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PIN Code security - may be defeatable :-(

 
Sat, 08/02/2008 - 7:57pm

I was browsing ebay, when I came across an ad. for a firm in the UK, that has a fixed fee Nüvi repair service.

Of all the things they say that can fix, one thing caught my eye: they claim to be able to recover from lost "Pin Codes"!!

They state that the bluetooth will not function afterwards, so that would be something to watch out for, if buying a 2nd hand unit...

See: ebay item # 270260482546

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------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »      
Sat, 08/02/2008 - 8:48pm

Thieves will not bother with repair

According to most of the news articles I have read on GPS theft, the majority of thieves will sell the device for a VERY quick buck - $50 or less. They will not take the time, risk or cost of a repair. I'm sure there are some stolen ones selling as used on eBay but that has to be a small fraction of the ones that are stolen.

I'm not at all surprised that there are ways to defeat it. What DOES surprise me is that the "crack" somehow kills Bluetooth. Leads me to believe that the "repair" involves flashing a cracked non-bluetooth firmware.

Sat, 08/02/2008 - 9:05pm

.

johnc wrote:

According to most of the news articles I have read on GPS theft, the majority of thieves will sell the device for a VERY quick buck - $50 or less.

That sounds very likely. However, the person they sell it to might invest a bit more time/effort/money, before passing it on sad

Quote:

Leads me to believe that the "repair" involves flashing a cracked non-bluetooth firmware.

I hadn't thought of that - I assumed they were maybe replacing (or removing) a hardware component that was shared somehow between the two.

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »      
Sun, 08/03/2008 - 2:25am

Pin Code

johnc wrote:

According to most of the news articles I have read on GPS theft, the majority of thieves will sell the device for a VERY quick buck - $50 or less. They will not take the time, risk or cost of a repair. I'm sure there are some stolen ones selling as used on eBay but that has to be a small fraction of the ones that are stolen.

Yeh! Im sure the thieves off them pretty quick on the street with as hot as GPS's are now a days.

I'm not at all surprised that there are ways to defeat it. What DOES surprise me is that the "crack" somehow kills Bluetooth. Leads me to believe that the "repair" involves flashing a cracked non-bluetooth firmware.

I bet that is exactly what they are doing.

Sun, 08/03/2008 - 8:58am

Probably is a hardware hack

Hornbyp wrote:

I hadn't thought of that - I assumed they were maybe replacing (or removing) a hardware component that was shared somehow between the two.

Actually, now that I thought of it some more, I think it *is* a hardware hack. Bluetooth pairing uses PIN codes, so it's logical that they may just be disabling or bypassing a circuit that handles the PIN code for both Garmin Lock as well as the Bluetooth pairing.

Whatever they are doing, it certainly is not a standard Garmin procedure, that's for sure.

Sun, 08/03/2008 - 10:25am

:-)

johnc wrote:

Actually, now that I thought of it some more, I think it *is* a hardware hack.

I thought about it some more as well smile ...
...of course - with a Pin code set, you can't (easily) load new firmware, because the Pin code is required to make it go into mass-storage mode.

(Though, I suppose you could connect directly to components on the board and download firmware that way...)

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »