At the Usenix Security Symposium earlier this week, researchers from UC San Diego and Northeastern University revealed a technique that would allow anyone with a few hundred dollars of hardware to hack Shimano wireless gear-shifting systems of the kind used by many of the top cycling teams in the world, including in recent events like the [Olympics](https://www.wired.com/tag/olympics/) and the Tour de France. Their relatively simple radio attack would allow cheaters or vandals to spoof signals from as far as 30 feet away that trigger a target bike to unexpectedly shift gears or to jam its shifters and lock the bike into the wrong gear.
The trick would, the researchers say, easily be enough to hamper a rival on a climb or, if timed to certain intense moments of a race, even cause dangerous instability. “The capability is full control of the gears. Imagine you’re going uphill on a Tour de France stage: If someone shifts your bike from an easy gear to a hard one, you’re going to lose time,” says Earlence Fernandes, an assistant professor at UCSD’s Computer Science and Engineering department. “Or if someone is sprinting in the big chain ring and you move it to the small one, you can totally crash a person’s bike like that.”
This, not poverty, is why I use friction shifters.
G-bone714 on
This seems like something that would only be used against racers. I can’t imaging someone wasting time hacking my commuter bike.
TransitJohn on
Why do wireless shifters even exist! Who would buy that?
barbaracelarent on
Not to pat myself on the back, but this was the first thought I had when I heard about these. Just wait until people start shifting into the big ring on the Tourmalet.
MegaBobTheMegaSlob on
Oh man I’m definitely using this at the next group ride, good luck winning the town line sprint in your lowest gear! /s
BlankoNinio on
OH NO, THEY HAVE SHIFTED ME TO A LESS EFFICIENT GEAR!!!!!!!
9 Comments
At the Usenix Security Symposium earlier this week, researchers from UC San Diego and Northeastern University revealed a technique that would allow anyone with a few hundred dollars of hardware to hack Shimano wireless gear-shifting systems of the kind used by many of the top cycling teams in the world, including in recent events like the [Olympics](https://www.wired.com/tag/olympics/) and the Tour de France. Their relatively simple radio attack would allow cheaters or vandals to spoof signals from as far as 30 feet away that trigger a target bike to unexpectedly shift gears or to jam its shifters and lock the bike into the wrong gear.
The trick would, the researchers say, easily be enough to hamper a rival on a climb or, if timed to certain intense moments of a race, even cause dangerous instability. “The capability is full control of the gears. Imagine you’re going uphill on a Tour de France stage: If someone shifts your bike from an easy gear to a hard one, you’re going to lose time,” says Earlence Fernandes, an assistant professor at UCSD’s Computer Science and Engineering department. “Or if someone is sprinting in the big chain ring and you move it to the small one, you can totally crash a person’s bike like that.”
Read the full story and the video explainer: [https://www.wired.com/story/shimano-wireless-bicycle-shifter-jamming-replay-attacks/](https://www.wired.com/story/shimano-wireless-bicycle-shifter-jamming-replay-attacks/)
Lovely. As if the world needed more bad ideas..
This, not poverty, is why I use friction shifters.
This seems like something that would only be used against racers. I can’t imaging someone wasting time hacking my commuter bike.
Why do wireless shifters even exist! Who would buy that?
Not to pat myself on the back, but this was the first thought I had when I heard about these. Just wait until people start shifting into the big ring on the Tourmalet.
Oh man I’m definitely using this at the next group ride, good luck winning the town line sprint in your lowest gear! /s
OH NO, THEY HAVE SHIFTED ME TO A LESS EFFICIENT GEAR!!!!!!!
Damn. Common friction shift W.