a4Happy

Not sure how many people have seen this yet, but a new attack is currently available against the passive keyless entry and start (PKES) systems like we have available on our Audi's. Long story short, attackers can stick a radio signal boost antenna on/near the car and then on/near the keyfob you walk around with far, far, far away from the car, and be able to open the car, start it and drive off.

Here is a link to a PDF of the research with some interesting info in it.

http://eprint.iacr.org/2010/332.pdf

They do not name any car manufacturers, but be sure to check out the section that says "Access Control Restrictions". It is obvious they are talking about a system just like Audi's system, as Audi requires you to touch the door handle to unlock the car vs. all the stupid America cars where the car will unlock just by walking up to. So, point for Audi as this little step became an extra theft deterrent solution vs. the other solutions, though not by much.

"Access Control Restrictions
At least one car model en-forced some more strict policy. For example, the car would quickly stop sending signals after the door handle was pulled out without detecting the presence of a key. While not preventing the relay attack it forces the attacker to be well prepared and to be synchronized, the door handle needs to be pulled out when the key holder passes in front of the relaying antenna."