Slashdot Mirror
Even the Dumbest Ransomware Is Almost Unremovable On Smart TVs (symantec.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Apparently even the easiest-to-remove ransomware is painfully hard to uninstall from smart TVs, if they're running on the Android TV platform, and many are. This didn't happen in a real-world scenario (yet), and was only a PoC test by Symantec. The researcher managed to remove the ransomware only because he enabled the Android ADB tool beforehand, knowing he would infect the TV with the ransomware. "Without this option enabled, and if I was less experienced user, I'd probably still be locked out of my smart TV, making it a large and expensive paper weight," said the researcher.
Why the heck don't these devices have a "Reset to factory settings" button?
Flash memory is cheap. Have a permanent, unmodifiable copy of the firmware the device ships with. If you power it on while holding the button, copy that firmware over as the active firmware, clear out the user data area, and restart. Boom! TV is back to normal.
This sort of thing is ludicrously easy to implement and would save the companies money on warranty repairs.
I have a JBL speaker that I had to ship back to the manufacturer to be replaced because of a bad firmware update. A simple reset button like the one I described would have saved me a ton of pain and saved JBL money on shipping the speaker both ways. WHY isn't this sort of thing universal?
Is there any "smart" TV that actually works well?
I have owned a few and I always end up hooking up the Roku because it just works.
Seems like this is another reason not to hook up your smart TV to the Internet.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Sounds to me like the researcher sideloaded a package, which of course carries the risk of malware, MitM attack or not. I imagine Google Play Store has protections against MitM attacks, at least I hope it would.
So are you telling me that user apps can modify the OS and run as root? Are Google developers complete morons or are the TV developers complete morons?
Showing clips of lady products, detergent and chocolate, every 10 minutes or so
Even the Dumbest Ransomware Is Almost Unremovable On Smart TVs
sometimes they bungle the headline, but you have to admit that this time they nailed it. kudos!
Is there really any reason to buy a "Smart" TV, versus a standalone display?
Even things like this aside, it seems like the TV equivalent of having an "all in one" model for your desktop, where you're pretty much stuck with replacing the whole thing if you want to do anything more than swap a hard drive or such. It also seems like buying a separate device, whether you're using a Roku or AppleTV or XBoxOne/PS4, and then hooking it to a giant monitor, is by far the better option.
You have to be pretty dumb to buy one.
Yeah, unfortunately, you can hardly find a "dumb" TV anymore with decent features. I had to buy a smart TV the last time I upgraded only because it was the only model I could find with a decent set of inputs and outputs. But I've found that it's a lot less "smart" and intrusive when you don't plug it into the router or give it your wifi password.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Wouldn't your rather spend the money used for 'smart' features on better screen or electronics?
love is just extroverted narcissism
I guess it's because they have to market these planned obsolesence devices somehow, make people think they need the latest device with facebook integration and iPhone controls, because otherwise, there aren't significant advancements in the last few decades in terms of fridges, or toasters or washing machines. To sell a new one to someone with an already functioning device, they have to make it shinier, more exciting, with connectivity to their latest iOS and android device, so the customer feels like he's living in the world of tomorrow, today. In reality, the novelty wears off after a couple of weeks, you never use your TV to check your facebook and the fridge just turns into a fridge.
Smart TVs are a Dumb Idea. Don't buy one.
If you don't mind something smaller, get a dumb computer monitor.
Well, you know how the weekends just fly by...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Don't buy things with internet connection that don't need to have internet connection. Appliance companies specialize in appliances, not networking, not internet security, and not privacy. On any modern appliance, the thing that is going to break down first is the electronics. Washing machines used to last for decades, now they last for years, but require costly board replacements because the mechanical dials and switches have been replaced with software and firmware, and the boards don't last very long in environments in which you might find a washing machine. Instead of buying a new "start" knob when it wears out, or string a new wire if it breaks, you have to buy a $300 control board. It's a giant leap backwards in the name of progress.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Hope your happy sharing what you watch and whats on your network with Vizio, Cognitive Networks, and whoever else they share it with.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
It seeming more and more like Android is repeating all of microsofts mistakes about security. What's worse, andorid is getting embedded everywhere. Windows CE didn't have that sort of penetration.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Are you equally pleased with Vizio's deep and intrusive interest in fingerprinting everything you display on your TV?
I suppose that that's the one blessing of the relatively high cost of US market cellular data: it isn't yet economic for TVs to literally phone home if they are denied free internet access. The hardware to do so is chillingly close to be plausibly cost effective; but the cost of exfiltrating any nontrivial amount of data, or serving ads, is presumably still too high.
It's pretty dumb to buy a smart TV. What is going to happen when all the software on it is obsolete but the screen still works? People are going to be throwing out perfectly good TVs just to replace the software! Terrible for the environment.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
The point isn't whether you want to be connected. The point is that when you aren't connected it's harder to 'monetize' you; and that just isn't acceptable.
Because, for every person like you, there are 10 that would just say "Speaker not work. Must buy new speaker."
Perhaps they would say that, but why on earth would they then buy a speaker from a manufacturer who had screwed them over like that?
In fact if a manufacturer did that to me, I'd tell friends not to buy that brand, and be inclined to tell future generations not to do so also. To this day I don't buy Sony audio equipment because of bad experiences in college.
So I hardly think it likely they would produce something crappy in this way on purpose.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A: Because when it's smart, it's dumb.
Q: How many robots does it take to screw in a light-bulb?
A: Wow! I didn't know there were little robots in my light-bulbs.
Thank-you. I'll be here all week.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
After I win All The Lotteries, I will form Big Dumb Company, with the principal division being Big Dumb Appliances, such as clothes and dish washers that are so well built, they can be handed down at least two generations, stupidly fixable with decades-long part availability, and that are designed to accomplish one task: WASH THINGS.
Same with TVs - or should I say monitors - with the best display possible, replaceable power supplies, interface ports (sans wireless nor Ethernet) out the kazoo, AND DUMB AS A BAG OF HAMMERS. Tuner? game console? Roku? Fantastic: PLUG THEM IN. What will the TVs do? DISPLAY THINGS, PERIOD.
Now, onto phone / Internet service: BIG DUMB PIPE.
plus the purpose-built device will out-perform and be more reliable than the half-assed software baked into the TV.
I have a 2013 Samsung smart TV that came loaded to the gills with all kinds of bells-and-whistles and a pretty beefy quad core processor to run it all and yet I ended up using the Roku anyway because the apps kept breaking, malfunctioning and performed sluggishly... It's not like I had a ton of apps either... Netflix, Hulu and Amazon are about the only ones I use.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Facebook is the most annoying and dumbest app my devices refuse to remove. They all come with my recent mobile phones, but they refuse to remove the facebook apps from my phones.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Yeah, unfortunately, you can hardly find a "dumb" TV anymore with decent features. I had to buy a smart TV the last time I upgraded only because it was the only model I could find with a decent set of inputs and outputs. But I've found that it's a lot less "smart" and intrusive when you don't plug it into the router or give it your wifi password.
Google commercial display TV. You will find plenty. Not as cheap because they are not subsidized by apps, tracking and adware.
Silence is a state of mime.
What I don't get is why is the original OS/settings not stored in some read only memory where say the OS gets a virus the user would then be given an option to restore the software to factory and then fix it from there. Sure it is not the most ideal of soultions, but it is still a good one that a virus would not likely be able to destroy.
its 2015 FFS why is that not a thing for any piece of tech with an OS?
Another good reason to never, ever, under any circumstances, directly connect a smart TV, or any IoT appliance to any computer network whatsoever.
This is information Security 101
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I have a LG Smart-TV - non android. Just browsing the web trying to see videos in sites, you are covered by a rain of pop-up adds that make it impossible to navigate. One can't even remove a cookie from the built-in TV browser. It is just a matter of time before smart TVs stuck bloated by adware, unless the TV vendors offer more control to the TV owners - android platform or not.
-><- no
[My favorite speakers are] utterly compatible with everything from an original Walkman to an iPhone, because everything still uses that headphone jack.
Not for long though. Apple wants to phase out 3.5 mm.
Being small little speakers, they have the benefit that in a relatively short distance you can't hear them at all. Which means the wife and I can have music that people 30 feet away can't even hear -- which is a bonus when you're in the back yard or lounging by a pool and don't want to disturb other people.
Know what else has great sound, can't be heard from a short distance away, and sells for $50? Koss Porta Pro.