Breaking the Charge - Exploiting State Manipulation in EV Charging

Explore a critical security vulnerability in electric vehicle charging infrastructure through this 11-minute conference presentation from USENIX VehicleSec '25. Discover how researchers from Michigan State University and Washington University in Saint Louis uncovered significant flaws in the SAE J1772 charging control protocol that lacks proper authenticity protection. Learn about ChargeX, a novel class of hardware-based attacks that manipulate EV charging states by strategically modifying control signals through inserted attack circuits. Examine the practical implementation and evaluation of these attacks on public charging stations and home chargers using simulated vehicle loads, including demonstrations on a Tesla Model 3 that show how attackers can force state transitions from "standby" to "charging," potentially causing overcharging and battery degradation. Understand the broader implications of these vulnerabilities for denial of service attacks, disrupted charging schedules, and the potential erosion of public trust in EV charging infrastructure as electric vehicle adoption continues to grow.