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Hacking Lightbulbs To Cause a Sustained Blackout
An anonymous reader writes "Researcher Nitesh Dhanjani just published an evaluation of the Philips Hue wireless lighting system that is available at Apple stores (and online). These lightbulbs come with a wireless bridge that you can control from your iPhone. Dhanjani has published a video demonstrating a vulnerability he found that can be exploited by malware to cause a sustained blackout. The video shows how the malware script can continuously turn the light bulbs off. Dhanjani also discusses other scenarios such as the systems' tie in with IFTTT (If This Then That) to cause a blackout by tagging a Facebook user on a completely black photo. Lots of interesting ideas on security vulnerabilities targeting future malware and smart devices. The paper can be downloaded here (PDF)."
Why do I feel like I'm standing in line at the supermarket reading the cover of some tabloid rag right now...
It seems to me a bit frivolous to be connecting lights, toilets, refrigerators and whatnot to wireless technology.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
On, controllable, off?
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Turning off a single or set of light bulbs is not a "sustained blackout." Shutdown all electrical systems in a city (or at least a neighborhood) and maybe you can start talking blackout. But turning off a couple of light bulbs isn't even inconvenient. What kind of hyperbolic dipshittery headline writing is this?
I'd say we're making no progress because this is all that's required to break stuff. Again.
Companies are great at tacking needless wifi into things and not being able to protect them against the most basic of attack. But hey, it's not like you need your lights to work reliably, right?
I can't wait for the toilet that won't flush unless you pay the guy in Russia that infected it with malware. That's going to make all our lives better.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Apologies in advance for the trolling but that section seems a bit unnecessary... it's basically saying "if something bad happens to the service you use, something bad can happen to you"?
The light device has little to do with the hypothetical compromise of a cloud service IMO. As well as the feature of changing hue from another image. "Blackout" is a little alarmist when it's just doing what it's told to do...
The hack/comprimised access itself is neat though.
I guess I should maybe rethink my purchase of my Philips Wireless Beltbuckle.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Why seizures when you can re-program their brains?
Ezekiel 23:20
Now that the mood lighting has been disabled I can proceed with my insidious plot.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Security issues aside, wireless connectivity uses some small amount of power. To me this is energy wasting of the highest order. My lightbulbs constantly listening for the one time per month that maybe I want to turn them on from my phone? Yes please and a side of mountain top removal coal mining please!
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
Well, i have a lot of these bulbs in my house. And since the protocol is open (zigbee protocol) anyone can script a "blackout". Or a disco. The only news in this article is that somehow the handshake token gets hijacked by the script. Well, anyone near the bridge can just create a new token, so there is no need to hijack one.
The hack described in the article is interesting from a technical perspective, but the use of the term "blackout" is hysterical and misleading.
When I think of the term "blackout", I take that to mean no more 120/240 in any of my sockets.
Yes, appliance hacks are something that we all should think about as more and more of the ubiquitous appliances, like lights, HVAC, water and sewer, that truly make the modern world function come online, but cmon....
I prefer the ideas generated around fiscal policy.....
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT:
Um listen, if we could, er, for a moment move on to the subject of fiscal policy -
FORD:
”Fiscal Policy”?!
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT:
Yes.
FORD:
How can you have money if none of you actually produce anything? It doesn’t grow on trees you know!
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT:
You know If you would allow me to continue!
CAPTAIN:
Yes let him to continue.
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT:
Since we decided a few weeks ago to adopt leaves as legal tender, we have, of course all become immensely rich.
FORD:
No really? Really?
CROWD MEMBERS:
Yes, very good move
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT:
But, we have also run into a small inflation problem on account of the high level of leaf availability. Which means that I gather the current going rate has something like three major deciduous forests buying one ship’s peanut. So, um, in order to obviate this problem and effectively revalue the leaf, we are about to embark on an extensive defoliation campaign, and um, burn down all the forests. I think that’s a sensible move don’t you?
MARKETING GIRL:
That makes economic sense.
[Murmurs of agreement from crowd]
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
I need one of these for when my group has star parties. One that covers about 50 miles in all directions.
There is no reason for a light bulb to be connected to the internet, this proves it. If you are too stupid or lazy to be able to turn on/off your own lights using a mechanical switch you deserve getting the "blackout of shame".
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Aye, I was rather dubious of this product for this reason and others. Another fundamental problem is they're taking something simple and cheap and adding a great deal of complexity and cost to it which increases the price, reduces the market and lowers reliability. I don't need lightbulbs that can think for themselves, talk to each other or talk to me. Just turn on and off. That's enough.
To remotely turn them off. or on. or up. or down. or a different color/hue/warmth. or to synchronize them. or to remotely manage all of yours from one point.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Have gnu, will travel.
Still not seeing why we need Internet connected lightbulbs. Personally, I wouldn't install them if they were given to me for me.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
Power companies are putting in smart meters that will allow them to turn off your power at their command for unpaid bills but the kicker is that they also will be allowed to turn off your air conditioner when they think it's best for them do to so. Forget if you have an old person living with you that can't take the heat outside. http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2013/02/18/tep-wants-to-control-your-air-conditioner-this-summer/
Paul: Father... father, the sleeper has awakened! - Dune
Gee! Without internet connected light bulbs, we'd have no need for the abundance of addresses that IPv6 gives us.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Why do we consider multiple security vulnerabilities in control software a 'smart' device? More like a stupid device designed by a fool!
Everything wireless is less secure than its wired counterpart. Always prefer wired if given an option.
The only question to ask yourself is how bad is the potential downside?
Just think of the most basic aspects. Wireless by definition means *direct these signals through the air in all directions and receive signals from the air in all directions*
What could possibly go right?
Wireless communication between car components? No thanks!
Wireless lights everywhere? No thanks!
Has network connection = can be hacked. That's a law of physics. If you don't want your [insert device here] to get hacked, make sure it doesn't have any form of networking capabilities. If you're still on the fence, go watch Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex.
...sound a little bit like what we used to do with fax machines, Fax someone a black piece of paper. As the leading edge of the paper comes out of the machine, scotch tape it to the trailing edge. Recipient's machine runs until it's out of paper or toner.
Everything old is new again...
Quite expensive, knowing a (remote) LED light controller costs only about 25$ and a LED (color)strip costs about 30$ ..
This can be hacked -way cheaper- through a microcontroller like Arduindo ..
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
So, what happens when your lights crash?
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Toaster of 2113:
Takes 2 minutes to boot, has 16 Yottabytes of memory and 2 Xenabytes of permanent storage.
After you put your toast in it, it rejects it on the basis that you've had too much white bread this week and the company doesn't want to be held liable for serving you more unhealthy food. ...After putting some brown bread in the toaster, the toaster plays an ad for some other food you can't eat whilst analyzing the DNA of the bread and checking that the seeds that made the bread were correctly licensed from Monsanto.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/25/4365726/daniel-dennett-explains-how-to-reprogram-your-brain
http://youtu.be/4Q_mY54hjM0
I believe the darknet anons are already working on it.
to download light bulb porn, why else? Rule 34 people!