The article does not make it particularly clear, but the malware in question is delivered through official first-party OTA updates on cheap Chinese aftermarket head units that happen to run Android. It cannot self-propagate to any Android-based head unit, nor does it affect Android Auto which is a "dumb" screen mirroring protocol with the bulk of the software running on the connected phone rather than the head unit. This seems to be a very similar situation to that of cheap generic Android TV streaming boxes, which often come pre-infected from the factory with residential proxies and other malware as well; most of the infrastructure is likely shared.
Why do they gloss right over how this was distributed? Barring details of any other kind of exploit we would have to assume the vendor's update server was compromised? If so why don't they just say so.
To avoid charges of libel.
In America its not libel if it's true
I see nothing at a glance about the author (Dmitry Kalinin) being American, so I can't imagine that is relevant.
there is the problem. We don't know what country is in question. There are some countries where the truth is not a defense against libel. Thus, depending on where the author is from, or for that matter the publisher or other people who might happen to be in the chain, there could be a libel case if the truth was stated.
Indeed this is an odd disclosure and I am not familiar with past posts by them.
Moreover, no CVE is associated with this claimed vulnerability. It's not even stated which Android version or automotive head-unit variant version is affected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspersky_and_the_Russian_gove...
Oh, I see I'm getting downvoted by the Russian bots, quelle surprise.
It’s astonishing how this relatively long article contains not a shred of actual evidence that any of this is true. It’s all “alleged”, “raised concerns”, “sources said” etc.
Wikipedia's source policy makes it nearly impossible to refer to anything that is not in the media, and any sensitive article has to use weasel words like this. Are you just noting the issue with the article, or actually doubting that Kaspersky Labs is a de-facto FSB branch since at least 2015?
FSB? Oh you mean Russian “Federal Security Service” ?
It's been a while since I thought about Front Side Bus
As it says in the first line of the WP article: "Federal Security Service (FSB)"
The article is about a controversy involving allegations. There is plenty of evidence presented that the controversy and the allegations exist. (And if you dig into the links, there is plenty of evidence that the allegations are not without basis.)
> “sources said”
Yes, that's how Wikipedia works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_vie...
Welcome to Wikipedia
This makes me think whether the whole chain is an intelligence side business — sell cheap electronics for profit and at the same time own them too.
It cannot self-propagate to any Android-based head unit
Remember that not that long ago viruses spread through floppy disks.
Today, people share USB sticks full of music from one car to another all the time. They also bring their music from their home car to a rental car and back.
I’ve never met anyone irl who used USB sticks full of music. I know the capability is there in most cars, just never seen it. It seems like Bluetooth capability and Spotify/Apple Music landed in mainstream cars too soon after “play MP3s from USB” was added, for that to catch on.
> I’ve never met anyone irl who used USB sticks full of music.
I've been doing it for years, since it's so much more convenient than the alternatives: plug the stick into my car and I have my whole music library there and it Just Works.
My hand is raised. I like having 8GB of music on an old (USB2 is fine) flash drive in my car as a fallback. On longer trips I'll hookup the Android Auto, but if I don't need maps and it's a quick ride, shuffle & repeat all enabled on the USB source.
Sure beats the radio, which plays 2 songs and then 5 min of commercials/sweepers, and has the gall to run ads on the HD text transmission on FM designed for song information.
Most people just bring their phone between cars for music.
> nor does it affect Android Auto which is a "dumb" screen mirroring protocol with the bulk of the software running on the connected phone rather than the head unit
Huh, how does that work anyway? And while we're at it, Apple CarPlay as well? Both can run wirelessly via Bluetooth, but BT is nowhere near capable enough to stream full bandwidth video?
Wireless AA and CarPlay use a hotspot your car emits that your phone connects to and transfers the image/inputs/audio that way
Wireless CarPlay uses Bluetooth to exchange SSID and key info before switching over to WiFi for the duration of the session.
Wow that's cursed, never realized that's how it worked.
It's a good idea actually, but it's also really complex to get right.
Early version of Android Auto could transfer over USB 2.0 instead of Bluetooth, which works, but it's not near as high bandwidth.
Cursed is exactly how I would describe it - because it works great until it doesn’t and it of course gives you zero clue why it won’t connect.
It uses Bluetooth to stream audio, but everything else happens through a WiFi connection exposed by the car that the phone automatically pairs with after the Bluetooth handshake.
The way I understand it, the connection is negotiated via BT, but then wifi is used for the fat data pipe to run the display.
They didn't run over BT. BT is used to initiate communication and share the password to a wifi-network. It then uses that Wi-Fi network for most communication, keeping the BT channel strictly for telephony.
I thought the latest Bluetooth protocols were basically designed to hand off to an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection between the two devices after the initial handshake. (Might be an oversimplification of the real protocol)
They actually run over WiFi (WiFi direct IIRC) - Bluetooth is mostly just used as a setup handshake and to help the head unit decide which phone in the car should be the one connected.
> It cannot self-propagate to any Android-based head unit
Article does not say that.
Headline really quite clearly implies it, though. I think the correction is apt.
Bottom line is that lots of HN commenters here, as is our wont, will see this as a platform bug with a hated rival and not a bad third party integration that introduced vulnerabilities.
Like, if it was a Linux-based edge system from some fly-by-night contractor, would you be OK with a headline like "Malware infects Debian based refrigerators"? What'd Debian do?
It’s no different than how the old Ford Sync or something else could have been compromised.
The two big things here in my mind are:
1. Android Automotive has gotten very popular since it provides so much and writing your own OS is very very hard and expensive as so many car makers found out
2. Aftermarket head units often use it (see #1) so it’s likely far easier to get out there than if you had to compromise Ford/VW/Volvo/whoever
This is not Android Auto though, which is an entirely different product suite designed to connect a OEM infotainment system to an Android device owned by the vehicle operator. That protocol is proprietary, Google-owned and managed, not part of AOSP, and not available to the integrator of the software in question.
The actually vulnerable system is a custom vehicle head unit that merely happens to be running a software stack based on AOSP. It's not even "Android" in a product marketing sense.
Again, it's like blaming Debian because some loon stuffed it in a wifi NAS or whatever and put a backdoor into their UI. It's insane.
Do you mean Android Automotive?