A team of hackers in China gained remote access to a Tesla Model S and manipulated systems including the brakes, The Hacker News reports. Thankfully, the hackers were not the bad kind -- they were researchers from Keen Security Lab -- though their ability to gain access to a Tesla's controller area network (CAN Bus) demonstrated security flaws that could be exploited by those wanting to do harm.

The brakes weren't the only system the security researchers were able to control (from a distance of 12 miles): The trunk lid, turn signals, mirrors, sunroof, windshield wipers and infotainment screen could all be accessed remotely.

"As far as we know, this is the first case of remote attack which compromises CAN Bus to achieve remote controls on Tesla cars," the security researchers wrote in their blog describing the vulnerability. "We have verified the attack vector on multiple varieties of Tesla Model S."

Model S owners will be happy to hear that Tesla patched this security flaw once the researchers reported the vulnerability to the automaker. The hackers used a Wi-Fi hotspot to access the car's systems while the web browser was used -- an admittedly narrow window for hackers to gain access to a car since it requires the vehicle to be using a malicious hotspot.

"Within just 10 days of receiving this report, Tesla has already deployed an over-the-air software update (v7.1, 2.36.31) that addresses the potential security issues," Tesla said in response. "The issue demonstrated is only triggered when the web browser is used, and also required the car to be physically near to and connected to a malicious Wi-Fi hotspot. Our realistic estimate is that the risk to our customers was very low, but this did not stop us from responding quickly."

While the Model S and other Tesla models are no longer vulnerable to this hack, the researchers believe the method they used could work on all cars that feature a web browser as part of the infotainment system.

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