Vehicle Immobilizer False Error Injection for Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern vehicle immobilizers can be bypassed, allowing theft by disabling the starter, and there is a need to secure the vehicle even when the immobilizer is compromised.
Innovation Solution
An immobilizer generates and sends false error information to the electronic control unit (ECU) during the vehicle start process, which immobilizes the vehicle, and this information is revoked during the start process, ensuring the vehicle remains secured even if the immobilizer is bypassed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If false error information is sent to ECU during vehicle shutdown, then vehicle security is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The immobilizer sends false error information to the ECU during vehicle shutdown as a preliminary action. This ensures that if the immobilizer is bypassed, the ECU will still reject engine start attempts because it has been pre-loaded with erroneous data indicating a faulty immobilizer status, thereby securing the vehicle before the actual theft attempt occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces false error information as an intermediary element between the immobilizer and the ECU. This intermediary data mimics legitimate error messages but contains deliberate format differences that prevent the ECU from accepting them as valid, thus blocking engine startup without requiring direct communication or authentication between the immobilizer and ECU during the start process.
2Reliability
If false error data format differs from actual error data, then diagnostic systems can detect the manipulation, but measurement precision of error detection is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The false error information is designed with local quality variations - it mimics the overall structure and format of legitimate ECU error messages but introduces specific, localized differences in certain fields or data segments. These localized deviations are sufficient for diagnostic systems to detect manipulation while maintaining enough similarity to be initially recognized as error messages by the ECU.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for protecting a vehicle, the method may include providing, by an immobilizer, false error information that is associated with a false error; wherein the false error information, once received or processed by an electronic control unit (ECU) of the vehicle, contributes to an immobilizing the vehicle during a vehicle start process; and sending the false error information to the ECU, during a vehicle shut down process that preceded the vehicle start process.