In a method for detecting infringements of the authenticity of a system component an authentication request is sent from a controller to an authentication device of the system component. A first authentication code is calculated in the authentication device by applying a shared one-way function to an identification code, stored in the authentication device, for the system component. A second authentication code in the controller is calculated by applying the shared one-way function to an identification code, stored in the controller, for the system component, and an authentication response including the first authentication code is sent from the authentication device to the controller. The first authentication code is compared with the second authentication code in the controller for detecting infringements of the authenticity of the system component.