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Researchers demonstrated a physical attack on the AMD-based infotainment computer in some Teslas, gained root access to its Linux system and changed a rear-seat-heater setting on specific test firmware. They did not remotely unlock paid features or enable Full Self-Driving. The heater change depended on a Gateway setting that Tesla reportedly made signed in firmware release 2022.44; the available 2023 reporting does not establish the current status across Tesla’s fleet.
What the researchers demonstrated
At Black Hat USA 2023, researchers from TU Berlin and independent researcher Oleg Drokin described attacking an AMD Zen 1-based infotainment APU. Its AMD Secure Processor served as a root of trust. By manipulating the processor’s supply voltage at a carefully timed point during early boot, they induced a fault and gained root access to the infotainment system’s recovery and production Linux environments.
This was a hardware attack, not a remote exploit. It required physical access to the computer and electronics work. TechCrunch quoted TU Berlin researcher Christian Werling describing how a voltage “hiccup” could make the processor skip an instruction. BleepingComputer reported that the setup included soldering equipment and electronics estimated by the researchers at about $100. That figure is an estimate for their reported setup, not a price guarantee or proof that the attack can be reproduced with a particular parts list.
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The headline refers to a rear-seat-heater demonstration, not a general-purpose method for turning on any Tesla option. Root access to the infotainment computer did not by itself give the researchers permission to change every vehicle setting: the Gateway controls configuration, and secure configuration items require valid signatures.
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The rear-seat-heater setting
On the firmware used for the proof of concept, the researchers found that the rear-seat-heater setting was an insecure Gateway configuration item. They used their access to change it. BleepingComputer reported that Tesla told the researchers this demonstration relied on an old firmware version and that rear-seat heaters had become a signed configuration item starting with release 2022.44. The reporting does not establish the current remediation status for every vehicle or firmware version.
Why the change and the exploit are not the same thing
The voltage glitch itself was not persistent: the researchers’ presentation says it would have to be repeated on each infotainment boot. A vehicle setting could remain changed across an infotainment reboot, but that does not mean root access can alter settings protected by signature checks. The exploit gained access to one system; the Gateway’s configuration controls determined whether a particular change was accepted.
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Did the attack unlock Full Self-Driving?
No. BleepingComputer reported that researcher Christian Werling explicitly rejected the claim that the team had unlocked Full Self-Driving. TechCrunch reported that the researchers had not tested broader possibilities involving region-restricted self-driving or navigation. Those untested possibilities should not be presented as demonstrated results.
What else the researchers said they could access
Separate from the heater demonstration, the researchers reported extracting vehicle authentication credentials and personal information stored on the infotainment system. Their reported data included contacts, calendar information, call logs, visited locations, Wi-Fi credentials and session cookies. These findings point to privacy and credential risks from access to the system; they are not evidence that the team activated additional paid vehicle features.
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Is the vulnerability really “unfixable”?
The researchers characterized the underlying hardware weakness as “Not software-patchable by anyone” in their Black Hat presentation summary. That description concerns the voltage-fault weakness in the security processor. It does not show that every consequence of gaining infotainment access is unmitigable, that every Tesla is affected, or that every feature setting can be changed without software protections.
The distinction matters: a hardware flaw may not be removable with a software update, while software changes can still restrict what compromised software is allowed to do. The reported change to the heater setting—making it require a valid signature starting with firmware 2022.44—is an example of a configuration control that can limit the demonstrated outcome. The 2023 sources confirm disclosure to Tesla but do not settle fleet-wide exposure or remediation today.
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What the findings do—and do not—establish
| Question | What was reported |
|---|---|
| Access required | Physical access and electronics work; not a remote attack. |
| Initial target | The AMD Secure Processor in an AMD-based infotainment APU. |
| Access gained | Root access to the infotainment Linux system, including recovery and production environments. |
| Feature change demonstrated | Rear-seat heaters on test firmware with an insecure Gateway setting. |
| Full Self-Driving enabled | No; the researcher explicitly denied that claim. |
| Current fleet-wide status | Not established by the 2023 reporting. |
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