Has anyone else had their VRS broken into? 

 

Woke up Saturday morning and got to my car (parked on the drive) to find that some ship bag had gained entry to my car, no damage other than the contents of the glove box being emptied  on the floor and the arm rest and phone holder being out of place. There was an ASOS package containing PJ's on the floor that was later found in a neighbours garden.

 

I always lock my car, and i have setup the audible beep for piece of mind, keys are put in a dummy tin far away from little hands so i know it was locked, i also checked my dashcam footage from the Friday night and it records for 30 secs after the ignition is switched off and you can hear the bleep and see the lights flash as they lit up the front of my house.

 

The forensic police man said he had received two other calls concerning identical break ins (German cars) that had been broken into using a dummy key. I have contacted my local dealer and they are going to re-code both keys and see if anything else in terms of the immobiliser need looking at.

 

Really annoyed, and im leaving my car elsewhere until the keys are re-coded. I had a quick search and cannot find any other stories concerning Skoda break ins.

 

Rant over

Bar stewards. Had the door mirror kicked off my CRX at the weekend. Not the same I appreciate, but it's extremely frustrating and invasive, isn't it!

I'd be getting the keys altered, like you - once bitten...

Gaz

This may help...............http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-38195281

See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/11/car_lock_hack/ - was in the news this summer. If you read the background, then IIRC the latest VAG platform has a key system that should not be vulnerable (but I never saw this qualified). I took this to mean Curr the vRS but cut off was not clear to me. Can you share your car's age? Do you live somewhere that it's likely someone would be listening for key remote lock transmission?

Sorry but if this is the mechanism then key recode would not prevent a repeat (should still be done of course).

This may help...............http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-38195281

 

The jammers in that article stop the car from being locked. The OP says his dashcam recorded the car locking. If that is the case it is not a simple jammer as described in that link.

 

I think most other ways rely on someone getting close to you or the key.

 

Be interesting to know if it had KESSY

I presume (and hope) that things have changed since, but some cars can be opened with keys of a similar make/model using the door locks. 

 

My old VW Bora used to disarm the alarm when you unlocked using the door locks (this combined with the locks being made of butter, you could break in with little effort.)

 

Could it be possible that another Octy key could be used to turn the locks on the doors and potentially disarm the alarm?

Strange, as on the Yeti if you open the door using the key you have to turn on ignition within 30 secs or alarm goes off. Seems a backward step if the Octavia doesn't do this, or they've cloned your remote and opened the door that way.

Strange, as on the Yeti if you open the door using the key you have to turn on ignition within 30 secs or alarm goes off. Seems a backward step if the Octavia doesn't do this, or they've cloned your remote and opened the door that way.

The Octavia does not do this

The encryption relied on a private key to determine what the next key would be.

This was found a good while ago, so it wouldn't surprise me if they listen, then just transmit the next valid code.

This was all VAG group and others too as they used a common manufacturer.

Could it be possible that another Octy key could be used to turn the locks on the doors and potentially disarm the alarm?

Possible that a second key works, but very, very unlikely - you would expect the car to be mostly unlocked via the remote (so little wear to the barrel), IIRC then unlocking with just a key will cause the alarm to activate. Most likely the key has been cloned, via some mechanism.

These are the only kind of keys that can get past the physical locking mechanism..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l5M_tX7LNj4

Obvs this shouldn't bypass the alarm but we are purely speculating here as the OP has not said if he has KESSY or not....I believe that if the keys are within decent proximity the car will unlock if you touch the handle....has anyone tried this where the car is parked close to the house and keys may be close enough to lock/unlock car??

I haven't got KESSY.....don't trust/like it anyway.

This photo attached is of some of the liberty tools which belong to my mate who is a locksmith...they work pretty slick but not been tried on any modern vag cars...I'm tempted to see if they work on my 66 vrs....

Edited 13 December, 20169 yr by vRSmiked

Hi all, I should have said it's not keyless entry, 8 cars have been broken into along my road, golf, insignia & Nissan.

Thanks for update Banjaminion,

I suggest the above tool is probably the most likely option in that case....

Happened to me about 3 weeks ago, but pretty sure my wife forgot to lock it.

Luckily no damage but my 80gb iPod was taken

Hi all, I should have said it's not keyless entry, 8 cars have been broken into along my road, golf, insignia & Nissan.

 

 

The encryption relied on a private key to determine what the next key would be.

This was found a good while ago, so it wouldn't surprise me if they listen, then just transmit the next valid code.

This was all VAG group and others too as they used a common manufacturer.

 

 

To me it sounds like the hack I said, where somebody has a box and sits listening to you locking the car.

This is really trivial with a relatively modern laptop and they will have the key sequence in no time.

They can then play it back with a computer operated radio unit and your car will unlock itself as if you used the remote.

 

Have you noticed cars parked up with people in your area recently?

 

The only real option (since the companies won't upgrade the cars chips) is to either fit some mechanical security or see if there is a version of the key/system which doesn't use the compromised transmitter/encoder hardware.

 

I know some car alarm companies used to do their own remote/lock systems in the past, but you'd need to be quite specific to check that these don't suffer from the same weakness.

 

A few methods, which are already public, so the thieves already know:

 

https://www.wired.com/2016/03/study-finds-24-car-models-open-unlocking-ignition-hack/

 

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2971826/cybercrime-hacking/hack-to-steal-cars-with-keyless-ignition-volkswagen-spent-2-years-hiding-flaw.html

 

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/unlocking-almost-any-vehicle-with-an-sdr-or-arduino/

 

https://www.wired.com/2016/08/oh-good-new-hack-can-unlock-100-million-volkswagens/

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3201564/Hackers-reveal-flaw-100-cars-kept-secret-Volkwagen-TWO-YEARS-Bug-used-unlock-Kia-Lamborghini.html

 

http://makezine.com/2015/08/11/anatomy-of-the-rolljam-wireless-car-hack/

Edited 13 December, 20169 yr by cheezemonkhai

Hi, there are always cars packed along our road dropping kids off at the scout hut etc. I have noticed a scratch on the rear door but that could have been me trying to bundle my kids in the car. Anyway the keys are getting re-coded on Saturday and im going to install some cameras on the outside of my house.

I posted on another thread somewhere... there is a CCTV video of VW near me that the thief just walks upto the car, unlocks it helps himself walks off... remembers he hasn't locked it, turns back and re locks it. All without stealing the keys