Project TEMPA

The security of Tesla’s cars has been a hot topic in recent months. In addition to being one of the safest cars on the road, it is also well-protected from hacks and attacks. But how does Tesla make sure their vehicles are safe and secure?

Tesla is a company that has been innovating in the automobile industry for many years. They have been designing and manufacturing electric vehicles which are environmentally friendly and sustainable. Tesla has also been pioneering and implementing new technologies in the automotive industry. One of these innovations is their Bluetooth interface which is used for locking and unlocking vehicles and can be used to uniquely identify cars, as well as to track them in real-time with apps like “Tesla Radar”.

The introduction of Tesla’s Bluetooth passive entry system, previously only used by model 3 and model Y, into new product lines like the Tesla 2021 Model S/X facelift variant, shows the strategic importance of this technology for Tesla in the years to come.

Project TEMPA provides tools and information about the VCSEC protocol used by Tesla accessories and the Tesla app in order to control vehicles via Bluetooth LE.

Within project TEMPA, Tesla’s VCSEC protocol has been reverse-engineered by statically analysing the decompiled official Tesla Android application.

Press Appearances

The authors of these selected press articles have been in touch, personally.

• Heise online: Forscher demonstriert Tesla-Klau (7th of June 2022 by Jürgen Schmidt)
• Ars Technica: Gone in 130 Seconds (8th of June 2022 by Dan Goodin)
• WIRED: Hackers Can Steal Your Tesla (9th of June 2022 by Dan Goodin)
• Stern: Hacker klont Tesla-Schlüssel (9th of June 2022 by Malte Mansholt)
• FutureZone: Salzburger zeigt, wie sich Teslas stehlen lassen (4th of August 2022 by Barbara Wimmer)
• Heute.at: Ich knacke Teslas mit dem Handy in wenigen Sekunden (26th of September 2022 by Christine Ziechert)

Recordings

• MCH2022: Project TEMPA (25th of July 2022 in Zeewolde, The Netherlands)
• TROOPERS22: Project TEMPA (29th of June 2022 in Heidelberg, Germany)
• SEC-T 0xEXPAND: Project TEMPA (16th of September 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden)

Related Attacks

• Tesla BLE Relay Attack (Presented on 18th of May 2022 at CanSecWest)
• Tesla Authorization Timer Attack (Presented on 4th of June 2022 at REcon)
• Tesla KeyDrop Attack (Presented on 29th of June 2022 at Troopers 2022)
• Tesla Crypto Counter Confusion Attack (Presented on 25th of July 2022 at MCH2022)
• Tesla Authorization Extraction/Replay Attack (Presented on 25th of July 2022 at MCH2022)

Project start

Project TEMPA has been first publicly presented at CanSecWest 2022 (May 2022) in Vancouver. The displayed date on top represents the date of the last modification of this page.

People Involved