Not as a general-purpose or remote unlock. In a 2023 demonstration, researchers used physical hardware to glitch the AMD security processor in an AMD-based Tesla infotainment system and gain root access to its Linux system. They showed that this access could enable rear seat heaters only because a Gateway setting in their test firmware was not signed. Tesla reportedly made that setting require a valid signature starting with firmware release 2022.44. The researchers did not unlock Full Self-Driving (FSD), and the available reporting does not establish the current exposure of Tesla vehicles across the fleet.
What did the Tesla AMD chip research actually demonstrate?
Researchers from TU Berlin and independent researcher Oleg Drokin presented the work at Black Hat USA 2023. Their target was an AMD Zen 1-based infotainment system, known as MCU-Z, and its AMD Secure Processor, which served as the system’s root of trust. By faulting that processor during early boot, they gained root access to the infotainment system’s recovery and production Linux environments.
This was a physical hardware attack, not a remote exploit. In an interview with TechCrunch, TU Berlin researcher Christian Werling described manipulating the processor’s supply voltage. BleepingComputer reported the researchers’ description of a setup involving soldering equipment and about $100 in electronics, including a Teensy 4.0 board. That was an equipment estimate attributed to the researchers, not a guarantee that the attack can be reproduced for that amount; a Teensy board alone does not reproduce it.
How the demonstrated access differed from a feature unlock
Root access let the researchers control the infotainment Linux system. A paid vehicle feature, however, may depend on separate configuration controls in the Gateway. The rear-seat-heater example worked in the tested firmware because the relevant Gateway configuration item was not signed. Infotainment root access by itself did not let them change secure configuration items.
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The voltage glitch also was not a permanent change to the chip: the Black Hat presentation says it had to be repeated at each infotainment boot. A changed vehicle configuration could persist across an infotainment reboot, but only where the Gateway’s controls allowed that change.
Which paid feature was enabled, and under what conditions?
The researchers demonstrated enabling rear seat heaters through an insecure Gateway configuration item in the firmware they tested. That result should not be generalized into a claim that root access can turn on any paid Tesla option.
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According to the presentation and BleepingComputer’s reporting, Tesla told the researchers that rear seat heaters had become a signed configuration item starting with release 2022.44. A valid signature is a check on whether a configuration change is authorized; the researchers said root access to infotainment alone was not enough to alter such secure items. Their heater demonstration therefore depended on a particular firmware condition, rather than showing a universal method for bypassing Tesla’s feature controls.
Did the researchers unlock Full Self-Driving?
No. BleepingComputer reported that Christian Werling explicitly rejected claims that the team had unlocked FSD. TechCrunch reported that the researchers had not tested broader possibilities involving region-restricted self-driving or navigation. Those possibilities should not be presented as demonstrated outcomes.
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| Claim or result | What the 2023 reporting supports |
|---|---|
| Remote access to a Tesla | Not demonstrated; the attack required physical access and electronics work. |
| Root access to infotainment | Demonstrated on the researchers’ AMD-based MCU-Z system after a voltage fault during boot. |
| Rear seat heaters | Demonstrated with an unsigned Gateway configuration item in the tested firmware; Tesla reportedly made the item signed starting in release 2022.44. |
| Full Self-Driving | Not unlocked, according to the researcher reporting by BleepingComputer. |
| Regional self-driving or navigation changes | Not tested, according to TechCrunch. |
Why did researchers call the vulnerability “unfixable”?
The researchers characterized the underlying weakness in the AMD security processor as “Not software-patchable by anyone” in their Black Hat summary. That phrase describes their claim about the hardware-based weakness; it does not mean every Tesla feature can be changed without software checks, nor does it establish that every vehicle remains vulnerable today.
The heater example illustrates the distinction. The researchers reported that Tesla changed the relevant Gateway configuration item so it required a signature in release 2022.44, even though the hardware flaw they described was not software-patchable. This is a specific reported mitigation for that configuration path, not proof that the underlying chip issue was fixed or that all possible attack paths were addressed.
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What privacy and security risks did the work reveal?
Separately from enabling a comfort feature, the researchers reported extracting vehicle authentication credentials and personal information stored on the infotainment system. Their reported data included contacts, calendar data, call logs, visited locations, Wi-Fi credentials, and session cookies. This makes the work relevant as a security and privacy finding even though it did not unlock FSD.
The results describe the researchers’ 2023 setup and firmware conditions. Black Hat’s presentation, BleepingComputer’s researcher-sourced reporting, and TechCrunch’s interview confirm disclosure to Tesla in 2023, but do not establish the current fleet-wide remediation status. A vehicle’s exposure cannot be inferred solely from the headline or from the heater demonstration.
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