Over the last decade, a range of research has transformed our understanding of automobiles. What we traditionally envisioned as mere mechanical conveyances are now more widely appreciated as complex distributed systems "with wheels". A car purchased today has virtually all aspects of its physical behavior mediated through dozens of microprocessors, themselves networked internally, and connected to a range of external digital channels. As a result, software vulnerabilities in automotive firmware potentially allow an adversary to obtain arbitrary control over the vehicle. Indeed, led by UC San Diego and the University of Washington, multiple research groups have been able to demonstrate such remote control of unmodified automobiles from a variety of manufacturers.

In this talk, Stefan will highlight how our understanding of automotive security vulnerabilities has changed over time, how unique challenges in the automotive sector give rise to these problems and create non-intuitive constraints on their solutions and, finally, the forces that naturally limit the kinds of automotive attacks seen in the wild.