Tens of thousands of digital video recorders (DVRs) used to store footage captured by surveillance cameras can be easily accessed by remote hackers because their web interface is either protected by a hardcoded password or no password at all.
A report published on Wednesday by Risk Based Security (RBS) revealed that the firmware of DVRs manufactured by China-based Zhuhai RaySharp, which reportedly exports 60,000 units every month, includes a web interface that allows users to manage the devices, view recorded video, and control surveillance cameras.
The problem is that the web interface can be accessed using credentials that are hardcoded in the firmware, which enables unauthorized third parties to easily gain control of the device. Researchers found that the devices could be accessed with the username “root” and the password “519070,” although older reports suggest that in some cases other usernames work as well in combination with the aforementioned password.
A search conducted by Risk Based Security using Shodan revealed that there are between 36,000 and 46,000 DVRs accessible from the Internet, roughly half of which located in the United States. Internet-connected devices were also discovered in the UK, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and other countries.
Experts have pointed out that RaySharp products are not the only ones affected by this vulnerability (CVE-2015-8286) as other vendors from the US and Europe use the Chinese company’s firmware for their devices, including Lorex, Defender, Swann, KGuard Security, König and COP USA.
RBS reported the flaw to US-CERT in September 2015 and US-CERT notified all affected vendors by late October, but only few released patches so far. RaySharp acknowledged receiving the report, but it has yet to release a fix. Swann said it was working on its own patches and Defender claimed it released a firmware update that addressed the issue in late September.
In 2013, researchers reported finding a vulnerability in RaySharp DVRs and other devices based on the RaySharp firmware. The security hole, whose existence was again mentioned last year, allows an attacker to bypass authentication and compromise the products. RBS analyzed the firmware of these devices to see if it can find an even easier way to hack them — and apparently it succeeded.
Researchers at Pen Test Partners have also analyzed DVR security. For their tests, they purchased an MVpower device, which appears to have even weaker security than the products analyzed by RBS. Experts have found 44,000 devices accessible on the Internet and it might be possible to easily access many of their administration interfaces with the username “admin” and a blank password.
Pen Test Partners also reported finding web authentication bypass issues, security bugs that allow attackers to obtain local and remote shell access, the lack of CSRF protection and HTTPS, and no mechanism for updating the firmware. Experts also discovered code designed to capture screenshots from one of the cameras connected to the device and send them to a specified email address.
DVRs are not the only types of devices left exposed by default passwords. Researchers warned last week about the dangers of running VoIP phones using the default configuration and default passwords.
Related: Multiple Vulnerabilities Found in Hikvision DVR Devices
