Tesla Paywall Features Jailbroken by Hackers
Exploiting what seems to be an unpatchable flaw.
Recently, a team of researchers, including a security expert and three PhD students joined forces to hack a Tesla‘s paywall, unlocking a host of paid features for free. They did so by exposing a major security flaw that can be traced to the maker’s recent AMD-based vehicles.
The findings, set to be fully unveiled at the upcoming Blackhat 2023 conference, demonstrate a persistent jailbreak—a term used in the tech industry to denote the workaround and bypassing of software restrictions. Through the jailbreak, the hackers or researchers were able to exploit the vehicle’s media control unit (MCU), which manages all in-car purchase offerings.
To make a long and technical story short, the exploit convinces the MCU that all unpaid features are in fact paid. These include features like rear heated seats, Acceleration Boost, Full Self-Driving and more — all features that would cost over $12,000 USD a year if paid for.
At the time of writing, the flaw has been deemed to be unpatchable, which could present an issue and massive earnings loss for the brand if owners are able to figure out a way to jailbreak their own AMD-equipped Teslas from home. That being said, the hack is likely to be quite intricate, with many believing it might be a voltage-based fault attack.
For more information and details on the hack, keep an eye out for the full breakdown at the 2023 Blackhat conference.
In other tech news, Waymo and Cruise approved to offer 24/7 driverless taxi rides in San Francisco.
