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Marco: Vehicle Identification & Tracking via Passive Keyless Entry

Nick Ashworth

Nick Ashworth presents 'Marco', a radar-like RF attack that probes Passive Keyless Entry (PKE) systems to identify and track specific vehicles across a city.

Summary

Beyond Relay Theft: Exploiting PKE for Surveillance

While research on Passive Keyless Entry (PKE) focuses on relay attacks for vehicle theft, the unencrypted challenge-response protocol introduces massive surveillance vulnerabilities.

Introducing the 'Marco' Vehicle Tracking Attack

Nick Ashworth presents 'Marco', an attack methodology that functions like cooperative radar by broadcasting low-frequency wakeup beacons.

Fingerprinting Unique Vehicle Cryptographic Responses

By measuring precise RF timing and response identifiers from a target vehicle's keyless transceivers, an attacker tracks specific cars without physical contact.

Mitigating RF Tracking and Privacy Leaks in Connected Cars

The author discusses protocol enhancements, randomized transponder MAC addresses, and cryptographic challenges to prevent vehicle stalking.

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