is it possible to use something from the car utils to clear fault codes from a car? would really appreciate any help or guidance about materials to help learn. thanks
I think the first question is what year, make, and model?
2007 vauxhall astra 1.4
If I am not misunderstanding, that may require you to change the codebase that powers the car. There is a possibility that the car you are targeting may have code written in C, C++ and Assembly.
I’ve never used it so can’t speak to its effectiveness, but scantool seems like the most straight forward tool for reading/clearing OBDII codes. Running the command scantool should open up a GUI.
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Thank you. Have you any guidance as to how to learn more about this subject? As far as tools go it seems as if it is one of the harder ones to learn anything about.
You can do a web search on metasploit for example and find a thousand ways to exploit a windows xp and if lucky a little more, but leaning about how to exploit a car seems a subject rarely shared.
Yeah car hacking is definitely one of the more challenging spaces. I guess it comes down to what your goals are. What you research for learning how to exploit key-fobs would entirely different from something like modify the ECU’s performance maps. CAN Bus would be a good place to start. The tools will make more sense of you at least have a basic understanding of the underlying protocol running on cars’
I really think that there be an issue with those KIA Souls they seemed to be exploited very easily. My wife owns one and there is a rash of these being stolen with someone just getting an USB cable and an app on their phone. I wish there was a way to harden the ones that didn’t get the update from the manufacturer
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The USB use in question are used to turn an physical part inside of the ignition cylinder. The reason why they are able to drive away with the car too (for all KIA Hyundai models in the usa for an good range of years) is because there is no chip key immobilizer for any of those cars affected by this.
(For people that don’t know this, the chip keys are like like using https to surf the web with encryption or verification as an basic example. In actual use, a chip key broadcasts an RFID frequency and the immobilizer has to have the correct key code reading to start the engine and disable security. (The code gets verified by the BCM, TCM, and ECM etc.)
I believe (as an logical guess) the update that KIA pushed out recently made the BCM (body control module) check for continuity (for open circuits) on some wires near the ignition cylinder since there is some “fabrication” when performing this “brute force” attack. This is a way they can correct the cars for not having an immobilizer, and prevent starting of the vehicle. (fun fact in Canada the immobilizers are required by law including daytime running-lights but not in the USA.) Hopefully this stops the crimes from occurring.
But unless something changed recently there is no app or hacking involved while stealing the cars, just poorly designed parts and cheapness from KIA unfortunately.
(to Justin: if the car did not get the update I would recommend going to an aftermarket autoshop to install an aftermarket kill switch hidden to give better security for that vehicle, or potentially get an car that has an immobilizer)
If you just want to reset fault codes, buy an OBD2 reader, they are about ÂŁ6 - ($10) and connect to a mobile phone, either by WiFi (shows as a network to connect too), or via bluetooth to read codes and reset them.
As for car hacking, they are embedded sytems, so all data is held in eeprom chips, this makes reading and writing data a fairly slow process.
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