Honda Cars: Security flaw allow hackers to unlock and start cars remotely

A team of security researchers has just discovered that several Honda cars have a very vulnerable rolling code mechanism that allows the cars to be unlocked or even started remotely.

Significant security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious hackers are still quite rare today. But some, unfortunately, are sometimes noticed by hacking experts. Recently, a 19-year-old cybersecurity specialist managed to drive 25 Tesla cars by exploiting a security flaw.

Today it is the cars of the Honda brand that run the risk of getting into the same situation. A team of security researchers just discovered that: several Honda cars have a rolling code mechanism that is very fragile. Thus, this significant security flaw could allow hackers to unlock cars or, worse, start them remotely. The researchers claim to have tested the attack on Honda models between 2021 and 2022, including the following popular models:

• 2012 Honda Civic
• Honda X-RV 2018
• 2020 Honda C-RV
• Honda Accord 2020
• Honda Odyssey 2020
• Honda Inspire 2021
• 2022 Honda Fit
• Honda Civic 2022
• 2022 Honda VE-1
• 2022 Honda Breeze

Researchers find a security flaw in Honda cars, hackers can remotely start and unlock cars

The vulnerability is called RollingPWN, and it operates part of Honda’s keyless entry system. In particular, the current keyless entry system for Honda vehicles is based on a rolling code model that creates a new access code every time the user presses the fob button. Once enacted, the precedents must therefore be rendered useless to prevent attacks. But unfortunately for Honda owners, safety experts have found that the old codes could be canceled and reused to access the vehicle.

The security experts who discovered this huge flaw even think that the problem can affect all Honda vehicles. The latter is currently investigating and there is no indication that Honda can solve the problem quickly. However, Honda could fix this vulnerability with an over-the-air firmware update, but many affected cars do not offer this type of support.