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Tom’s Hardware
Tom’s Hardware
Technology
Brandon Hill

Unpatchable AMD Chip Flaw Unlocks Paid Tesla Feature Upgrades

Tesla Inc. AMD
Tesla Display

Teslas are among the most popular electric cars on the market, which makes them an easy target for hackers. Now, a team of security researchers from TU Berlin has found a way to exploit the MCU found in modern Tesla vehicles to unlock paid features and more. To execute the attack, the researchers exploited a known flaw in AMD's processor that controls Tesla's MCU.

In Tesla parlance, MCU stands for Media Control Unit, and it controls the touch screen, navigation, and entertainment systems. MCU0/1 refers to the first generation (Nvidia Tegra-based), while MCU2 is the second generation (Intel Atom). MCU-Z refers to the third generation based on a custom AMD Ryzen SoC. MCU-Z is the subject of the researchers' attention.

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