Thomas Fischer - Car Hacking: Two Decades of Evolution and Exploitation

Twenty years of car hacking

Thomas Fischer traces two decades of automotive security research, noting that the first published car hack and the first Arduino both appeared in 2005—the same year as early Confidence work. He surveys people, papers, hardware, and community milestones that shaped modern vehicle exploitation.

CAN bus fundamentals

Unlike IP networks with explicit senders and receivers, CAN is message-based: every controller broadcasts and listens. That broadcast model makes packet injection and recording powerful, and requires reliable mechanisms to drop or ignore unwanted frames when collisions occur.

Community tools and conversions

Fischer highlights builders like Jack Richard, who converted petrol cars to electric platforms and ran workshops on EV conversions using lead-acid battery packs. He also covers classic research demonstrating CAN capture and replay, explaining why those techniques remain relevant for today's connected vehicles.