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Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

hackernoon.com

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Re: Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

#21

Post by Klathmon »

rashomon wrote: post #13
nickspacek wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The linked article is a guide to "hacking" a $30 Xiaomi Dafang IP camera. This camera is an "indoor motorized WiFi camera capable of 1080P resolution and decent night-vision, its price is cheap". If you bought one, all the "hacking" required is inserting a MicroSD card with a custom firmware on it and pressing and holding the camera's reset button to flash the custom firmware. From then on, the camera has the ability…

I'm not a conspiracy nut but there is something to say about how attractive Xiaomi's offerings are. For everything from phones, TVs, and other electronics; you would be crazy not to purchase it. In there lies a hidden threat. Possible from a tiger nation state.

I don't think it's a "hidden threat" as much as it is a company racing to the bottom first.

Xiaomi has consistently shown that they don't care about security (or at least consistently enough that they have lost my trust).

Re: Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

#22

Post by rb808 »

diggan wrote: post #4

Speaking about cheap cameras. I'm planning to setup some cameras at home. Anyone have any recommendations for devices that are cheap, can see moderately good in the dark, can be connected to a raspberry and doesn't force you to connect to some cloud service?

Outdoors - anyone have any suggestion for waterproof ones? Both of these look indoor only.

Re: Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

#23

Post by kawsper »

lozaning wrote: post #9
freehunter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Wyze cam that I installed OpenIPC on. Very simple process if you’ve ever flashed a firmware before. OpenIPC lets you turn off the cloud stuff and I have mine pushing video over my local network to MotionEye on a Raspberry Pi. The Wyze has IR night vision but the IR can’t see through windows at night so be aware of that. It was like $25 on Amazon, pretty good deal I think.

I've got the same thing going at home, tough to beat ~7 of these cameras flashed with OpenIPC for the cost of a single drop cam. Got the rtsp stream connected up to smartthings and blue iris and have had zero trouble with them. They're only $20 if you order from wyze.com

They look the same as the camera being sold from https://openip.cam/ , but the price there is even cheaper: $12.99.

Re: Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

#24

Post by Y_Y »

kawsper wrote: post #23
lozaning wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got the same thing going at home, tough to beat ~7 of these cameras flashed with OpenIPC for the cost of a single drop cam. Got the rtsp stream connected up to smartthings and blue iris and have had zero trouble with them. They're only $20 if you order from wyze.com

They look the same as the camera being sold from https://openip.cam/ , but the price there is even cheaper: $12.99.

They're selling SD cards, not cameras

Re: Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

#26

Post by skykooler »

diggan wrote: post #4

Speaking about cheap cameras. I'm planning to setup some cameras at home. Anyone have any recommendations for devices that are cheap, can see moderately good in the dark, can be connected to a raspberry and doesn't force you to connect to some cloud service?

If you're planning on connecting directly to a Raspberry Pi, the simplest option is a NoIR Raspberry Pi Camera Module and a few IR LEDs.

Re: Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

#28

Post by TheForumTroll »

epicide wrote: post #14
diggan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I saw said article as I'm commenting in it's thread :) But I wanted to avoid the hacking and just buy something that I don't have to force into doing what I want but rather come in a clean slate.

Not trying to sound (too) snarky, but the fact that there is an article on hacking a camera to do that kinda tells you that a boxed solution to do mostly the same things doesn't exist :)

Lots exist, just not cheap :)

Re: Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

#29

Post by ericfrederich »

lozaning wrote: post #9
freehunter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Wyze cam that I installed OpenIPC on. Very simple process if you’ve ever flashed a firmware before. OpenIPC lets you turn off the cloud stuff and I have mine pushing video over my local network to MotionEye on a Raspberry Pi. The Wyze has IR night vision but the IR can’t see through windows at night so be aware of that. It was like $25 on Amazon, pretty good deal I think.

I've got the same thing going at home, tough to beat ~7 of these cameras flashed with OpenIPC for the cost of a single drop cam. Got the rtsp stream connected up to smartthings and blue iris and have had zero trouble with them. They're only $20 if you order from wyze.com

Do you lose the push notifications when you use the custom firmware?

Re: Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth

#30

Post by O_H_E »

Klathmon wrote: post #21
rashomon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a conspiracy nut but there is something to say about how attractive Xiaomi's offerings are. For everything from phones, TVs, and other electronics; you would be crazy not to purchase it. In there lies a hidden threat. Possible from a tiger nation state.

I don't think it's a "hidden threat" as much as it is a company racing to the bottom first. Xiaomi has consistently shown that they don't care about security (or at least consistently enough that they have lost my trust).

I want to believe this, but I have never seen something about Xiaomi/security. Can you please give some pointers/links/events that happened before
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