Numerous TeslaMate Installations Exposing Sensitive Vehicle Data in Real-Time
A cybersecurity researcher has uncovered a significant vulnerability affecting hundreds of publicly accessible TeslaMate installations, which are inadvertently exposing sensitive Tesla vehicle data without any authentication. This alarming breach reveals critical information such as GPS coordinates, charging patterns, and personal driving habits to anyone on the internet. The issue arises from misconfigured deployments of the popular open-source Tesla data logging tool, which connects to Tesla’s official API to gather comprehensive vehicle telemetry data. The researcher, Seyfullah KILIÇ, employed advanced reconnaissance techniques, including masscan and httpx, to scan port 4000 across the internet, successfully mapping vulnerable vehicles on the demonstration website, teslamap.io.
The fundamental flaw lies in TeslaMate’s default configuration, which lacks built-in authentication for essential endpoints. When deployed on cloud servers with port 4000 exposed, the application becomes readily accessible to unauthorised users globally. Many installations also run Grafana dashboards on port 3000 with default or weak credentials, creating additional security risks. To mitigate these vulnerabilities, Tesla owners are urged to implement immediate security measures, including configuring reverse proxy authentication using Nginx, restricting access through firewall rules, binding services to localhost interfaces, and employing VPN-based access controls. This research underscores the critical need for secure deployment practices for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, especially those managing sensitive personal and location data from connected vehicles.
Categories: Data Exposure, Security Vulnerabilities, Mitigation Strategies
Tags: TeslaMate, Cybersecurity, Vulnerability, GPS Data, Authentication, Internet of Things, Data Leak, Security Measures, Cloud Servers, Reconnaissance Techniques