Bluetooth zero day vulnerabilities recently discovered by Armis Labs leave vehicles at high risk of a remote cyberattack. The vulnerabilities, collectively named BlueBorne, can potentially be used to perform ransomware attacks on vehicles, or worse, take complete control over them. BlueBorne exploits can be highly infectious, as demonstrated in the Armis Labs report. Attacks using this vulnerability can spread wirelessly and penetrate devices through their Bluetooth connections, without the need for pairing with the infected device.

With more than 50,000 hours of automotive cybersecurity research, Argus says it has revealed vulnerabilities in Bluetooth, WiFi, and cellular connections, in design vulnerabilities inherent in vehicle components, third-party dongles, and software updates. Using this information, Argus developed Argus Connectivity Protection, which is designed to protect vehicles from cyberattacks regardless of how they penetrate the vehicle, including against vulnerabilities such as the BlueBorne buffer overflow. The company says that Argus Connectivity Protection includes multiple security modules to harden the target system, detect intrusions, and prevent malicious exploits of vehicle infotainment and telematics units.

"The BlueBorne discovery is just one more example of the vulnerability of connected cars to cyber threats. By integrating multiple layers of security, the automotive industry can protect vehicles and drivers from exploits and attack vectors like BlueBorne and others," said Oron Lavi, Argus Co-founder and VP of R&D. "While operating system hardening is critical, it is only one part of the Argus Connectivity Protection solution suite. To secure vehicles from cyberattacks for the duration of their lifespan, our connectivity protection security modules build on advanced detection, prevention, and mitigation techniques to work stand-alone and with Argus in-vehicle and cloud solutions to provide seamless, end-to-end protection."