Skip to main content

Michigan researchers show how easy it is to hack trucks

Cybersecurity researchers have already shown how easy it is to hack a Jeep Cherokee and take control of its brakes and steering, resulting in a recall for the vulnerability to be corrected. At the Usenix Workshop on Offensive Technologies conference next week, a group of University of Michigan researchers plan to demonstrate how trucks, which have also begun adding similar electronic control system, can be vulnerable to hacking. They plan to show how the openness of the SAE J1939 standard used across
August 5, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Cybersecurity researchers have already shown how easy it is to hack a 1957 Jeep Cherokee and take control of its brakes and steering, resulting in a recall for the vulnerability to be corrected.

At the Usenix Workshop on Offensive Technologies conference next week, a group of University of Michigan researchers plan to demonstrate how trucks, which have also begun adding similar electronic control system, can be vulnerable to hacking.

They plan to show how the openness of the SAE J1939 standard used across all US heavy vehicle industries gives easy access for safety-critical attacks and that these attacks aren't limited to one specific make, model, or industry.

They will test their attacks on a 2006 Class-8 semi tractor and 2001 school bus and demonstrate how simple it is to replicate the kinds of attacks used on consumer vehicles and that it is possible to use the same attack on other vehicles that use the SAE J1939 standard.

They will also show safety critical attacks that include the ability to accelerate a truck in motion, disable the driver's ability to accelerate, and disable the vehicle's engine brake. Their presentation concludes with a discussion of the possibilities of additional attacks and potential remote attack vectors.

Related Content

  • New solutions for catching texting drivers
    October 28, 2016
    Many countries have laws prohibiting texting while driving but enforcement is proving difficult – David Crawford looks at some new approaches being tried by authorities. Finding definitive solutions – technological, regulatory and educational - to the potentially lethal practice of people driving while using mobile phones is proving elusive, while the stakes grow higher.
  • North Florida signals coordinated approach to congestion management
    October 7, 2013
    David Crawford investigates innovative congestion management in Florida. The largest US city by area is well into the implementation of an ambitious congestion management system (CMS) on the scale of those of higher-profile centres such as Seattle and San Francisco. Regional agency the North Florida Transportation Planning Organisation (NFTPO) aims to ensure that commuters on major highways in Jacksonville can rely on a minimum 72km/h (45mph) driving speed in normal conditions.
  • Foundation funds research for informed campaigning
    April 29, 2015
    ITS International talks to Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the transport research and lobbying organisation, the RAC Foundation. It is through the eyes of an economist that Professor Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London and director of the RAC Foundation, views current and future transport problems. Having spent 30 years at the London School of Economics and another 10 at Imperial, the move to the RAC Foundation was a radical departure from
  • AV/ridesharing mix wins major auto investment
    May 5, 2016
    The US has a new trend in personal mobility and David Crawford takes a closer look. US automaker General Motors and ridesharer Lyft’s announcement of a strategic partnership aimed at delivering, over time, an integrated network of on-demand autonomous as well as conventional vehicles has taken the nation’s car industry from traditional manufacturing to new arenas.