4 Comments
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Chris #TheAntiVirusGuy Moody's avatar

Was that vehicle data extracted from an Apple Carplay / Android Auto vehicle infotainment system?

It always surprises me when people connect their phones to the infotainment system in hire cars. Will they remember to do a delete befofe handing the hire car back? And even if they do delete their phone from the car, is that data really erased securely?

Erich Winkler's avatar

As a matter of fact it was! I believe it was an Android Auto infortainment system.

Well, I guess that’s answers your other questions. I don’t think you can currently “delete” the data from the vehicle.

Chris #TheAntiVirusGuy Moody's avatar

So does that mean in theory you can get hold of the phone address books of every phone that has been connected to a car via Android Auto / Apple Carplay ?

Erich Winkler's avatar

I wouldn’t generalize it that much. All we can say for sure is that in that version of SW and that specific manufacturer, the vulnerability exists and it’s easily exploitable. It’s possible that other manufacturers don’t store this data.

There were more preconditions than the usage of Android Auto.

But it’s definitely good to take into account before connecting in a car that isn’t yours.