European HbbTV Smart TV Holes Make Sets Hackable

mask.of.sanity writes "Vulnerabilities in Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV television sets have been found that allow viewers' home networks to be hacked, the programs they watched spied on, and even for TV sets to be turned into Bitcoin miners. The laboratory attacks took take advantage of the rich web features enabled in smart TVs running on the HbbTV network, a system loaded with online streaming content and apps which is used by more than 20 million viewers in Europe."

Comments

And of course........

[allaunjsilverfox2]

There STILL isn't anything worth watching on tv. :p

Re:And of course........

[robthebloke]

No, nothing since teletext shut down.

Smart TVs not a smart idea

[ArcadeMan]

One more reason to buy a dumb computer monitor and use it as a TV.

Re:Smart TVs not a smart idea

[gstoddart]

Agreed. I have no interest in having my TV connect to the internet .. or my fridge, or my toaster, or my toilet.

Everyone is in a big rush to say "ZOMG, it's on the intarwebs and has Facebook and Netflix", but I frequently find myself thinking "wow, what a massive security hole waiting to happen".

Vendors just want to get their product to market, and they rarely take the time to actually think about (or properly implement) security.

Re:Smart TVs not a smart idea

[gstoddart]

But then you'd still have to pay the extra for a smart TV that you're going to use as a dumb screen

Why would I spend more on a TV for features I don't want and don't plan to use?

Re:Smart TVs not a smart idea

[bbn]

Agreed. I have no interest in having my TV connect to the internet .. or my fridge, or my toaster, or my toilet.

The internet is the _only_ connection my TV has. I skipped buying cable and terrestrial is not an option here.

It just happens that my TV can actually show a lot of TV content with just Internet. The national TV is available as streaming. And I got Netflix and HBO Nordic. I am never going to buy cable again.

Comparing the TV to the fridge, toaster and toilet is so misguided. The TV has a very real reason to be on the internet: The internet is the pipe to entertainment that I am viewing on the TV. It is the coax port on the TV that is going to be obsolete in the future. Already people like me are not using it anymore.

Re:Smart TVs not a smart idea

[ArcadeMan]

My computer monitor is also connected to the Internet, but via a small AppleTV box. What happens when your manufacturer decides it won't update your TV about a critical security hole?

The TV itself doesn't have to be connected to anything except a small box. Replacing the small box will be less costly for your wallet and less costly for the environment than replacing the whole TV.

Re:Smart TVs not a smart idea

[ArcadeMan]

And you're a dumb reader.

"Replacing the small box will be less costly for your wallet and less costly for the environment than replacing the whole TV."

Re:Smart TVs not a smart idea

[gstoddart]

What happens when Apple decides it won't update AppleTV anymore?

The exact same thing that happened when Apple decided not to update the original iPad ... they pissed off their early adopters, and life went on.

However, given the cost of an Apple TV versus a large HDTV screen, replacing the Apple TV is still the easier route.

Bitcoin mining? Is anyone still trying that?

[jeffmeden]

Bitcoin mining is so difficult at this point (due to so much interest, and dedicated hardware designs being applied to it) that it is nearly impossible to do on "harvested" hardware like these smartTV devices. Even getting a few thousand into a mining botnet is not likely to yield any significant return compared to say, using it as a for-hire DDOS botnet, or a spam botnet.

Re:Bitcoin mining? Is anyone still trying that?

[loufoque]

What is difficult is to mine bitcoins worth more than the costs of running the machine.
But these hackers obviously do NOT pay the electricity bills of their victims.