394
Inside the Underground Trade of ‘Flipper Zero’ Tech to Break into Cars (www.404media.co)
submitted 9 months ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
102 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

TBF most of these are failures and exploits on older devices.

Which are a dime a dozen across the entire industry. Security is rather difficult, especially when considering exploits and bugs.

Ofc many of these ARE the results of cut corners, though many are just a lack of security awareness or old devices with known exploits discovered long after manufacturing.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

The lack of security awareness is due to them to scrooge to hire the right professionals for the job. It is 100% the result of cutting corners.

[-] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

When a car is stolen, they typically get to sell another one, courtesy of the drivers insurance policy. They are incentivized to bad security.

[-] 123@programming.dev 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Or built for a different market, like 90s Hondas/Nissans etc. which assumed every country was as safe as Japan when it came to car theft. Nowadays its mostly profit driven. Security is not cheap and can add it's own set of headaches (security vs convenience).

Edit: Nissan still sucked at it from what I remember hearing of those and some kias being the main target near where we lived.

this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
394 points (97.8% liked)

Technology

84998 readers
3411 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws