Tesla Wall Connector bootloader bypasses the firmware downgrade ratchet
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Tesla Wall Connector bootloader bypass is a deep hardware security exploit.
Tesla's anti-downgrade ratchet in Wall Connector Gen 3 firmware 24.44.3 was bypassed by abusing the order of operations in switch_to_new_firmware(): the partition table write occurs before slot erase, allowing a crafted firmware with a lower ratchet to pass validation. The attack, executed over UDS via the charge port, replayed the original Pwn2Own exploit chain. The ratchet is embedded in a VRS2 segment near 0x100000 and compared against a persistent storage value.
Audit firmware update routines for atomicity: ensure validation and irreversible state changes (like partition writes) happen without exploitable gaps.
For engineers building secure update systems, this highlights that cryptographic ratchets are only effective if the update logic enforces them atomically — order-of-operations bugs can completely undermine them.