vircar
A CAN-based virtual car simulator written in C for testing vehicle system cyber-attacks without hardware.
What is vircar?
virtualcar is a CAN-based virtual car simulator written in C that mimics vehicle systems by processing CAN bus signals. It allows developers and security researchers to test automotive cyber-attacks and experiment with vehicle network protocols without needing physical hardware. The tool parses, analyzes, and transmits signals between virtual nodes like doors and EHPS controllers.
Automotive security researchers, embedded systems developers, and car hacking enthusiasts who need a software-based environment to test CAN bus vulnerabilities and vehicle network interactions.
It provides a pure native C implementation with modular node architecture, enabling realistic vehicle simulation for security testing without expensive hardware. Its integration with SocketCAN and extensible design make it a practical tool for experimenting with automotive cyber-attacks in a controlled environment.
Overview
A virtual car. Because you wouldn't download a car, would you?
Use Cases
Best For
- Simulating CAN bus networks for automotive security research
- Testing vehicle cyber-attack techniques without physical hardware
- Developing and validating CAN node controllers in a virtual environment
- Educational demonstrations of automotive network vulnerabilities
- Experimenting with SocketCAN-based vehicle communication protocols
- Prototyping embedded systems for automotive applications
Not Ideal For
- Teams needing cross-platform support without Linux dependencies
- Projects requiring a full vehicle simulation with all CAN nodes implemented out-of-the-box
- Users looking for a stable, graphical interface without managing private submodules
- Applications dependent on real-time hardware-in-the-loop testing with physical CAN devices
Pros & Cons
Pros
Uses pure native C code for performance and low-level control, aligning with the project's philosophy of clean, open-source collaboration.
Built on Linux SocketCAN, providing direct access to CAN bus protocols, which is essential for realistic automotive network testing and security experimentation.
Designed with extensible nodes for specific vehicle functions, allowing easy addition of new controllers following RTR or Accept/Destruct operations, as mentioned in the README.
Licensed under GNU GPL v3 and encourages contributions, fostering community development for expanding node capabilities, as stated in the project description.
Cons
Only two nodes (door and EHPS) are fully implemented, with several others listed as TODO in nodes.h, limiting functionality for comprehensive vehicle simulations.
Requires a Linux-based system with specific kernel modules and can-utils, and the MacOS port is still in progress, restricting accessibility for users on other operating systems.
The virtualcar-web component is in a private repository and under development, lacking a reliable GUI for managing the daemon without additional setup and submodule management.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
SocketCAN UtilsLinux-CAN / SocketCAN user space applications
CANdevStudioDevelopment tool for CAN bus simulation
dbccCAN DBC to C (and CSV, JSON and XML) compiler using the mpc parser combinator library
UnlockECUFree, open-source ECU seed-key unlocking tool.
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