SoK: Stealing Cars Since Remote Keyless Entry Introduction and How to Defend From It

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive systematization of knowledge on Remote Keyless Entry (RKE) systems, analyzing their evolution, vulnerabilities, and defense mechanisms to guide future security improvements in automotive access systems.

Contribution

It offers the first extensive survey on RKE and PKES systems, bridging research and industry insights, and identifying ongoing weaknesses and future research directions.

Findings

RKE systems are vulnerable to relay and RollJam attacks.

Modern RKE systems face new threats like API vulnerabilities.

The paper highlights gaps between research and industry defenses.

Abstract

Remote Keyless Entry (RKE) systems have been the target of thieves since their introduction in automotive industry. Robberies targeting vehicles and their remote entry systems are booming again without a significant advancement from the industrial sector being able to protect against them. Researchers and attackers continuously play cat and mouse to implement new methodologies to exploit weaknesses and defense strategies for RKEs. In this fragment, different attacks and defenses have been discussed in research and industry without proper bridging. In this paper, we provide a Systematization Of Knowledge (SOK) on RKE and Passive Keyless Entry and Start (PKES), focusing on their history and current situation, ranging from legacy systems to modern web-based ones. We provide insight into vehicle manufacturers' technologies and attacks and defense mechanisms involving them. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive SOK on RKE systems, and we address specific research questions to understand the evolution and security status of such systems. By identifying the weaknesses RKE still faces, we provide future directions for security researchers and companies to find viable solutions to address old attacks, such as Relay and RollJam, as well as new ones, like API vulnerabilities.