Car Hacker's Handbook: A Guide for the Penetration Tester

“The world needs more hackers, and the world definitely needs more car hackers. We’re all safer when the systems we depend upon are inspectable, auditable, and documented—and this definitely includes cars.”

—Chris Evans, from the Foreword

“By turns funny, scary, and intriguing, The Car Hacker's Handbook is a practical guide for tinkerers and a fantastic overview for people who want to know what's going on when they strap themselves into a multi-ton, high-speed computer.”

—Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

“The Car Hacker’s Handbook describes, in meticulous detail, how your car’s components talk both to one another and to diagnosticians—outlining all the ways good and bad guys can modify or attack the systems.”

—The Wall Street Journal

Modern cars are more computerized than ever. Infotainment and navigation systems, Wi-Fi, automatic software updates, and other innovations aim to make driving more ­convenient. But vehicle technologies haven’t kept pace with today’s more hostile security environment, leaving ­millions vulnerable to attack.

The Car Hacker’s Handbook will give you a deeper understanding of the computer systems and embedded software in modern ­vehicles. It begins by examining vulnerabilities and providing detailed explanations of communications over the CAN bus and ­between devices and systems.

Then, once you have an understanding of a ­vehicle’s communication network, you’ll learn how to ­intercept data and perform specific hacks to track vehicles, unlock doors, glitch engines, flood communication, and more. With a focus on low-cost, open source hacking tools such as Metasploit, Wireshark, Kayak, can-utils, and ­ChipWhisperer, The Car Hacker’s Handbook will show you how to:

• Build an accurate threat model for your vehicle
• Reverse engineer the CAN bus to fake engine signals
• Exploit vulnerabilities in diagnostic and data-logging systems
• Hack the ECU and other firmware and embedded systems
• Feed exploits through infotainment and vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems
• Override factory settings with performance-tuning techniques
• Build physical and virtual test benches to try out exploits safely

If you’re curious about automotive security and have the urge to hack a two-ton computer, make The Car Hacker’s Handbook your first stop.