IoT coffee machine hacked to demand ransom – IT PRO

A security researcher has managed to reverse engineer an IoT coffee maker to the point where ransomware could be uploaded to the machine.

Martin Hron, a researcher with security firm Avast, conducted an experiment on the 179 Smarter Coffee Maker (version 2) to prove that hacking IoT devices is more than just accessing them via weak routers.

Security issues within the Smarter brand of coffee machines, and its iKettle, have previously been highlighted. London-based security firm Pen Test Partners found that they could recover Wi-Fi encryption keys used in the first version of the Smarter iKettle in 2015. These same flaws were also spotted in the second version of the iKettle and the current version of the coffee maker.

Hron managed to turn that same coffee maker into a ransomware machine. After tinkering with the IoT device, he found that whenconnected to the user's home network, the coffee maker's functions all went off simultaneously and a pre-programmed ransom message endlessly bleepedacross the display.

His experiment was so successful that the only way to stop the machine from going haywire was to pull the plug.

"I was asked to prove a myth, call it a suspicion, that the threat to IoT devices is not just to access them via a weak router or exposure to the internet, but that an IoT device itself is vulnerable and can be easily owned without owning the network or the router," Hron wrote in a blog post.

"We thought this would be enough to freak any user out and make it a very stressful experience. The only thing the user can do at that point is unplug the coffee maker from the power socket."

Hron was able to access the coffee machine through a firmware update because of the unencrypted connection to its corresponding smartphone app. He uploaded the Android app's latest firmware version to a computer and reverse engineered it using an interactive disassembler, andalso took the coffee machine apart to learn what CPU it used.

With all that information, he then wrote a Python script that mimicked the coffee maker's update process. His modified firmware and lines of script caused the machine to go haywire and demand a ransom.

BIOS security: The next frontier for endpoint protection

Todays threats upend traditional security measures

This is by no means an easy hack andit has its limitations, as an attacker would need to find the coffee maker within Wi-Fi range. It can be triggered by hacking someone's router, but that would potentially require access to more than just a coffee machine.

But the implications of this kind of hack are more concerning, according to Hron, as smart gadgets could be rendered incapable of receiving patches to fix such a weakness. He also suggests that this type of vulnerability might be exploited in devices that no longer receive support.

"With the pace of IoT explosion and bad attitude to support, we are creating an army of abandoned vulnerable devices that can be misused for nefarious purposes such as network breaches, data leaks, ransomware attack and DDoS."

BIOS security: The next frontier for endpoint protection

Todays threats upend traditional security measures

The role of modern storage in a multi-cloud future

Research exploring the impact of modern storage in defining cloud success

Enterprise data protection: A four-step plan

An interactive buyers guide and checklist

The total economic impact of Adobe Sign

Cost savings and business benefits enabled by Adobe Sign

Read this article:
IoT coffee machine hacked to demand ransom - IT PRO

Related Posts

Comments are closed.