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In this youtube video a hacker claims it is easily possible to mod the infotainment system in his Porsche to run the game Doom using the controls of his car to control the game.

This Gizmodo/Sploid story describes the supposed hack:

A YouTuber going by the name vexal uploaded this video tutorial showing what he claims to be a step-by-step guide to playing Doom on the console screen of a Porsche 911. That would be moderately interesting on its own but as he explains, the cars shifter, horn, accelerator and steering wheel all control the game—meaning you drive while you play.

According to his steps, take a flash drive that contains a single file with the car’s VIN number on it. Insert the drive into the Porsche’s USB slot and start the car. That should take the computer system into debug mode. Then, insert the game (he shows Doom II but says it works with the original as well) and select it on the console screen.

Even if possible this seems like a really insane idea. But the explanation seems simplistic to the point of unbelievability. He seems to claim, for example, that the game will just run once the car is in debug mode despite cars not usually running on Windows. Moreover, the controls on the car just work to control the game with no modifications or mapping to send control signals to the game.

Is it a spoof or is it real?

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matt_black
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    `cars not usually running on Windows` that is not a problem. Doom is probably one of the most ported games in existence, given the popularity and that the orignal source has been released under an open source license. People have ran Doom on tons of unusual systems. – Zoredache Feb 21 '17 at 18:25
  • @Zoredache But this hacker didn't claim he recompiled Doom to run on some specific system but that it ran from the *original disk* in the diagnostic mode of the Porsche system. with all the controls already mapped! – matt_black Feb 21 '17 at 18:31
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    A porsche 911 does actually runs Windows CE - and there is a few ports of Doom to it. While this doesn't mean much regarding the claim, it at least lends a bit more of credibility to it. – T. Sar Feb 21 '17 at 19:02
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    obligatory comic: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2158 – Federico Feb 21 '17 at 22:12
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    Car entertainment systems often run on Windows or Linux variants, so booting up Doom does not sound too far-fetched. However, the car controls are not going to magically map to inputs for Doom, and indeed many control inputs do not normally get passed over to the infotainment environment. Furthermore [Terminal Mode](https://automotive.realvnc.com/news/2010/clarion-licenses-realvnc-software-deliver-terminal-mode-capabilities/) allows the infotainment screen to be used to display a phone screen (with certain limitations, etc), so there could be someone off-camera controlling the game. – Ken Y-N Feb 22 '17 at 02:23
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    Hoax. From 2:12 on, he slightly (unconsciously) moves the steering wheel, but there is no reaction on-screen until when he "demonstrates" how steering is mapped to movement. And the control inputs and the reactions on screen don't really match. There is a random glitch at 2:48 where they did make a cut to the vid (I assume to cover that bit between screen and control input getting *really* out of sync until the screen gets conveniently obscured by the head rest), the sequence after that when he is actually driving is not really synced either. (t.b.c.) – DevSolar Feb 22 '17 at 09:08
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    (ctd.) *Technically* it would be possible (that they are using a x86-compatible hardware in there and that you somehow could get Doom to run on it), but I seriously doubt that things like the horn or the gear shifter would even be *wired* to the computer system (why should they?), which is why I consider this particular vid a hoax. – DevSolar Feb 22 '17 at 09:10
  • @DevSolar Sounds like an answer to me. – IMSoP Feb 22 '17 at 14:45
  • @IMSoP: But no sources / personal opinion, hence a comment only. – DevSolar Feb 22 '17 at 14:46
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    @DevSolar The computer is now involved in just about everything. Power steering and shifting are generally at least monitored by the computer, and may be fly by wire. The horn I don't know about, but it might make sense to just be a button to the computer. –  Feb 22 '17 at 17:44
  • @notstoreboughtdirt: I am not at all sure if steering "by wire" is even allowed for security reasons... but whatever. There's a reason wjy I posted this as a "my take" comment insead of an answer. – DevSolar Feb 22 '17 at 17:57
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    FYI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_by_wire#Steer_by_wire and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shift_by_wire contain models that do. There are security and reliability concerns, but my understanding is that it is not banned. –  Feb 22 '17 at 18:09
  • @notstoreboughtdirt: Interesting. Especially since neither page mentions the Porsche 911 from the video. ;-) – DevSolar Feb 23 '17 at 09:50
  • @DevSolar To be fair, car controls being mapped to a specific input so a debug device can run isn't that much far fetched. Steering to arrow keys and horn to the space bar, for example. What made me doubt of this claim is that he didn't install the game before running it. It makes me wonder if it didn't had a port pre-installed and mapped to those controls already. – T. Sar Feb 23 '17 at 09:54
  • @DevSolar I just re-watched the video and he is, indeed, using a port. He does say so - "[...] using the source port of your choice". This makes me feel that the claim is real (AKA you can run DOOM on a car), but the instructions are badly presented and there are some missing steps. – T. Sar Feb 23 '17 at 10:00
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    [Doom can run on a TI-83 calculator](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/watch-doom-run-on-a-ti-83-graphing-calculator) –  Feb 23 '17 at 10:24
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    For what it's worth, I can't find any mention of a "debug mode" that doesn't relate to this Doom video. – Bobson Feb 23 '17 at 11:26
  • Somewhere between 2:10 and 2:20, the screen seems to "_move_" to the top right by a few pixels while everything else remains fixed. Click the 2 timestamps to see the difference. – Didier L Feb 24 '17 at 09:33
  • @DevSolar Unfortunately, many car infotainment systems actually _do_ have access to the horn, gear shift, and more through the CAN bus due to very poor security procedures. Certain cars that pay attention to security prevent this by keeping the infotainment system well-isolated., but not all cars do. – forest Aug 31 '19 at 07:12
  • I didn't add this to my answer because it is anecdotal, but I have personally witnessed a car's infotainment system running DOOM at a security convention. It was not a Porsche 911, though. – forest Aug 31 '19 at 07:31
  • This is what car hacking _usually_ looks like, in reality: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DF1-2gDUQAA5W5G.jpg – forest Aug 31 '19 at 07:48
  • @forest That looks much more like what I would expect a "car infotainment system running doom" to look like. – JMac Sep 03 '19 at 14:32

1 Answers1

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Is this video legitimate?

This particular video appears to be a hoax:

The video above is a joke that some people seem to not be getting. RIffing off the "you can put Doom on anything" meme, from graphing calculators to printers, YouTube user vexal put together this video showing the three simple steps to getting the classic first-person shooter running on the infotainment screen of a new Porsche 911. It's great, except that this particular hack is purely made up.

The steps are supposedly as follows: Insert a USB key with a single file containing the vehicle's VIN into the infotainment system's USB port and then start the car, putting it in debug mode. Stick a disc (a CD-ROM?) into the car's CD drive. Then choose the game through some sequence of button and screen presses. The car's controls (throttle, steering, shifter) magically turn into Doom controls and you're off.

Other online sources concur:

We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but no you cannot run Doom in your Porsche. It might seem like common sense to most, but this video has duped at least a few people into believing it is possible, but careful viewing of the video here will show that this is a gag bit intended for comedy effect, and perhaps to troll a bit.

Is it possible to run Doom on a car?

This is not at all impossible to do. It may only require interacting with the infotainment system's interface (for example, loading a special web page that exploits a browser vulnerability in the system), or it may require removing your dashboard and plugging into the OBD-II debugging interface or CAN bus.

A real-world example is CVE-2018-18203, a bug in certain Subaru systems that allowed arbitrary code execution by plugging in a USB device and exploiting a buggy firmware updater. Arbitrary code execution means you can now run anything on it, as long as the CPU is sufficiently capable. From the NVD:

A vulnerability in the update mechanism of Subaru StarLink Harman head units 2017, 2018, and 2019 may give an attacker (with physical access to the vehicle's USB ports) the ability to rewrite the firmware of the head unit. This occurs because the device accepts modified QNX6 filesystem images (as long as the attacker obtains access to certain Harman decryption/encryption code) as a consequence of a bug where unsigned images pass a validity check. An attacker could potentially install persistent malicious head unit firmware and execute arbitrary code as the root user.

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