Case Study · Automotive Safety

A product recall portal for vehicle owners worldwide, verified by VIN

When a global automotive manufacturer headquartered in Germany faced a worldwide steering recall, Dude Lemon built the recall management software behind it: a secure portal where owners could check eligibility by VIN, verify their identity, and complete a guided, encrypted registration, protected by anti-intrusion defenses against VIN enumeration.

Product recall management software case study, a VIN recall portal for a global automotive manufacturer
600ms
Average API response time
300/min
Peak request bursts absorbed
AES-256
Encryption on uploads and transit
Rate-limited
Per-VIN enumeration defense

Overview

A safety recall where trust and security could not slip

The challenge

A worldwide steering recall meant a large population of owners needed a fast, trustworthy way to check whether their vehicle was affected and register for the remedy, without exposing personal data or letting bad actors harvest valid VINs.

Our approach

Dude Lemon collaborated closely with teams at the manufacturer to build the secure portal end to end: VIN-based eligibility lookup, authenticated retrieval of owner details, and a guided multi-stage registration with validated, encrypted photo uploads transferred securely to their servers, all hardened against automated abuse.

The outcome

Owners could confirm eligibility and complete registration in a single secure flow, while anti-intrusion defenses blocked attempts to enumerate VINs and steal the data of legitimate owners.

The collaboration

Engineered alongside the manufacturer

We collaborated at a high level with teams at the manufacturer, building to their requirements and security expectations and scoping each part of the program together as the recall rolled out worldwide.

The work spanned the owner-facing portal, the data and registration pipeline, and the secure handoff of validated content to their systems, engineered as one coordinated effort.

The collaboration covered
VIN and vehicle data systems
Secure registration and uploads
Anti-intrusion and infrastructure
Owner-facing experience

What we built

From VIN lookup to secure registration

VIN eligibility lookup

Owners enter their VIN to confirm instantly whether their vehicle is affected, with no exposure of the underlying recall dataset to the public.

Verified login and detail retrieval

Owners authenticate and securely retrieve their own vehicle and personal details, gated behind identity verification so no one sees another owner record.

Guided multi-stage registration

A step-by-step flow walks owners through uploading the required photos, with validation and clear progress at every stage, so even non-technical users complete it.

Anti-intrusion and VIN enumeration defense

Dedicated anti-intrusion software detects and blocks malicious actors trying to harvest legitimate VINs by calling the API sequentially.

Related case study: the patient portal behind a nationwide medical device recall program

Security & data

Protecting owners and their VINs

A public recall portal is a target. Bad actors try to harvest valid VINs and the owner data tied to them. We engineered the portal so that ownership is verified before access, uploads are validated and encrypted, data moves to their servers under encryption, and automated enumeration is detected and blocked.

Ownership verified before access

Identity and vehicle ownership are confirmed before any recall status or personal detail is revealed.

Validated, encrypted uploads

Submitted photos are validated and encrypted as part of the registration flow, never handled in the clear.

Secure transit to client servers

Registration content is transferred to their servers over encrypted, integrity-checked channels.

VIN enumeration defense

Anti-intrusion monitoring detects sequential probing, rate abuse, and automated harvesting, and shuts it down before data is exposed.

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Engagement & delivery

Built secure, launched worldwide

01

Secure access

VIN eligibility lookup and identity-gated login, so each owner sees only their own vehicle and details.

02

Registration and validation

The multi-stage upload flow: photo capture, validation, encryption, and secure transfer to the manufacturer.

03

Hardening and launch

Anti-intrusion defenses against VIN enumeration, and reliability engineered for the traffic a worldwide recall drives.

FAQ

Questions, answered

What does recall management software actually do?+

Recall management software gives affected customers a way to check whether their product is part of a recall, prove who they are, and register for the remedy, while giving the manufacturer a controlled pipeline of verified registrations. In this build that meant VIN eligibility lookup, identity-gated logins, encrypted photo uploads, and anti-enumeration defenses that keep recall data out of the wrong hands.

Do you build recall software for industries beyond automotive?+

Yes. The same product recall management pattern applies wherever a regulator requires action: medical device and pharmaceutical recalls, consumer products, and food recall management with lot-level traceability for FSMA compliance. We also engineered the patient portal behind a nationwide medical device recall program, serving more than two million users a month at launch.

Can a recall platform support mock recalls and traceability drills?+

It should. A mock recall is a timed drill where you trace a specific lot or unit through your supply chain to prove you could isolate it in a real event. We design recall management systems so the same lookup, notification, and registration flows used in a live recall can be exercised in a drill, connected to your quality management and supplier data.

What should a product recall plan include?+

A product recall plan defines who declares the recall, how affected units are identified, how owners are notified, and how the remedy is tracked to closure. The software side of that plan is what we build: eligibility lookup, verified registration, secure evidence collection, and reporting the program can stand behind. If you are starting from a recall plan template, we can turn it into a working recall portal.

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This engagement is described under confidentiality. The client, a global automotive manufacturer headquartered in Germany, is not identified here; identifying details may be reviewed privately with qualified parties. Dude Lemon worked as an independent contractor.