Computest Security presented technical information about their discovered vulnerabilities at Black Hat in Las Vegas
Computest Security researchers Thijs Alkemade and Khaled Nassar took the stage this week at the major international cybersecurity conference Black Hat in Las Vegas. Their presentation 'Low Energy to High Energy: Hacking Nearby EV-Chargers Over Bluetooth' detailed the vulnerabilities in three different EV-charging facilities that the team demonstrated earlier this year during the Pwn2Own Automotive hacking competition in Tokyo. These vulnerabilities allowed the researchers to take full control of the investigated charging stations in close proximity.
- More information about the vulnerabilities in various charging stations discovered earlier this year by Computest Security.
The research took place in Computest Security's security lab, 'Sector 7'. Vulnerabilities were found in three different charging stations: the ChargePoint Home Flex, the Autel MaxiCharger, and the Juicebox 40. The first brand has sold more than 200 million charging stations. Each of these stations was accessible through a similar type of vulnerability, allowing hackers to take control of the system and, for example, switch it on or off.
Status of the vulnerabilities
The manufacturers of the charging stations were given six months to address the vulnerabilities. Now that this period has passed, our researchers took the opportunity to inform the public about the vulnerabilities they found and how they approached the security research of the charging stations.
- The software supplier for the Juicebox 40 indicated that they would not release an update because the product is no longer supported. However, this charging station is still being sold.
- The vulnerabilities found in the Autel MaxiCharger (including a 'backdoor' in the authentication) have been neatly resolved with a new update.
- During the research on the ChargePoint Home Flex, the team also accidentally gained access to the supplier’s cloud infrastructure. This critical vulnerability has since been resolved.
Vulnerability details revealed
Computest Security researchers have extensively described the technical details of the various vulnerabilities for each brand of charging station:
Write up 1 - Hacking the ChargePoint Home Flex (and their cloud...)
Write up 2 - Hacking the JuiceBox 40
Write up 3 - Hacking the Autel MaxiCharger
Automotive industry still lacks focus on security
Keuper and Alkemade from Computest Security had previously hacked the infotainment system used in various models of the Volkswagen Group. This revealed that remote access to one of the car's systems was possible. The hack of the charging stations is therefore not an isolated incident but illustrates the lack of attention to security within the automotive industry.
Computest Security researchers Daan Keuper, Khaled Nassar and Thijs Alkemade.
More information about the research
Our ethical hackers are available to discuss and brainstorm the outcomes of the research into the security of different types of charging stations.
Curious about what this means for other brands of charging stations and how these vulnerabilities could have been prevented? Contact the research team at Computest Security via info@computest.nl or call 088-7331337.