Recently there was a discussion in one of my classes where a student claimed that they read of an attack against the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) required in all United States automobiles. They claimed the attack could stop the car, accelerate the car, lock the breaks, or anything else conceivable. I was in disbelief so I did some research and made a presentation for our weekly Information Assurance Research meeting.
I found that the current attacks on TPMS are very limiting. The researchers were able to turn on and off the tire pressure and general information light, but only temporarily. Most experts agree that a more troubling matter exists with current TPMS implementations; they allow someone to track your car by listening to the wireless sensors in the tires themselves. I argue in my presentation, however, that tracking someone by this means would be more difficult than license plates, car color, car model, car year, car make, or toll tags.
The presentation also covers the researchers use of cheap hardware to decode the wireless signal. I found this aspect very interested. For those interested, here is the link: Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (pdf)
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