be thief must be close in order to detect the fob’s unique key — although they only need to do so once for that vehicle! — as well as reverse-engineer the other half of the code from the vehicle’s internal network. Exploiting HiTag2’s vulnerabilities to unlock the vehicle can be achieved within a minute by a well-prepared thief. [Garcia] and his team note that only the VW Golf 7 has been spared from this exploit.

Millions of Volkswagen cars could in principle be unlocked from a distance by hackers, according to a new report. It’s one more strike against a German company that’s had more than its share of bad news, what with VW’s admitted cheating on diesel-emissions tests.

But there’s plenty of bad news to go around: the report notes that many models from other companies have vulnerabilities of their own. And the problem is worse with older cars, designed before carmakers gave much thought to cybersecurity.

Kasper told the BBC that the researchers informed Volkswagen of the vulnerability in late 2015 and that the company was taking steps to mitigate the problem. But he said there are “at least 10 more, very widespread” vulnerabilities affecting other car brands, which the researchers won’t publish until the manufacturers have had time to do something about them.

The report describes two weaknesses.

The car does not, of course, must start from a simple radio signal, but the theft of objects inside the car will become very easy.

According to VW the fault is not included in the following car models: Golf, Tiguan, Touran and Passat. For other models VW are working on repairs.

Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4838:radiotekniikalla-sisaan-kaikkiin-volkswageneihin&catid=13&Itemid=101