The owners of Mercedes-Benz vehicles complained that the application they utilized to locate, unlock as well as start their cars remotely was displaying information of other people’s vehicle and account.
Reportedly, a few customers said that flaw in the app pulled information of other Mercedes-Benz owners’ account instead of displaying their own information. This allowed them to access the names of other car owners, their recent activities, contact numbers and much more, the reports said.
The security glitch in question happened on Friday last week, before the application went offline because of ‘site maintenance’ some hours later.
It is not unusual for a latest modern car to come along with a phone application these days. Such apps help connect you to your respective car and allow you to locate, lock/unlock and start/stop them remotely. However, as cars increasingly become hooked to mobile apps, security glitches have let researchers to track or hijack vehicles remotely as well.
Incorrect customer information was displayed on the application for a short interval of time on Friday, said a spokesperson for the company. When the car owners reported the glitch to Mercedes-Benz, the system was taken down immediately. The issue was identified and then fixed, added the spokesperson.
Meanwhile, it isn’t clear as to how exactly the security flaw occurred or how far-reaching the issue was.