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Android-Based Smart TVs Aren't That Smart When You Install Malware On Them (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Smart TVs running older versions of the Android operating system are being infected with malware that was specifically built to target smart TVs. Infections occur via applications downloaded from a series of sites ran under the H.TV brand. These are websites that offer applications specifically built for Android smart TVs that allow users to watch TV channels from other regions of the globe. As usual, these apps are side-loaded from unofficial app stores. Fortunately, it's not a smart TV ransomware.
The best thing you can do with a "Smart TV" is dumb the fuck out of it.
Android-Based Smart TVs Aren't That Smart When You Install Malware On Them
I think this is obvious. Is there anyone who thinks otherwise? Anyway, why is this a headline on Slashdot? I sincerely just don't get it.
For a moment I was hoping the "malware" just removed the manufacturers cruddy adware/malware, transforming the device into an old-fashioned "dumb" just-works television.
Since I like Neweggs stance on patents, here is a non affiliate link to some examples: http://www.newegg.com/Commerci...
Silence is a state of mime.
Why are crooks installing malware but not using it for ransom? Apparently because they're using the malware to load pay-per-install apps to the TVs. They're avoiding notice by the owners, and milking these TVs for a few easy bucks.
Apple doesn't make a smart TV, they make an overpriced, underpowered set top box. This article is about smart TVs.
It also requires the user to intentionally side-load the malware in order to be infected. Something you flat-out can't do on an Apple TV.
Want to watch Amazon Prime on Apple TV? Or anything else that Apple hasn't officially blessed? Tough. You can't.
Don't install malware on your Android-based smart TV and you'll be fine.
I have an Apple TV too, but it isn't terribly useful, even at $99. And the new one is way overpriced.
After 3 years of using my High end Sony Smart TV for internet video streaming, I bought a Stream Box because the TV's software was never updated and some services like YouTube actually stopped functioning because of end of support for whatever streaming method the device was using.Someone really needs to explain to Executives at TV manufacturers than nobody goes out to Replace a TV just so the SmartTV functions can get updated. Not when one can go buy a stream Device for a fraction of the price and get updates and a much better interface and function.
...Don't install malware on your Android-based smart TV and you'll be fine.
The average smart TV consumer can't even spell malware let alone understand what the fuck it is or why it's bad, so please stop trying to address the masses as if they can even comprehend this. It only makes you look as ignorant as the masses you are attempting to address.
I bet their's an Idiot that will get one, once the Share on Facebook stops working.
Well, thanks for telling us what it's not, but TFA doesn't actually confirm that, if anything it says it could be literally anything. Essentially this malware creates a system by with other malware can be downloaded and installed.
So it could, actually, be ransomware. And, to be honest, I'm trying to think of malware that would be useful (to attackers) on expensive smart TVs except for ransomware. It can't exactly install keyloggers to grab your credit card numbers...
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
It is a very ugly practice that you can not upgrade a SmartTV device, they are locked by its manufacturer. Sony's Google TV, Vizio Co-Start Google TV are just locked with Android 3 without any possibilities of updating it. Manufacturers need to stop locking up their devices to allow the users or communities to upgrade their OS.
Makes sense to put all the smarts into a small, cheap, easy to replace set-top box that you can attach to your big, high-quality (expensive but longer lived) *dumb* display that is optimised to simply display whatever you plug into it.
Putting the soon obsoleted, vulnerable smarts into your display just doesn't make sense to me.
Or did I just reinvent the media PC in disguise?
I've never understood why someone would want an integrated "smart TV". Things become obsolete, app makers switch to a new os/hardware config. If you have your smart device integrated into the TV there is no way to replace a relatively cheap system in an expensive one. Whereas if you have a separate smart device and it no longer supports the apps you want, breaks, or is infected with a virus you simply buy a new one (often quite cheaply) hook it up and you're off and running. Also from what I've seen separate smart TV device manufactures often have more stable, well supported software since they are dealing with a limited number devices instead of dozens of TV models. My Amazon Fire/Chromecast devices have required a simple restart less than a dozen times since I bought them 2 years ago. Someone I know who owns a 4k smart TV has had to factory reset their TV at least 3 times due to software bugs in the last year alone. Buying a TV with integrated smart capabilities is like buying a house with a fridge/washer/dryer permanently cemented into a wall.
I don't think people install malware intentionally, they are tricked into it by definition they didn't want to
We *have* a Samsung 4k "Smart" TV and we don't use any of the smarts - at all. What drives it is the XB One, or the Android TV Stick. I'm not even sure how to use the "smart" part. But it said "Smart" on the box...
I have no doubt that the "smart" feature is something they added to make it more appealing in some way, but why?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
After 3 years of using my High end Sony Smart TV for internet video streaming, I bought a Stream Box because the TV's software was never updated and some services like YouTube actually stopped functioning because of end of support for whatever streaming method the device was using.Someone really needs to explain to Executives at TV manufacturers than nobody goes out to Replace a TV just so the SmartTV functions can get updated. Not when one can go buy a stream Device for a fraction of the price and get updates and a much better interface and function.
You miss the point. They already had your money, so they're in no hurry to update your device. Same thing happened with my Garmin GPS and a friend's DVD player, as well as my dumb Samsung TVs. [The Smart TVs seem to get updates fairly often, though.] It's like they need two updates to cover their own asses, but should something like a timezone file update be needed, updates are nowhere to be found.
What they really need to do is spend extra development time to get the firmware correct in the first place, then make sure that it can't be updated in software. Make it a pure hardware ROM if need be. That way, the device is correct, the device won't get infected, and the device won't get the updates that it wasn't going to get anyway.
For a moment I was hoping the "malware" just removed the manufacturers cruddy adware/malware, transforming the device into an old-fashioned "dumb" just-works television.
You know, I bet there would be a market for a utility that took a "smart" TV and basically lobotomized back into a standard TV, incapable of being infested with malware. Have it lock out all the ridiculous garbage "features" that make it vulnerable and turn it into just a plain ol' TV with normal features.
If I ever bought a smart TV I'd probably be willing to pay to have it dumbed down.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I have no doubt that the "smart" feature is something they added to make it more appealing in some way, but why?
What they meant is that it's "smart" enough to be vulnerable to malware attacks, instead of just blissfully ignoring them like a regular TV does.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I also have one of those sony google tvs that was abandoned. Stream Box looks really sketchy - are you happy with it?
I still use my google TV to SMB network share into my PC for content stored there.
You could cut out 2/3 of the title and be perfectly accurate
"Smart TVs aren't smart." Full stop.
They're the bastard children of TVs and Computers that do not accomplish either task as well as their dedicated parents.
This signature is false.
My so called smart tv can play files from Windows shared folders. What I wish is that VLC could play streams to it instead.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
It's already smarter than you
Buying a Steam Box to... watch youtube videos etc, is one weird decision.
Lack of updates is another puzzling reason, I have a bunch of TVs and even 5 year old C series Samsung keeps updating stuff (which is rather annoying).
Not sure about new revisions, but most of the older Samsung TVs I touched ran Linux.
There is a wonderful SamyGo project, which allows you to root and harness your TV (full shell access, SAMBA/NFS mounts, ui patches and even cardsharing clients)
Exactly what I've been expecting. These things never get updates, even just security ones. They are hacked together out of open source components then thrown over the wall and the next one is started on. The images couldn't be updated normally because it's a load of closed stuff, which of course mean the kernel and everything has moved on and the closed bits haven't. So you either can't use the closed bits, or can't update the connecting parts. But of course, these things aren't made to be updated.
What is scary is everyone is just joining these things willy-nilly to their network. Won't be long before malware infections aren't just the Windows PC but the whole network.
What should be done is these things should be standardized so standard and updated images can be used on them. Like OpenWRT for routers, but where you just need the DeviceTree for your device, or better still, the hardware is auto-discoverable like on x86.
I would never buy a smart TV and if I was forced too I would simply never connect it to the internet. The main reason is these so called smart devices never seem to receive the same attention to updates or upgrades that dedicated devices receive. Smart appliances are also a risky device as they too seem to be ignored for updates after only a short time. Even routers these days are getting attacked only because the firmware is so poorly developed and not properly updated.
You can go months before the device is updated and sometimes it has to be manually done. Best advice in buying is when you see smart mentioned in device. Think dumb as the actual result. Think security risk, think to yourself. I am smarter then a person who buys a smart TV.
They are hoping consumers/suckers will fall for the Android marketing model. New features are only available with the new model, not the one you've purchased. Including essential security.
OpenElec (was XBMC) on a hacked Chrombox works well for me. Dumb TVs forever.
Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music
Pay $250 or your tv will only play Rick Astley!
The average smart TV consumer can't even spell malware let alone understand what the fuck it is or why it's bad...
but yet the average TV consumer would know what side-load is?
The DirecTV STB which is updated quite frequently and had YouTube streaming for some time no longer supports YouTube either. Seems to be around the time YouTube Red was introduced. Hearing a second instance of this, I wonder if this was a technical decision or a policy change on YouTube's end.
Because if the TVs were compromised by ransomware then their owners would have to get off their asses and do something about it. Instead of just letting their TVs act as botted attackers.
Or you could just not let it connect to the internet by not giving it WiFi pass codes or plugging it in. I have found that has solved the bulk of the problems with my Samsung. I have a PC connected anyway as a DVR so I can get the Netflix/Hulu/Amazon stuff anyway.
Once you decide you don't need the "smart" features you disconnect it from the internet. That has solved my issues. I have a PC connected anyway.
You do realize that the reason Amazon Prime Video isn't on AppleTV is because Amazon doesn't want it on there, right? Amazon didn't create an app to do it, where they do have an app for iPad and iPhone. Netflix has no problem working on AppleTV, nor does Hulu. Why would Apple let those services on, but block Amazon Prime Video?
Also, Amazon is the one not carrying competitors' hardware any more - just go try to buy an AppleTV from Amazon, or the new version of ChromeCast. You won't find them, but the first search result will be a FireTV stick.
But I'm sure that Apple is still the bastard in your mind because they didn't go and write an app for Amazon, cracking the DRM to play the video anyway when Amazon didn't graciously help them.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I have to agree - I had a 2nd gen AppleTV that I used the hell out of until I did a full DVR build. Due to Amazon Prime video being a pain in the ass, I bought a cheap FireTV stick, and I'm rather impressed at what $35 gets you, considering that a PLEX client is available on it as well. Unless Apple steps their game up a lot farther than some Siri-enabled nonsense, I don't see a return to AppleTV in my future, even with the new downloadable 'app' thing on the new one.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
A little of both I think. Youtube stopped supporting their "apps" on certain devices, especially ones that can view Youtube via their web browser. The PS Vita is one of those. It was probably done to reduce the plethora of devices they had to support.
Once you decide you don't need the "smart" features you disconnect it from the internet.
Pfffft, anyone could do it that way. ;)
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
.. may cause you to install malware.. Er.. Is this really an article?