Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)

dalpix.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 109 posts

Re: Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)

#2

Post by fuzzfactor »

It would be really good to see this kind of effort on the Amazon Blink cameras, I know people who are returning them because they are app-trash no differently than the no-name (multiple ghost names actually) hardware like this.

There's lots of garbage cameras now of various quality that behave the same way.

What's needed is a replacement firmware and simple flashing technique for the most popular units to appear, so it's not just one hacker getting proper performance that the hardware is capable of.

Re: Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)

#3

Post by soylentcola »

Only thing I'd mention is that the old school "web server runs on camera" model is really dodgy when the average user just plugs it in, fires up a mobile app, and sees their camera - then assumes all is well.

So many security issues and exploits for those things. Hardcoded passwords, backdoors, and loads of exploits for gaining SSH or telnet access on very common models.

As much as I hate the current shift toward camera-remote server setups (and their inevitable subscription fees), I can't imagine expecting your average buyer at Amazon or Walmart to properly configure and lock those things down. At least if it only talks to Amazon or Google or whoever, you won't be able to find it in a port scan and pull an image using admin/admin or whatever.

Re: Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)

#4

Post by MarkusQ »

soylentcola wrote: post #3

Only thing I'd mention is that the old school "web server runs on camera" model is really dodgy when the average user just plugs it in, fires up a mobile app, and sees their camera - then assumes all is well. So many security issues and exploits for those things. Hardcoded passwords, backdoors, and loads of exploits for gaining SSH or telnet access on very common models. As much as I hate the current shift toward cam…

So to avoid the risk of someone wardriving your neighborhood and hacking into your camera, it's better to...send all the data to China and trust them to protect it?

Re: Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)

#5

Post by tkems »

This is a great run down of the process to extract the firmware from these types of devices without desoldering the flash. I've done a fair amount of reverse engineering and a lot of devices have similar vulnerabilities.

I think more time needs to be spent looking into these commonly used, cheap IoT devices and educating consumers on the risks of using a poorly secured device on their network.

The upside of these vulnerabilities is that you can run your own code on these! 'Declouding' is great as it can extend the lifetime of these devices and make using them more private.

Re: Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)

#7

Post by stacktrust »

fuzzfactor wrote: post #2

It would be really good to see this kind of effort on the Amazon Blink cameras, I know people who are returning them because they are app-trash no differently than the no-name (multiple ghost names actually) hardware like this. There's lots of garbage cameras now of various quality that behave the same way. What's needed is a replacement firmware and simple flashing technique for the most popular units to appear, so…

Blink cameras have amazing battery life due to proprietary silicon, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40065319

> These would be tough as they are based on a proprietary ASIC which is poorly documented even for internal developers. Ask me how I know.

Teardown thread, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33683122

Re: Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)

#8

Post by soylentcola »

MarkusQ wrote: post #4
soylentcola wrote: post #3

Only thing I'd mention is that the old school "web server runs on camera" model is really dodgy when the average user just plugs it in, fires up a mobile app, and sees their camera - then assumes all is well. So many security issues and exploits for those things. Hardcoded passwords, backdoors, and loads of exploits for gaining SSH or telnet access on very common models. As much as I hate the current shift toward cam…

So to avoid the risk of someone wardriving your neighborhood and hacking into your camera, it's better to...send all the data to China and trust them to protect it?

Sorry...was talking more about the ones I've run across that are directly accessible via WAN for remote viewing.

Re: Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)

#9

Post by krunck »

"This first difficulty was to find information about the camera. Despite having a company logo printed on its front, I could not find any information about this company on Google. I found several identical cameras being sold online, but under different brands, all of them seem to be Chinese names."

Why does this continue to surprise people? So much sketchy garbage coming out of China is sold under numerous "brands". Just look at a lot of computer stuff sold on Amazon.

Post reply on HN