EFF Wins Petition to Inspect and Modify Car Software

[Posted October 27, 2015 by ris]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that the Librarian of Congress has granted security researchers and others the right to inspect and modify the software in their cars and other vehicles. "EFF also won an [DMCA] exemption for users who want to play video games after the publisher cuts off support. For example, some players may need to modify an old video game so it doesn’t perform a check with an authentication server that has since been shut down. The Librarian also granted EFF’s petition to renew a previous exemption to jailbreak smartphones, and extended that to other mobile devices, including tablets and smartwatches. This clarifies the law around jailbreaking, making clear that users are allowed to run operating systems and applications from any source, not just those approved by the manufacturer. EFF also won the renewal and partial expansion of the exemptions for remix videos that use excerpts from DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, or downloading services."

Nice Summary of what this means

Posted Oct 27, 2015 21:14 UTC (Tue) by mordocai (guest, #71668) [Link] (9 responses)

The EFF tweeted this article by Cory Doctorow which seems to give a pretty good overview of what this all means: https://boingboing.net/2015/10/27/librarian-of-congress-g...

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 27, 2015 21:21 UTC (Tue) by jhhaller (guest, #56103) [Link] (8 responses)

Systems which are primarily entertainment/telematics can't be modified, just analyzed for security flaws. Too much concern that one could copy XM radio or extract DVD/Bluray decryption keys.

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 28, 2015 6:31 UTC (Wed) by rhekman (guest, #102114) [Link] (7 responses)

Indeed. The language they approved doesn't allow for the automotive aftermarket to sell tools if the OEM locked up the engine management software. That leaves basically implementing replacement ECUs from scratch, which for modern engines with direct injection, variable cam timing, etc. is a fairly expensive proposition.

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 28, 2015 8:26 UTC (Wed) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link] (6 responses)

but there are replacement ECUs out there (for at least some engines)

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 28, 2015 16:57 UTC (Wed) by jonnor (guest, #76768) [Link] (5 responses)

Anything open source?

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 28, 2015 17:53 UTC (Wed) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link] (2 responses)

not that I know of. But I do know that I've seen entire aftermarket systems getting installed and tweaked on the automotive TV shows.

I would assume that the ones I saw were closed source.

I think I've read of people working on open-source ones. But I haven't followed them to see if they actually make something usable (I drive old all-mechanical diesels, so it's not as if I could use them :-)

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 28, 2015 21:36 UTC (Wed) by rhekman (guest, #102114) [Link] (1 responses)

There are no usable truly open source engine management systems that I'm aware of. There are projects like FreeEMS that at least have some working hardware and software, but it's use is pretty limited from what I've read.

There was some hope with Megasquirt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaSquirt. It is quite popular (I've actually soldered one together from the many kits available), have a healthy community, and they actively encourage modding. Unfortunately however while the source is available, it's patent encumbered and licensed only for use with the PCBs they sell.

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 28, 2015 23:14 UTC (Wed) by ILMostro (guest, #105083) [Link]

IIRC, I climbed into a Tesla car at the local shopping mall as the console was "booting", displaying the Linux kernel (dmesg) lines. I wonder if they have less restrictive ways to deal with the software.

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 30, 2015 0:32 UTC (Fri) by n8willis (subscriber, #43041) [Link] (1 responses)

There are quite a quite a few people releasing work in the open through communities like www.diyefi.org .... I would say the issue is not so much that the job is hard for any one engine as that there can't really be much of a "plug and play" architecture. There are just too many factors that vary from one engine and vehicle to the next. Consequently, most people stick with what comes in the hard and make small adjustments.

Nate

Still can't hack the radio to add Android Auto

Posted Oct 31, 2015 0:44 UTC (Sat) by alison (subscriber, #63752) [Link]

Check out video by Fred Cooke about ECU hacking:

https://vimeo.com/75697548

or try #freeems-ot on Freenode IRC.

Note that Android Auto is supported by only a few phones. GENIVI (projects.genivi.org) and Automotive Grade Linux (Linux Foundation project) have released lots of code. Anyone interested in rolling their own should watch n8willis' outstanding talk from Southern California Linux Expo 2014; there are slides and video.

Claimer: I have worked on some of these projects.

EFF Wins Petition to Inspect and Modify Car Software

Posted Oct 28, 2015 6:28 UTC (Wed) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

There is also an exemption for "Smart" TVs:

https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/oct/27/DMCA-win/

EFF Wins Petition to Inspect and Modify Car Software

Posted Oct 28, 2015 7:52 UTC (Wed) by oldtomas (guest, #72579) [Link]

Could have been more. And the DMCA shouldn't have been born in the first place.

But still a big *THANK YOU* to the brave souls at the EFF and elsewhere for picking up this fight. You really make the world a better place.

(If there'd be a place for the deprecated BLINK tag, this would be one ;-)