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Meet a guy selling wireless devices to quickly steal luxury cars

The editorial board of Motherboard magazine received a video of the implementation of the so-called attacks of a mediator from the author of EvanConnect, who sells wireless repeaters that can be used to open and hijack luxury cars.




Two men walked through a poorly lit garage, and one of them looked at a black laptop-sized device located over his shoulder inside his bag. Using the buttons on the device’s case, he went over the various operating modes displayed on the device’s bright LED display before stopping on one of them.

When the device was set up, a second man walked over to the bright white Jeep car parked in the garage. He held his device: a small box with an antenna on top. The man tried to open the car door, but it was locked. He pressed a button on the top of his device, blinked a light, and the car opened. He climbed into the driver's seat and pressed the start button.

To demonstrate the capabilities of the device, the man turned off the box with the antenna and again pressed the start button of the machine. “The key fob was not detected” - an inscription appeared on the panel of the car, which meant that the person driving had no wireless key for starting the car. "Press the key fob to start."

Ignoring the message, the man turned on the device again in his hand and tried to start the car. As if by magic, the engine started with a characteristic growl.

EvanConnect, one of the men in the video who hides behind a pseudonym online, personifies the link between digital and physical crimes. He sells devices worth thousands of dollars, allowing other people to break into expensive cars and steal them. He claims that his clients are in the USA, Britain, Australia and several countries in South America and Europe.

“I can honestly say that I myself did not steal cars using this technology,” Evan told the editorial board. “That would be very easy, but I think: why should I get my hands dirty if I can make money simply by selling tools to others.”

The video is not a real theft; Evan used his friend’s Jeep to showcase the device’s capabilities, and then uploaded another version of it to his YouTube channel. In addition, these devices are sometimes used by security researchers to verify the protection of machines. However, the threat of digital car theft is real.


Police around the world have reported an increase in thefts over the past few years, which, in their opinion, have been committed using various electronic devices. In a 2015 press release, the Toronto Police Department warned locals of a surge in theft of Toyota and Lexus SUVs, which seemed to be carried out using electronic tools. In a 2017 video released by West Midlands police in Britain, two men were shown approaching a Mercedes Benz parked near its owner’s house. As in the video of Evan, one stood next to a car with a portable device, and the second placed a larger device next to the house in an attempt to catch the signal emitted by the car keys lying inside.

Not all car thefts using electronics are necessarily carried out with the same technology. Some technologies rely on jamming the signal from the owner's key fob, as a result of which the owner believes that he closed the car, although in fact it is open to robbers. Evan's devices, in contrast to them, are “wireless repeaters”, and carry out the so-called middleman attacks.

Interested in iron hacking and security issues, Sammy Kamkar rated Evan's video and explained the details of this attack to us. It all starts with the fact that the owner of the car closed it and leaves with the key. One of the accomplices tries to intercept the signal, and then approaches the car, holding one of the devices listening to the broadcast at low frequencies, on which the machine sends signals to check for the presence of the key nearby, and then this device transmits this signal “at a higher frequency, type 2, 4 GHz or something like that, at which a signal can easily travel much longer distances, ”wrote Kamkar. The second device in the hands of the second cracker receives this high-frequency signal and repeats it again, at the original low frequency.

The key fob sees this signal at a low frequency and responds in the usual manner, as if it were located close to the car.

“This happens in both directions several times until the whole process of transferring passwords and reviews between the key and the machine is completed, and these two electronic devices simply engage in transmitting communications over a longer distance,” wrote Kamkar.

Using such devices, criminals create a bridge that stretches from the car to the key in the victim’s pocket, house or office, and each side is deceived, believing that it is located next to the other, which allows attackers to open and start the car.

“I can’t confirm the veracity of the video, but I can say that the method is 100% working - I myself organized a similar attack on at least a dozen cars using my own hardware, and it is very easy to demonstrate,” said Kamkar.



To confirm the fact of ownership of the technology, Evan sent photos of the devices along with a printed message to prove that they were not just someone else's photos. He also showed editors various technological devices in live video chat and provided other videos demonstrating the operation of the devices.

A representative of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, managing the Jeep brand, did not respond to our requests.

Evan said the devices will work on all keyless entry machines, except those that use 22-40 kHz frequencies, including Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Rolls Royce cars manufactured after 2014. These manufacturers have switched to key systems using the newer FBS4 technology. However, Evan added that he is selling another model that can switch between frequencies 125-134 kHz and the added range of 20-40 kHz, which will allow hackers to open and launch any keyless car for today. He sells the standard model for $ 9000, and the updated version for $ 12000.

“Everything sounds pretty believable, and is implemented simply,” Kamkar said. “I made devices with this functionality for about $ 30 (and if you sell them in large quantities, you can do it cheaper), so there is no reason to suspect fraud.”


Indeed, repeaters of wireless keys can be collected for a not very large amount. However, people who want to use such devices may not have the technical knowledge to assemble them on their own, so they buy ready-made boxes from Evan.

“The thing is 100% worth the investment,” Evan said. - No one sells devices cheaply; "Only a person familiar with radio electronics and the PKE (passive keyless entry) working scheme can make it cheap."

Evan said that he had somehow heard about people using similar devices in his city and decided to start researching the technology. A year later, he found interested parties and began to assemble a team for the assembly of devices.

Since these devices are not banned in the United States, Evan openly advertises his products on social networks. He said that he communicates with clients using the Telegram messenger. Usually Evan requires a full prepayment, but sometimes he meets with a client in person if he does not want to pay big money in advance, or first sells a cheaper device to him.

He said that he already has a criminal past, and that he will go to jail in the future for a violation not related to these issues, but with regard to technology, Evan considers himself an amateur in this area, and not some kind of tough criminal.

“For me, all this technique is just a hobby, and I share my knowledge about it with the world without fear,” he told the editorial office.

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