[HN Gopher] Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter's Car ___________________________________________________________________ Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter's Car Author : cooperq Score : 83 points Date : 2022-03-28 18:05 UTC (4 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.eff.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.eff.org) | egberts1 wrote: | Spireon bought out Inilex who bought out Sky-LINK. | | So, there's plenty of technician's manual out there under those | former and current M&A names. | | Also, FCC ID is a great starting place, just don't forget merger | and acquisition as well in the business world during your RE | effort. | | Also identifying RF frequency in FCC filings will help narrow the | cellular coverage. If it's CDMA, then it's obsoleted. | | - https://loginping.com/inilex-gps | | - https://www.automotive-fleet.com/130525/spireon-acquires-gps... | mig39 wrote: | I love that the skills I learned in the 80s are still relevant | today. Interacting with serial ports. AT commands. This stuff | hasn't changed much. | throwaway0a5e wrote: | TL;DR a prior dealership had installed it as part of an anti- | theft add-on before selling it to a different dealer who | ultimately sold it to the supporter. | | The investigative effort they put in was quite good. | jmole wrote: | I had a mystery tracker installed in a car I purchased as well: | https://fccid.io/2AEB4AMV01/User-Manual/Users-Manual-3928375 | | The dealer even added a $250 fee to "remove" this device, but I | found it was still installed, so I think I ended up footing the | bill for the device itself. | | The device is ostensibly to protect inventory from loss, but it | seems like they are incentivizing dealers to leave these in cars | to capture location data, for whatever reason. | netsharc wrote: | TL; DR: | | > Sarah [not real name] also mentioned that the car had been | transferred from another Audi dealership in Orange County, | California, when she bought it. Could they be the culprits? We | called the original dealership and asked if they were familiar | with this hardware or if they install GPS devices in their | customers' cars. The dealership told us that they used to work | with a company called Sky Link to install anti-theft devices, but | didn't activate them unless the buyer paid for the service. Could | this be an explanation for this rogue GPS device? | | [...] Turns out, it had. The GPS device was bought by the | dealership, but it was never activated. At last, we had proof | that this was a device installed by the dealership. | | It feels like there are several "layers" to this story, putting | all of them in one probably just confuses a lot of readers. In | other contexts the UART pin-outs and bit-banging would be | interesting to me but I just wanted to find out whodunnit. | revicon wrote: | Wow, didn't know EFF went so deep on investigations like this. | Top notch! | dmitrygr wrote: | This is not really deep, TBH. This is 5-6 minutes of work for | someone who does this habitually. They didn't even dump the | firmware of the PIC running in there to share it for some fun | RE. | more_corn wrote: | You should reach out and give them some pointers for next | time. | bragr wrote: | Gotta agree with you there. "Connect to the UART, remember | UART requires a ground, throw some AT commands at it, give | up, and ask the company about a serial number" hardly seems | like a deep dive. | kortex wrote: | The reporter clearly does not do this habitually, as it took | them several (frustrating, from the sound of it) days to | figure out what they did. Sounds like it was in large part a | learning experience for them. | Mo3 wrote: | I mean, the author even stated clearly that it was a great | learning experience and that the EFF couldn't do this for | everything. So all of this discussion is somewhat redundant | squarefoot wrote: | Over here in the EU any cellular device should contain a SIM card | which must be registered to someone or some company, therefore it | can be used to track the owner; is that different in the US? The | article doesn't mention any SIM card present. If I discovered | such a tracking device in my car I'd immediately look for the | card, get its number and find the owner. | | Also, it would be nice to fool the GPS through a jammer that | emits false signals in order to make it report a fake location, | after placing cameras at that place to record whoever shows up. | kn0where wrote: | Last I checked, you could activate a prepaid SIM without any | proof of identity in the US. We don't have a national ID card | system. Postpaid does involve a credit check. | mig39 wrote: | The photo in the article shows "P/N: CDMA" | | So if it was a CDMA device, then it probably doesn't use a SIM. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-03-28 23:00 UTC)