[AP]

Recent video demonstrating how easy it is to steal a car.
Example is Range Rover which is well known about in motoring cirlces and JLR pushing out a fix for late models at the moment.
But this thief basically states that just about any car can be easily got.

My concern as far as BMW goes is comfort access.
I have it on my car but its not an option I would have chosen, thanks to WLTP, it came bundled in the Comfort pack which I wanted for the seats.

Whilst you can make a couple of changes to settings for it, as far as I'm aware, there is no way to turn the whole lot off.

I know there are improvements about the keys that they switch off if not moving around.

Physical deterrents are a good idea in addition.

Thoughts about this, anyone asked BMW whether this can be disabled?

[eric_gm]

There are faraday cases (and cages) on Amazon and eBay so you can completely block your key signals and anyone trying to amplify them to steal the car.

My car has comfort access too and although this type of exploit is not that common (it's easier for thieves to simply wait for you to get home, point a gun at your head and take off with your car), those faraday cases are something I'm definitely planning on buying.

[AP]

The worrying thing was in the video where they steal the car in the car park but it’s not a relay attack. The owners are in the shop. He used a device on his lap( it’s pixelated) and that somehow communicate with the car.
What’s going on there?

[arkhi]

Originally Posted by AP

The worrying thing was in the video where they steal the car in the car park but it’s not a relay attack. The owners are in the shop. He used a device on his lap( it’s pixelated) and that somehow communicate with the car.
What’s going on there?

It's a clickbait video with a clickbait title and a clickbait thumbnail. What do you expect? The biggest threat to older cars right now are relay attacks, which as you stated doesn't seem the case here (I didn't fully watch the video).

BMW mitigated this in the last few years by putting the key in sleep mode when it hasn't move in a few seconds, and fully mitigating it by using UWB where security is embedded in the physical layer (i.e. radio waves). UWB makes use of AOF and TOF so it knows where a signal is coming from. It will know if a relay attack is occuring.

Also, last I checked only BMW can make new key fobs. They program it with the VIN from the factory. Last I checked, even when you go to the dealer, they have to order it from BMW.

Now, for other manufacturers, they allow licensed locksmiths and dealerships to make fobs for their cars. For Toyota, how this works is you use Techstream (Toyota's ISTA equivalent) to the car, and it will present you with either a 48 or 96 character key that you have to go to a process to submit to Toyota to receive a 6 digit pin that will allow you to recode the car's keys and immobilizer. Of course, savy people out there manage to create a generator so you can bypass this entirely so it will allow you to reprogram the keys and the car and steal it if you want to.

You can't really do that same technique with a BMW.

[AP]

Thanks for the explanation. Didn’t realise UWB was used. Was aware of the key going to sleep.

Personally I used a faraday cage pouch and a steering lock as my additional security