Hackers can easily drain the battery on the world's most popular electric car
Nissan
The popular Nissan Leaf electric car can be drained of its battery life using little more than its vehicle identification number (VIN).
The major security hole was found by researcher Troy Hunt, who figured out that the Leaf's smartphone app uses only the VIN to control car features remotely without passwords. These features include seeing the car's current battery life, times and distances the car has traveled, and remotely-controlling climate control.
Luckily, the Leaf doesn't have features like remote unlock of its doors. But being able to turn on a car's heated seats or A/C from the other side of the world could potentially leave a victim stranded.
"If I was to monitor your movements over the course of the week and learn when you go to and from work, shortly after you got to your office I could run the heating for the remainder of the day," Scott Helme, a cybersecurity researcher who worked with Hunt, told the BBC. "That would potentially leave you with very little power. Certainly not enough to get back home."
Hunt claims in the post on his website that he reached out to Nissan in January, so that the company could address the security flaw. He made multiple attempts to get a resolution, but ultimately decided to make the flaw public about a month later after others discovered the problem and began discussing it online.
A Nissan spokesperson told Tech Insider it was aware of a "data issue" with its NissanConnect EV app and was working on a permanent solution, though there was no timeline offered on the fix. The company did not answer a question on how current Leaf owners could protect themselves, but Hunt says the hack can be stopped for now by disabling Nissan's "CarWings" service.
In a video posted to YouTube, Hunt, based in Australia, is able to control features of Helme's leaf in Norway.
"We elected for me to sit outside in a sunny environment whilst Scott was shivering in the cold to demonstrate just how remote you can be and still control feature of someone else’s car, literally from the other end of the earth," Hunt wrote.
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/Nt33m7G_42Q
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