Malware in car infotainment systems: how infection occurs | Kaspersky official blog
Brief
In June 2026, we discovered an unusual new piece of malware targeting… Android-based car head units. This is the first documented case of malware being delivered to automotive head units via an automatic firmware-update service.
We’ve covered automotive cyber-incidents many times before, but those were generally related either to data leaks in manufacturers’ digital infrastructure , or to security researchers’ experiments .
This case, however, involves malware that cybercriminals are distributing in the wild . Their goals are ad fraud and creation of a proxy botnet made up of infected automotive head units. In this article, we explain what a head unit is, how exactly attackers infect these devices, and what this could mean for drivers.
What is a car head unit (HU)?
First, let’s clarify what a car head unit actually is.