• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

 | 

PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

 | 

Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

 | 

DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

 | 

Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

 | 

Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

 | 

Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

 | 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

 | 

Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

 | 

U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

 | 

New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

 | 

Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 52

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 531 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

North Korea-linked threat actors spread macOS NimDoor malware via fake Zoom updates

 | 

Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

 | 

Google fined $314M for misusing idle Android users' data

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Security
  • Subaru Starlink flaw allowed experts to remotely hack cars

Subaru Starlink flaw allowed experts to remotely hack cars

Pierluigi Paganini January 25, 2025

Subaru Starlink flaw exposed vehicles and customer accounts in the US, Canada, and Japan to remote attacks.

Popular security researcher Sam Curry and he colleague Shubham Shah discovered a vulnerability in Subaru’s Starlink connected vehicle service that exposed vehicles and customer accounts in the US, Canada, and Japan susceptible to remote attacks.

The experts explained that they exploited the flaw to gain unrestricted targeted access to all vehicles and customer accounts in the above countries.

A remote attacker who knows the victim’s last name and ZIP code, email address, phone number, or license plate could exploit the flaw to control the vehicles, access location history, personal data (PII), billing info, vehicle PINs, and detailed user records.

Curry confirmed that after reporting the vulnerability, the company patched it within 24 hours.

The duo found Subaru’s admin panel hosted on a subdomain, allowing password resets for employee accounts without confirmation, bypassing two-factor authentication.

Researchers discovered Subaru’s STARLINK admin panel via subdomain scans linked to employee functionality.

“He noticed that ‘my.subaru.com’ (a domain that the MySubaru app was using) was a CNAME for ‘mys.prod.subarucs.com’ (a domain that I hadn’t seen before).” wrote Curry. “We ran a scan to find other subdomains and checked the output:

STARLINK® Admin Portal - https://portal.prod.subarucs.com/login.html

Well, that definitely looked like employee functionality. From a quick Google, it appeared that STARLINK was the name of Subaru’s in-vehicle infotainment system which provided all of the remote functionality for the vehicle. This appeared to be an admin panel related to it.”

Curry analyzed the website source code and noticed some JavaScript files under the “/assets/_js/” folder that were loaded into the login page.

After a few minutes of running FFuF, he got a hit for a “login.js” file, then he noticed a “resetPassword.json” endpoint that would reset employee’s accounts without a confirmation token.

After a few attempts, the researchers discovered that they needed a valid employee email, which was found through OSINT research.

Researchers used the valid employee email to reset the password, bypass two-factor authentication, and gain access to the panel’s functionality. Admin panel access exposed vehicle data (e.g., location history, VIN) and customer info (e.g., name, ZIP, phone, email, billing details).

To confirm their findings, the researchers reached out to their friend and asked if they could hack her car.

She agreed and sent them her license plate, and then they pulled up her vehicle in the admin panel and added them to her car.

“We waited a few minutes, then we saw that our account had been created successfully.” added Curry. “Now that we had access, I asked if they could peek outside and see if anything was happening with their car. I sent the “unlock” command. They then sent us this video. Afterwards, she confirmed that she did not receive any notification, text message, or email after we added ourselves as an authorized user and unlocked her car.

Subaru

The experts reported the vulnerability to the carmaker on November 20, 2024, and the company fixed it within 24 hours after receiving the report.

Below is the video PoC published by Curry:

In June 2024, a team of experts (Neiko Rivera, Sam Curry, Justin Rhinehart, Ian Carroll) including Curry, discovered multiple vulnerabilities in Kia vehicles that allowed remote control of key functions using their license plates. The researchers demonstrated how to execute the attack in about 30 seconds on any hardware-equipped vehicle, regardless of its Kia Connect subscription status. Additionally, attackers could secretly obtain personal information such as the victim’s name, phone number, email, and physical address. This would allow the attacker to add themselves as a second, hidden user on the victim’s vehicle without their knowledge.

In 2022, some of the members of the above team of experts including the popular cybersecurity expert Sam Curry, discovered another set of vulnerabilities impacting over a dozen car makers.

The vulnerabilities could have been exploited by threat actors to perform a broad range of malicious activities, from unlocking cars to tracking them.

The flaws discovered by the experts affected vehicles of popular brands, including Kia, Honda, Infiniti, Nissan, Acura, Mercedes-Benz, Genesis, BMW, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Ford, Porsche, Toyota, Jaguar, Land Rover. The research team also discovered flaws in the services provided by Reviver, SiriusXM, and Spireon.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Subaru Starlink)


facebook linkedin twitter

Hacking information security news IT Information Security Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News Subaru Subaru Starlink

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 10, 2025
UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 10, 2025
PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

    Cyber Crime / July 10, 2025

    PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

    Hacking / July 10, 2025

    Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

    Data Breach / July 10, 2025

    DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

    APT / July 10, 2025

    Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

    Data Breach / July 09, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT