New $30 wireless device ‘RollJam’ can unlock car doors and garages remotely

At the 2015 DefCon event in Las Vegas, hacker Samy Kamkar unveiled his new wireless device called RollJam. The device, priced at $32, has the capability to interpret and steal the wireless codes for unlocking car doors and garages remotely.

Introducing the RollJam device at the conference, Kamkar - who is already renowned for cracking Master combination locks - said that the device can open keyless car doors and garages by trouncing the 'rolling codes' which have been used on their entry systems.

The clever mechanism which Kamkar has devised essentially captures and plays back the radio signals which can open car doors and garages.

Explaining the mechanism, Kamkar said that the RollJam device - which has apparently been hacked together from off-the-shelf components - blocks the signal transmitted to keyless car doors and garages by a remote key fob; and then readies itself to record the signal when the button is pressed by the user a second time.

The RollJam device primarily underscores a small bit of electronic deception, which does not require any code cracking or brute-force decryption. The device has been tested with vehicles manufactured by Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Volkswagen, Nissan, and Lotus, and also with widely-used after-market security systems from Cobra and Viper --- and, it has been found that all of them are vulnerable to the RollJam attack.