Security Researchers Expose Vulnerabilities in Major Automaker's Connected Car Platform
Researchers discovered critical flaws allowing remote vehicle access through exposed identity management systems.
1Connected Car Security Risks
Modern vehicles rely on complex connected platforms that link hardware to internet-facing web infrastructure. This integration creates significant attack surfaces if backend services are not properly secured. Researchers investigated a major automaker's system, discovering that remote vehicle control functions were accessible through poorly protected APIs and exposed administrative tools.
2Decompiling the Mobile Application
The investigation began by analyzing the automaker's Android application to understand its communication protocols. By decompiling the APK, researchers reconstructed API requests and identified the primary domain used for telematics. This process revealed that the application relied on various backend services, some of which were inadvertently exposed on the public internet.
3Exposed Admin Tool Discovery
A subdomain labeled as an admin tool was found to be publicly accessible, featuring a test harness interface. Analysis of the site's JavaScript bundle uncovered hardcoded API keys and internal logic. This tool allowed employees to interact with customer accounts, highlighting a failure in restricting access to sensitive production-level administrative functions.
4Mapping Plate to Identity
Researchers established a chain to link a vehicle's number plate to a specific user account. By utilizing public registration lookup sites, they obtained the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). Further API queries allowed them to retrieve the subscriber's unique GUID and associated email address, effectively mapping physical vehicles to digital identities.
5Identity System Vulnerabilities
The automaker utilized ForgeRock's identity software to manage user authentication and vehicle commands. Researchers found that the system's JavaScript bundles contained embedded admin credentials for the identity platform. Despite the presence of a Web Application Firewall, the underlying configuration remained fragile, leaving the central identity management system vulnerable to exploitation.
6Bypassing WAF Protections
Initial attempts to access sensitive endpoints were blocked by Nginx WAF rules designed to protect the OpenIDM system. However, researchers identified path traversal vulnerabilities that allowed them to bypass these restrictions. By testing various URL patterns, they discovered specific paths that the firewall failed to inspect, granting access to restricted API endpoints.
7Leveraging AI for Exploitation
After facing hurdles with manual bypass attempts, the team utilized an AI model to analyze the OpenIDM source code. The AI identified a specific path combination that successfully bypassed the WAF's servlet path checks. This breakthrough allowed the researchers to interact directly with the identity management APIs without triggering security blocks.
8Account Takeover Mechanism
With the WAF bypass achieved, researchers could perform a PATCH operation to overwrite passwords for any user profile. By modifying the password field directly in the identity system, they gained unauthorized access to customer accounts. This process demonstrated how easily an attacker could compromise individual user identities within the automaker's ecosystem.
9Multi-Factor Authentication Bypass
The Australian environment featured a critical misconfiguration that allowed the multi-factor authentication step to be skipped entirely. By requesting an authentication token using the compromised credentials, researchers could exchange it for a valid session. This flaw effectively neutralized the security layer intended to protect users from unauthorized account access and control.
10Remote Vehicle Control Access
Once the researchers possessed a valid consumer auth token, they could issue commands to any vehicle linked to the compromised account. The API allowed for remote actions such as locking, unlocking, and controlling engine functions. This capability confirmed that the entire security chain, from plate to vehicle, was effectively broken.
11Infrastructure Hygiene Concerns
The incident underscores the dangers of exposing staging and administrative tools on the public internet. Managing complex connected car infrastructure requires strict network segmentation and robust authentication. When internal tools are accessible without proper hardening, they provide a roadmap for attackers to navigate and exploit the entire backend service architecture.
12Implications for Automotive Security
This research highlights the urgent need for better security practices in the automotive industry. As vehicles become increasingly software-defined, the reliance on cloud-based identity systems grows. Automakers must prioritize secure API design, rigorous WAF configurations, and the removal of sensitive credentials from client-side code to prevent large-scale remote vehicle exploitation.