Tesla has toughened the Model S’ underbody to help prevent any more fires, but apparently it needs to add some reinforcement to its network features too. An enterprising hacker can’t quite drive one of the electric vehicles away, but holes in the auto’s security apparently allow a ne’er-do-well to locate the vehicle, unlock its doors and steal your belongings.
Tesla’s Model S is supposed to be the safest car on the road—at least where the physical realm is concerned. But apparently, the crazy expensive car’s six-character password is vulnerable to some pretty basic hacking techniques, leaving you and your car’s data at the mercy of a tech-savvy stranger. The vulnerability was revealed by Nitesh Dhanjani, a corporate security consultant and Tesla owner, at Singapore’s Black Hat Asia security conference this past Friday. While the car can’t go into drive without the actual key fob present, it is still possible to both unlock and access the car’s internal data system. Because once a hacker has the owner’s six-character password, the accompanying mobile app will grant access to the car’s monitoring system as well as allow the hacker to “perform minor tasks,” such as controlling the car’s headlights and halting charging.
