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Comment by maerF0x0 | Hacker News Reader

Before luddites get in arms about "This would never happen with normal keys" ... Nothing stopping someone from making a copy of the keys _after renting the car_ and coming back later to use them.

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Well, yes there is. Many if not most new cars require the ECU to be programmed to accept a new key. That's how typical theft deterrence works today. You must also have possession of all keys to be programmed. You can't just add a key and leave the others in place.

> You must also have possession of all keys to be programmed. You can't just add a key and leave the others in place.

Sure, if you do it at the dealer.

Find someone with a programmer and they can add a key without having the other keys - I've done it myself on my own vehicle.

Depends on the car, newer models need a special authorization to access security related ECUs

Officially, yes, but virtually all of them have a bypass programmer ~6 months after the vehicle is released.

I still keep my decade old beater around, and even that thing isn't susceptible to someone making a new key at Home Depot.

Copying keys nowadays require some car hacking knowledge. If you can copy the keys easily, you can get easily better job than stealing cars. And if one wants to steal THAT car, there is no way to stop it. It might just take longer.

Seems the thief in this story is a kind of counter argument to your point. He didnt seem to prefer the jobs available to him versus stealing the car.

It didn't work very well for him though, except for the joyride that is.

Getting a replacement car key made is a surprisingly slow/expensive process for most modern cars (not as easy as a replacement house key at Home Depot, for example)

That’s what dealerships would like you to believe, but my local OSH can make chipped keys in minutes. Programming them generally only requires access to an already programmed key and youtube.

exactly. Physical security is the only security.

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