Hackers Can Jailbreak Digital License Plates To Make Others Pay Their Tolls, Tickets (wired.com) 72
Longtime Slashdot reader sinij shares a report from Wired with the caption: "This story will be an on-going payday for traffic ticket lawyers. I am ordering one now." From the report: Digital license plates, already legal to buy in a growing number of states and to drive with nationwide, offer a few perks over their sheet metal predecessors. You can change their display on the fly to frame your plate number with novelty messages, for instance, or to flag that your car has been stolen. Now one security researcher has shown how they can also be hacked to enable a less benign feature: changing a car's license plate number at will to avoid traffic tickets and tolls -- or even pin them on someone else.
Josep Rodriguez, a researcher at security firm IOActive, has revealed a technique to "jailbreak" digital license plates sold by Reviver, the leading vendor of those plates in the US with 65,000 plates already sold. By removing a sticker on the back of the plate and attaching a cable to its internal connectors, he's able to rewrite a Reviver plate's firmware in a matter of minutes. Then, with that custom firmware installed, the jailbroken license plate can receive commands via Bluetooth from a smartphone app to instantly change its display to show any characters or image. That susceptibility to jailbreaking, Rodriguez points out, could let drivers with the license plates evade any system that depends on license plate numbers for enforcement or surveillance, from tolls to speeding and parking tickets to automatic license plate readers that police use to track criminal suspects. "You can put whatever you want on the screen, which users are not supposed to be able to do," says Rodriguez. "Imagine you are going through a speed camera or if you are a criminal and you don't want to get caught."
Worse still, Rodriguez points out that a jailbroken license plate can be changed not just to an arbitrary number but also to the number of another vehicle -- whose driver would then receive the malicious user's tickets and toll bills. "If you can change the license plate number whenever you want, you can cause some real problems," Rodriguez says. All traffic-related mischief aside, Rodriguez also notes that jailbreaking the plates could also allow drivers to use the plates' features without paying Reviver's $29.99 monthly subscription fee. Because the vulnerability that allowed him to rewrite the plates' firmware exists at the hardware level -- in Reviver's chips themselves -- Rodriguez says there's no way for Reviver to patch the issue with a mere software update. Instead, it would have to replace those chips in each display. That means the company's license plates are very likely to remain vulnerable despite Rodriguez's warning -- a fact, Rodriguez says, that transport policymakers and law enforcement should be aware of as digital license plates roll out across the country. "It's a big problem because now you have thousands of licensed plates with this issue, and you would need to change the hardware to fix it," he says.
Josep Rodriguez, a researcher at security firm IOActive, has revealed a technique to "jailbreak" digital license plates sold by Reviver, the leading vendor of those plates in the US with 65,000 plates already sold. By removing a sticker on the back of the plate and attaching a cable to its internal connectors, he's able to rewrite a Reviver plate's firmware in a matter of minutes. Then, with that custom firmware installed, the jailbroken license plate can receive commands via Bluetooth from a smartphone app to instantly change its display to show any characters or image. That susceptibility to jailbreaking, Rodriguez points out, could let drivers with the license plates evade any system that depends on license plate numbers for enforcement or surveillance, from tolls to speeding and parking tickets to automatic license plate readers that police use to track criminal suspects. "You can put whatever you want on the screen, which users are not supposed to be able to do," says Rodriguez. "Imagine you are going through a speed camera or if you are a criminal and you don't want to get caught."
Worse still, Rodriguez points out that a jailbroken license plate can be changed not just to an arbitrary number but also to the number of another vehicle -- whose driver would then receive the malicious user's tickets and toll bills. "If you can change the license plate number whenever you want, you can cause some real problems," Rodriguez says. All traffic-related mischief aside, Rodriguez also notes that jailbreaking the plates could also allow drivers to use the plates' features without paying Reviver's $29.99 monthly subscription fee. Because the vulnerability that allowed him to rewrite the plates' firmware exists at the hardware level -- in Reviver's chips themselves -- Rodriguez says there's no way for Reviver to patch the issue with a mere software update. Instead, it would have to replace those chips in each display. That means the company's license plates are very likely to remain vulnerable despite Rodriguez's warning -- a fact, Rodriguez says, that transport policymakers and law enforcement should be aware of as digital license plates roll out across the country. "It's a big problem because now you have thousands of licensed plates with this issue, and you would need to change the hardware to fix it," he says.
Why do we need digital license plates? (Score:5, Insightful)
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What's wrong with the old metal plates?
Low profit margins.
A metal plate costs $20 one time.
The digital plate costs $29.99 per month. That's $3600 over ten years.
My car is worth less than that.
Re:Why do we need digital license plates? (Score:4, Insightful)
Never mind the cost of illuminating the damn things (NOW WITH NEW ELECTRICAL REQUIREMENTS!), or the additional risk of it breaking and getting a ticket because your plate wasn't displaying it's registration. (Or worse, some cop claiming your own car is stolen because the plate wasn't working...) A metal plate has none of these issues.
But some grifter wasn't making enough money so add some electronics to it and charge a new monthly fee. America home of grift, land of the broke.
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A cursory glancing at their website says the service plan is not required at all. And it's minimum $35 per year, not month. Mostly just gives you access to some DMV services, like renewing your tags through the app/service automatically and the plate updating itself to match, which sounds like a nice feature - I hate those fucking piece of shit stickers. They're also easier to read in any weather/lighting conditions. And some other cosmetic features that some people like. I mean some people waste money on b
Re: Why do we need digital license plates? (Score:5, Informative)
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They have to be readable from 100ft away in all conditions to have even gained legal approval to begin with. And they literally use the exact same font, and other imagery, as the real metal plate you would get minus color. So, you've never seen one, or only saw some cheap, illegal knockoff.
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They're made with an eink display, so they're fine to read in any situation you could read a regular plate in, assuming it's not damaged or covered with something to obscure it.
They're still a fucking stupid idea though.
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eink goes all black in high heat.
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I see a ton of them around, both in the Los Angeles and Palm Springs areas and haven't seen any that have gone all black. I'm not sure if they're doing something different with them, but it hasn't really been an issue that I've seen. Doesn't mean it isn't happening, but I haven't seen it in some pretty hot circumstances with them sitting out in the direct sun.
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These digital plates are supposedly rated to at least 176F. Not even Death Valley would black out these displays.
But clearly some savings too (Score:3)
The digital plate costs $29.99 per month. That's $3600 over ten years.
Yes, but think of all the savings you can make on parking and speeding tickets!
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It's a government plate, profit is not the goal here. Any cost is with fees and to cover the actual cost of manufacture.
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The digital plate costs $29.99 per month. That's $3600 over ten years.
My car is worth less than that.
Sure, but you might still get ahead if your licence plate scanning based costs are higher....
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In theory, security. Metal plates can easily be stolen or cloned.
The problem with digital plates is the implementation sucks.
What they should be doing is 1. Manufacturing these within a sealed tamper-resistant enclosure similar to smart cards that cannot be serviced and does not provide access to mess with the underlying electronics without tripping sensors that cause it to self-destruct.
2. Displaying a large QR code next to the numbers containing a time-dependent signature of the plate ID and a digital s
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I would almost say the ability to change the license number is one of those things where a lock of honest people is 'good enough' ie you don't make it set-able but you also don't need to make it impossible for a a determined person to change.
License plates remember do have some anti-counterfeit technology to them, at least in most states. Special paints etc, however they are also designed to be observed from a distance usually with visible light photography or human eyes. Fakes don't have to stand up to c
Convenience and Detectability (Score:2)
In theory, security. Metal plates can easily be stolen or cloned.
Yes they aren't because of the cost and inconvenience of making and then changing the plates. With a digital plate it costs nothing to change the number on display and you can do it instantly making it possible to display one license number to toll and speed cameras but your legal plate the rest of the time so you can't easily get caught. You can also use a different number for each camera further hampering efforts to track and detain you.
If you try that with a metal plate you'd have to make multiple pl
Re: Convenience and Detectability (Score:2)
Attention Gen-Z (Score:2, Offtopic)
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You are not a superior person simply virtue of being an old fart.
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The logo is a dead mark. Since DEC is gone, and the logo hasn't been used since 2004; it's essentially up for grabs. No real issue with Slashdot using it to represent their digital category. This way in a sense a remnant of DEC's influence lives on.
Vanity, thy name is "Sucker!" (Score:1)
It's hard to feel sorry for the people who will be charged with offences they didn't commit. Anybody who pays more money for something which is much more likely to fail in some fashion, just for the sake of vanity or coolness or shits 'n' giggles, deserves what they get.
Also, I wonder if people who "learn to code" as part of mandatory school curricula will be savvy enough to avoid products like this. Somehow, I think most of them WON'T be smart enough. So we're gonna be stuck with this crap going forward, b
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Probably relatively trivial to prove unless their vehicle is a match to your make, model, coloration, and also that they hit tollbooths near your home location. The tollbooths are required by law to send a photo of the offending vehicle with the fee/bill/citation.
The problem is going to be shitty jurisdictions like Texas that require you to come in person to challenge the ticket, rather than sending an electronic response with pertinent information such as "That's a red 1990 Chevy Silverado with a trump s
Re: Vanity, thy name is "Sucker!" (Score:3)
Except the companies operating the tolls do not care and ignore complains and add late fees even when faced with clear evidence.
https://abc7news.com/bayarea-f... [abc7news.com]
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The plates have BTLE and LTE. While the visual display might be hacked, what about it's RF identification? That would
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Not only that.. the hackers can likely mock up a plate purporting to be from any state they want; even states that don't have digital plates, Then get you fines issues by a different state's OMV. Since states co-ordinate their databases: people can lose driving privileges because someone racked up violations against you in some random city half way across the country.
This can also result in their victims getting a summons to appear in some court a thousand miles a way, and a default judgement or bench
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Remember - only you're smart enough. Everyone else always gets what they deserve. In the future, history will be written like, "Aw man, I wish we had more smart people like jenningsthecat around! So smart!"
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what the hell were DMVs thinking that they allowed these plates to be used without having first had the devices vetted by somebody who specializes in security?
$
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Also, what the hell were DMVs thinking
Boss demanded more profits, and if I don't give him those profits by pushing our new subscription service he'll find someone (or some BOT) that will. Society can get fucked.
Do these folks consume so little news that they're unaware of the almost daily stories of
You're asking that after multiple stories of idiots across the country thinking Biden was still the Democratic nominee on Election Day? Or the multiple stories of idiots across the country voting for Trump thinking he wasn't going to do what he said he would?
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You really are a fucking moron. Normal drivers, who have got an *ordinary, fixed plate* will get the tickets and charges for the asshole with the hacked digital plate. *That's* the problem.
And then the photo evidence will show that it was a digital plate rather than a fixed one, and the charges will be dropped. It's a hassle and an inconvenience for sure, but not insurmountable. Meanwhile, when someone who bought a digital plate has their plate number cloned by somebody else with a digital plate...
Geez, were you dropped on your head as a baby?
Actually, I was, almost literally. I wasn't dropped, but I fell, and my head hit the concrete pretty hard. Apparently they weren't sure I was going to make it. I think I can reasonably attribute thr
A better question (Score:1)
$500 digital plates! (Score:3)
$500 could buy a lot of fake physical license plates. Or probably even quite a few sets of license-plate-sized e-ink displays that don't need jailbreaking.
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Licence plates have never been definitive. They have been cloned since they were introduced.
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"Just stop all guys in [make/model] using these new thingies and perhaps you will catch the culprit".
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Also this hacking is physical - attach a cable and reprogram. Enough effort that it's simpler to just buy a fake metal plate.
The real story is not that these plates can be hacked, or replaced with different plates, but that the security on them is laughably terrible.
IF you put it into a digital system... (Score:2)
How can you tell a legit (Score:2)
Can you, or a passing policeman, tell a legitimate digital license plate from something someone whipped up or bought from AliExpress?
I mean, why bother jailbreaking those if you can just use a substitute?
Changeable license plate (Score:5, Funny)
I seem to recall there was an Aston Martin back in the 60's that had that feature.
It had a few other features too - machine guns, ejector seat...
Where to start.... (Score:5, Insightful)
There are so many WTFs in this story it's hard to know where to start...
o What problem were digital license plates designed to solve?
o Who in their right mind would pay $29/month for a frickin' license plate??
o Who in authority never even once wondered "Hmm... are license plates that can change what they display really a good idea?"
Given the track record of politicians, I expect many stories over the next few years about people whose lives were made a Kafkaesque misery by aggressive DMVs going after them for tolls they don't owe. What a steaming pile...
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Re: Where to start.... (Score:2)
Bitte Folgen - Polizei (Score:3)
There's one display like this in germany which works wonders.
It says "Bitte Folgen - Polizei"
As soon as people see it, they drive reallllly by the book (but then it's too late)
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A device that displays messages to drivers behind you is all well and good, but it need not also be the license plate. It can be a separate display that has no official meaning.
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There are a ton of idiots that collaborated here to make this happen. And then one security researcher that had a few hours of time to play with the result.
The REAL crime ... (Score:2)
The real crime is Reviver's $29.99 monthly subscription fee.
$29.99 * $12 = $359.88/year for digital vanity plates??
SaaS has gone too far but people never learn.
Yes... "Their chips" (Score:2)
29.99 (Score:2)
Hack? (Score:2)
I can hack a license plate with MS Paint and a printer.
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Not real-time while driving, you cannot.
BWA-HA-HA-HA! (Score:3)
"Our sticker is the height of security!"
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Yep. Probably they will make it illegal next to remove or damage them as a "fix". There people are soooooo incredibly stupid.
And nobody with a clue is surprised (Score:2)
It is always people with no clue that make these decisions, and they never understand that there are others that are massively more capable than they are.
Why were they ever PRESSED INTO METAL? (Score:2)
Dumb idea from the start (Score:2)
1. Encryption: You need to cryptographically validate everything, from the boot, through the operation. If an action happens, it needs to request a key, or a signature, and have a different enclave validate that system, and pre