OwnStar: Researcher hijacks remote access to OnStar

Samy Kamkar's OwnStar can gain access to GM OnStar cars.

Samy Kamkar, a Los Angeles-based security researcher and hardware hacker, has created a device called OwnStar that can find, unlock, and remote start General Motors cars equipped with OnStar. The hack, which is based on an exploit of OnStar's mobile software communications channel, exposes the credentials of a car's owner when it intercepts communications with OnStar's service. The device will be demonstrated at next week's DefCon security conference in Las Vegas.

The OwnStar device can detect nearby users of the OnStar RemoteLink application on a mobile phone and can then inject packets into the communication stream to the phone, getting it to give up additional information about the user's credentials. Those credentials can then be used to gain access to the vehicle's OnStar account and the full functionality of the OnStar RemoteLink app.

Kamkar says the vulnerability is in the app itself and not the OnStar hardware in GM vehicles. He added that GM and OnStar are working to correct the flaw in the vulnerable mobile application. GM customers who use OnStar can protect themselves for the time being by not using the RemoteLink app.