Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

IoT Security

Researchers Turn Comcast TV Remote Into Spying Device

Researchers from segmentation solutions provider Guardicore have identified a series of vulnerabilities that could have been exploited by a hacker to turn a TV remote into a spying device.

Researchers from segmentation solutions provider Guardicore have identified a series of vulnerabilities that could have been exploited by a hacker to turn a TV remote into a spying device.

The research focused on the XR11 remote provided by Comcast to Xfinity customers. The remote allows users to change channels, search for programs, and perform other actions using voice commands. Guardicore’s research analyzed the XR11 remote with the Xfinity X1 set-top box.

The first phase of the attack, which Guardicore has dubbed WarezTheRemote, focused on remotely pushing malicious firmware to a targeted remote. The device uses radio frequency (RF) rather than infrared (IR) to communicate with the set-top box. Since RF has a longer range, it made it possible for malicious actors to launch an attack from a significant distance.

Communications between the remote and the set-top box are encrypted, but the remote’s firmware failed to ensure that only encrypted responses were accepted for encrypted requests, allowing an attacker to send malicious responses in plain text.

Another aspect of the attack relied on the fact that the remote checked for firmware updates by querying the set-top box every 24 hours. The researchers found that an attacker could have impersonated the set-top box to inform the remote that a firmware update is available by exploiting the encryption-related flaw.

The researchers found a way not only to push malicious firmware to a remote by impersonating the box, but also to cause the box to enter a DoS condition to ensure that it did not interfere with the attack — uploading the firmware took roughly half an hour and the process could have been disrupted by interferences.

The experts reverse engineered the remote’s firmware and managed to make slight modifications that would enable an attacker to remotely trigger the microphone on the remote. The recorded audio was streamed over RF, allowing the attacker to spy on the user.

WarezTheRemote attack

A WarezTheRemote attack could have been conducted using equipment that costs only a few dollars, but an RF receiver and a 16dBi antenna that cost a couple hundred dollars allowed the experts to conduct an attack from a distance of 65 feet and the remote picked up the victim’s voice from a distance of 15 feet. Guardicore believes the attack could have worked over even longer distances.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The findings were reported to Comcast in April and the company started rolling out patches on July 14. The vendor said version 1.1.4.0 of the firmware, which addresses the vulnerabilities, was pushed to all affected devices by September 24. The DoS flaw affecting the set-top box was also fixed.

“As Comcast has completed its remediation efforts, we know of no vulnerable devices at this time. Up until the fixes were released, though, every XR11 remote could have been attacked in this fashion. Besides leaving out the batteries, there was no effective way to mitigate it, either,” Guardicore said.

Related: New Eavesdropping Technique Relies on Light Bulb Vibrations

Related: Mobile Devices Exposed to Spying via Malicious Batteries: Researchers

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

Vulnerabilities

A researcher at IOActive discovered that home security systems from SimpliSafe are plagued by a vulnerability that allows tech savvy burglars to remotely disable...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.