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Topic: TPMS - privacy issues (Read 1853 times) |
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Fritz
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TPMS - privacy issues
« on: 2008-04-03 19:35:08 » |
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There is maybe something to be said for a 1968 Dodge Dart, rusty green with a slant six .....
Fritz
http://www.hexview.com/sdp/node/44
Spy My Ride: Somebody may be tracking your vehicle and you don't know about it!
New technologies always come with privacy issues
There is no shortage of articles discussing privacy issues introduced by new technologies. ReadID, passports, chips in currency bills, and other engineering marvels designed for purposes of tracking and monitoring, always come with a bouquet of questions and privacy concerns. On the other hand, technologies not specifically designed for monitoring can sometimes be used for this very purpose and privacy problems introduced by them are often overlooked. Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) is one of those technologies.
What is TPMS?
TPMS lets on-board vehicle computers measure air pressure in the tires. If you purchased a new vehicle in the last 2 years, it is very likely that it came with TPMS. If you live in the Unites States, your next vehicle will contain TPMS whether you like or not -- in April 2005, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a rule requiring automakers to install TPMS sensors in all new passenger cars and trucks starting in September 2007.
The first passenger vehicle to adopt TPMS was the Porshe 959 (1986); it measured tire pressure indirectly, and it did not use radio frequency (RF) to transmit information. Battery-powered wireless TPMS that directly measure air pressure in the tires appeared in the late 90's. Within a decade, the technology substantially advanced and was adopted by many auto-manufacturers. More high-level information about TPMS history can be found on this Wikipedia page
How does TPMS work?
In a typical TPMS, each wheel of the vehicle contains a device (TPMS sensor) - usually attached to the inflation valve - that measures air pressure and, optionally, temperature, vehicle state (moving or not), and the health of the sensor's battery. Each sensor transmits this information (either periodically or upon request) to the on-board computer in the vehicle. To differentiate between its own wheels and wheels of the vehicle in the next lane, each TPMS sensor contains a unique id. The receiver is "paired" to the sensors very much as a Bluetooth device. The vast majority of TPMS sensors transmit information in clear text using one of the assigned radio frequencies (typically, 315MHz or 433MHz).
TPMS transmits data that uniquely identifies your car!
Here is where privacy problems become obvious: Each wheel of the vehicle transmits a unique ID, easily readable using off-the-shelf receiver. Although the transmitter’s power is very low, the signal is still readable from a fair distance using a good directional antenna.
Remember the paper that discussed how Bluetooth radios in cell phones can be used to track their owners? The problem with TPMS is incomparably bigger, because the lifespan of a typical cell phone is around 2 years and you can turn the Bluetooth radio off in most of them. On the contrary, TPMS cannot be turned off. It comes with a built-in battery that lasts 7 to 10 years, and the battery-less TPMS sensors are ready to hit the market in 2010. It does not matter how long you own the vehicle – transportation authorities keep up-to-date information about vehicle ownership.
Why is this a problem?
What problems exactly does the TPMS introduce? If you live in the United States, chances are, you have heard about the “traffic-improving” ideas where transportation authorities looked for the possibility to track all vehicles in nearly real time in order to issue speeding tickets or impose mileage-adjusted taxes. Those ideas caused a flood of privacy debates, but fortunately, it turned out that it was not technically of financially feasible to implement such a system within the next 5-10 years, so the hype quickly died out.
Guess what? With minor limitations, TPMS can be used for the very purpose of tracking your vehicle in real time with no substantial investments! TPMS can also be used to measure the speed of your vehicle. Similarly to highway/freeway speed sensors that measure traffic speed, TPMS readers can be installed in pairs to measure how quick your vehicle goes over a predefined distance. Technically, it is even plausible to use existing speed sensors to read TPMS data!
Note that unlike traffic sensors that measure speed anonymously, TPMS can be used to measure speed of each individual vehicle because car manufacturers know serial numbers of every part in your vehicle, including unique IDs of TPMS sensors.
Now, no article is complete unless it mentions terrorists. Bad news, everyone (terrorists of all levels of badness -- rejoice)! It is now super easy to blow up someone's car. There's no need to fix the explosive to the vehicle. No more wires and buttons. No human factor. A high-school kid with passion for electronics can assemble a device that will trigger the detonator when the right vehicle passes by. (Movie directors, beware - I will go after you if I see this in the next blockbuster).
Aren't we being tracked already?
Yes, many vehicles already come with advanced tracking technologies, like OnStar, but they usually offered as options, so if you do not appreciate the possibility for OnStar support people to eavesdrop on the conversations in your vehicle (yes, they can do that), you can say "no, thank you" to the dealer, or, as the last resort, disable the evil device by cutting its power supply. TPMS cannot be easily disabled: you need to take the tire off the wheel to access the device.
As every other tracking technology, the TPMS was introduced as a safety feature “for your protection”. One might wonder why NTHSA (a government agency) would care so much about a small number of accidents related to under-pressurized tires. And why would it choose to mandate TPMS and not run-flat technology? Are we being tracked already? I hope not.
Can this problem be solved?
Yes, if it gets enough attention. Many chip manufacturers produce TPMS IC sets (for sensors and receivers). If they add functionality to encrypt the communication channel, the problem will go away. Note the similarity to the keyless entry remote controllers. Initially, the remote controllers did not use any encryption, but when carjackers started to sniff communications and replay them to unlock vehicles, a complex rolling code and encryption functionalities were implemented. Similar solutions can be adopted for TPMS.
Comments -> vtalk@hexview.com
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Fritz
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Re:TPMS - privacy issues
« Reply #1 on: 2008-04-23 13:29:59 » |
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This seemed compelling to me, in that I've been beat'in to death and have had project after project crippled by security minions with dooms day lectures and no alternate solutions leaving data sitting on old systems limping along with business resumption issues that are far more risky then the so call security concerns.
Look out behind you a dwarf with a knife ......plugh....
Fritz
http://ttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/23/security_industry_death/
Standalone security industry dying, says guru
Schneier sounds death knell for Infosec
By John Leyden → More by this author
Published Wednesday 23rd April 2008 13:50 GMT
Security guru Bruce Schneier has renewed his attack on the IT security industry. A record number of attendees is visiting this week's Infosecurity trade show in London but nobody is buying anything, according to Schneier.
"Buyers don't understand what is being sold. That's why the security industry as a standalone entity is dying," Schneier told El Reg. "It's only because the stuff you buy sucks so bad that the information security industry exists in the first place," he added.
Schneier feels ennui for Infosec.
Schneier compared the information security industry to the car market. Consumers don't buy anti-lock brakes as a separate product. Similarly, information security should be built into products rather than being sold separately, Schneier argued.
Click here to find out more!
He reckons that as the IT security industry matures there will be a greater demand from customers that products and services simply work, a trend mirrored in the growing use of outsourcing.
"Telcos and OEMs should become the only customers for security products. That way you'd have smarter buyers," he explained.
Schneier has touched on this theme before, most recently in a blog posting on the recent RSA Security conference. More of his latest thoughts on the subject can be found here. ®
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Hermit
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Prime example of a practically perfect person
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Re:TPMS - privacy issues
« Reply #2 on: 2008-04-23 14:55:35 » |
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>Nothing Happens!<
*spin around three times*
*dodge knife*
*throw lantern at dwarf*
>dwarf vanishes in a puff of greasy black smoke<
*Use nostril hair to pick lock on grate*
*piss in stream*
*move hills*
^D
Grins at random memories
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Fritz
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Re:Random memories
« Reply #3 on: 2008-05-05 12:21:43 » |
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Quote:| [Hermit]Grins at random memories |
You got me searching through archives at home and this little GEM made it through the roll up from 5 1/4 floppies to 3.5 floppies to CDs and finally to DVDs, and deep in a nested directory structure were the 'girls from Phobos'; the Leather Goddess of Phobos minus the scatch 'd sniff card that came with the program originally.
It was a demo of a new C compiler for Intel in the mid eighties and still runs on my XP boxes by launching a DOS window.
Hope it fires up a few old neurons and ya can show the young'ins when games were really cool.
Cheers
Fritz
PS: this being back at work for a living, is really cramping my on line time :-(
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Fritz
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Activist Coders aim to deafen Phorm with white noise
« Reply #4 on: 2008-05-17 01:15:59 » |
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I missed this one; good thing we all kept our PGP apps .... now get AntiPhormLite and hang on to it as well 
Fritz
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/16/congress_questions_nebuad/
US Congress questions legality of Phorm and the Phormettes
'Talk to us first'
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Published Friday 16th May 2008 20:48 GMT
After telling the world it will soon pimp customer data to NebuAd - a behavioral ad targeting firm along the lines of Phorm and Front Porch - Charter Communications has received a letter from Congress questioning the legality of such pimping.
As we reported yesterday, Charter - America's eighth largest ISP - plans to test NebuAd within the next 30 days. In San Luis Obispo, California, Fort Worth, Texas, Oxford, Massachusetts, and Newtown, Connecticut, NebuAd's deep packet inspection hardware will track the search and browsing history of "a couple hundred" Charter customers, and this data will then be used to target online ads.
According to a Charter spokeswoman, the cable-based ISP will "determine further roll outs in the coming months". And now it has a bit more to think about. This morning, in response to the (scant) press coverage of the Charter-NebuAd tie-up, two Congressional bigwigs fired a letter to the ISP suggesting it put the skids on its test.
"We respectfully request that you do not move forward on Charter Communications' proposed venture with NebuAd until we have an opportunity to discuss with you issues raised by this proposed venture," wrote Ed Markey, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, and Joe Barton, a ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Charter is notifying customers affected by its NebuAd test, while pointing them to a page where they can opt-out of the service. But Markey and Barton question if such services should be opt-in only, arguing that Charter's agreement runs afoul of privacy provisions laid down by Section 631 of the US Communications Act.
"Any service to which a subscriber does not affirmatively subscribe and that can result in the collection of information about the web-related habits and interests of a subscriber, and achieves any of these results without the 'prior written consent of the subscriber,' raises substantial questions related to Section 631."
According to Jessica Schafer, a spokeswoman for Markey, Charter has not responded to the letter. Nor has it responded to our questions about the letter.
But you know what they'll say. The question is why the press has largely overlooked Phorm, NebuAd, and other behavioral ad targeters. "This is such an important story," says Jeff Chester of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Digital Democracy. "In the UK, there's been a huge firestorm over Phorm. "But there's been close to nothing here.
"I don't think people realize what's going on - how sophisticated this tracking is."
Either that or Americans just don't care. The country's rather quiet response to NebuAd's recent activities may point to a cultural difference between the US and the UK. When it comes to protecting privacy, so many Americans just can't be bothered. ®
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/16/antiphormlite/
Activist coders aim to deafen Phorm with white noise
Faking it for data pimps
By John Leyden
Published Friday 16th May 2008 12:05 GMT
Updated Coding activists have developed an application designed to confound Phorm's controversial behaviour-tracking software by simulating random web-browsing.
The folks behind AntiPhormLite says this means actual browsing habits are buried in noise. The app, which is available free of charge, is designed to poison the anonymised click stream Phorm collects with meaningless junk, thereby (at least in theory) undermining its business model.
Its developers reckon the chaff AntiPhormLite generates would be indistinguishable from genuine surfing. AntiPhormLite works with any browser a user cares to use and includes customised options so that each installation can be configured differently, making countermeasures Phorm might apply more difficult to develop.
The beta release comes with source code, allowing security experts to verify that it does only what it says on the tin. The app features "natural time delays" and throttling so that computer generated traffic would be difficult to distinguish from the real thing, as explained below:
AntiPhormLite runs independently and silently in the background of your PC. It connects to the web and intelligently simulates natural surfing behavior across thousands of customizable topics. This creates a background noise of false information disguising and inverting your own interests. We believe our technology is indistinguishable from that of a typical user engaging the internet. To support this claim we have introduced a preview mode that works with any of your preferred browsers, and together with a detailed reporting system and a host of custom options each AntiPhormLite will appear unique.
AntiPhormLite is a Windows (Vista and XP) only app. The application does not execute web pages directly inside a browser, minimising the possibility that it might become a conduit for drive-by-download attacks. It ignores bandwidth-heavy images, flash and video files in a bid to make sure that its doesn't eat through a user's bandwidth and thereby slow regular web surfing.
The application needs DirectX 9.0C or later installed. Future versions based on a screen saver are in development.
Phorm has signed deals with BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk to deliver targeted ads based on a user's surfing habits. Other firms including NebuAd and Front Porch are attempting to exploit the same emerging market. The technology has provoked a huge privacy debate spurring an anonymous group of "artists, programmers and designers" to develop AntiPhormLite. Whether AntiPhormLite works against technology from NebuAd and Front Porch is unclear.
Particularly when left in default mode (the settings most users apply) it may not be too difficult for Phorm to filtering out traffic generated by AntiPhormLite. Phorm's developers, whatever else you might think of them, have shown themselves to be tenacious and technically skilled. Many people would have to use AntiPhormLite to skew results and the biggest disadvantage is that those users would have to consent to using Phorm's behavior tracking software in the first place.
Data pimping fight-back
AntiPhormLite does however represent another front against Phorm, which is under close scrutiny from anti-malware firms, many of which consider its technology to be on the borderline of adware classification.
The UK Information Commissioner has called on ISPs to apply Phorm's technology on an opt-in basis, something Phorm itself has resisted but Talk Talk has agreed to. Security watchers, most notably Richard Clayton of Cambridge University and the Foundation for Information Policy Research, have questioned the legality of Phorm's approach, particularly in relation to UK data interception law.
Meanwhile internet activists have created a site, BadPhorm, highlighting concerns about the Phorm's behaviour tracking technology, and the company's background as adware firm 121Media.
More on AntiPhormLite can be found here. ®
Update
The app went live on Thursday afternoon. There is no physical address and phone number on the AntiPhorm site, prompting a bit of concern about the provenance of the app in a thread on the BadPhorm forum. One poster complained that it generated multiple tabs in a browser window.
Commentors elsewhere suggest switching to a Phorm-fee ISP is a better approach than applying a as yet-unproven application.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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