First up: this isn't criticism of the original post in the slightest, it's a wonderful journey through figuring out how a weird device that wants to be on your wifi works. If you have a device that speaks to an Android app, you want https://github.com/niklashigi/apk-mitm - it'll strip pretty much every known certificate pinning implementation from an apk, and it'll also rewrite the manifest so it'll trust the user-in…
not to overshadow apk-mitm, but i find PCAPdroid and its MITM plugin (which uses mitmproxy under the hood!) to be convenient, if you want to look at things on the device.
Hmm, I don't see any encryption. In the first screenshot 'cyberchef.avif' in the 'input window, the data is just unencrypted hex ASCII. I can fairly easily read the hex: even judging only from the first byte 7D, it is most probably JSON: 7D = { 0D0A = CRLF 09 = TAB 22 = " 73 = s 74 = t 61 = a 74 = t 75 = u 73 = s 4C = L 74 = a .... So that is just the 'decoded' text. Where's the mentioned XOR encryption? Also, the 'k…
Sorry about that, the screenshots were taken after I'd already done everything and was writing up the blog, since I didn't have the original data to hand. I forgot to include this in the post, but at some point after rebooting the washing machine (I still can't get over how insane that sounds) while writing my notification script, the machine started returning unencrypted yet still encoded data, which is why in the script's poll loop attempts to deserialize the bytes as JSON first, only on failure trying to run it through decryption.
Sometimes it's returning encrypted data, sometimes it isn't, and sometimes it's just spitting actual garbage down the wire. I did also modify the screenshots to blank out some bytes, but you can probably see where that is. None of this was faked, it's just an incredibly dumb smart appliance.
If I can capture it sending encrypted data again, I'll update the post with corrected screenshots.
First up: this isn't criticism of the original post in the slightest, it's a wonderful journey through figuring out how a weird device that wants to be on your wifi works. If you have a device that speaks to an Android app, you want https://github.com/niklashigi/apk-mitm - it'll strip pretty much every known certificate pinning implementation from an apk, and it'll also rewrite the manifest so it'll trust the user-in…
"The author was able to build on top of work that had been done by others, but if you're ever faced with a situation where nobody else has done that work, don't just give up." If I couldn't strike lucky with an xor brute force, my next plan of attack was to start poking at whatever android app they had. It was only because my friend happened to find that someone else had already done it on github that I managed to take the shortcut. If we hadn't found that github I'd probably have a far more detailed writeup so that other people could follow on with their own appliance, if they happen to have the same/a similar one.
> when your "three hour" (usually like 4-5 hours) load finishes What kind of laundry cycles are we running here? My machine finishes a normal "eco" cycle in <30 minutes. It also beeps really loudly when it's done. The combination of quick cycles and simple notification signal keeps me out of the weird tech solutions rabbit hole.
the "cotton" (delicates) program on this machine is a 3hr 4min program by its own preset, so usually stuff like bedding or softer clothing, or generally just things that I want to be washed same-day (that also won't survive one of the more rapid washes, or just requires an actual thorough wash) because it'll prevent me doing something otherwise. Issue is the machine is constantly recalculating how much time is left, seemingly based on stuff like the temperature or weight of the load or something like that, so when it starts on 3 hours, it can be four hours until it's done in 30 minutes, and then it sits on the last 5 minutes for over 45 minutes. I've waited six hours for my bedsheets, a blanket, and some pillowcases to wash before! It truly is one of the washing machines of all time.
So, maybe. And also maybe not. https://www.forskning.no/forbruk-ntnu-partner/er-vaskemaskin... (in Norwegian) quotes research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The article says that a washing machine used to last 20 years, and now only lasts 10 years. However, it also says that machine usage has doubled, from four to eight times a week. So, the new machine lasts the same number of cycles, but t…
An article from 2025 is pulling data from a 2003 study that compares usage from the 1960's to what I assume is 2003, right when He and CPU controls were starting to become popular. My 1990's Whirlpool lasted for 25 years before a barrel support rusted out. It had a mechanical timer and did a good job cleaning my clothes. Now I have this awful HE LG thing that I ALWAYS use the bedding mode otherwise it just mashes the…
There's an easy fix for that, put your clothes in these 'washing bags' that was always good to prevent wear but sounds like that might be what you need
My dryer takes three hours because it is ventless (aka worthless). A regular load of laundry takes 4.5 hours to wash and dry. It’s the worst appliance I have ever had the displeasure of operating. It has no redeeming qualities. Sometimes it doesn’t even dry the laundry.
Some ventless dryers work really well. We have a Bosch 800 series and it works nearly as well and almost as quick as the electric vented dryer it replaced. On the other hand, we owned a Siemens ventless and I don't think it ever dried a piece of clothing.
Thanks, this is a rental so I didn’t get to shop around. I’ll give ventless dryers another chance if I am ever in a purchasing position.
The washing machine REALLY liked talking to... itself? I don't think whoever engineered their networking stack knew what a loopback interface was, because it was sending a lot of traffic from itself to its own IP address. I didn't think this was relevant, so I ignored it. It really liked sending traffic to 255.255.255.255 every second, for some reason. Again, ignored Are those gratuitous ARPs? This is a common behavi…
Possibly, I completely forget ARP exists most of the time. I didn't pay much mind to it anyway, I was too bemused at the constant requests from/to its own IP rather than using loopback
I considered that, but the washer and dryer are stacked (limited space) so the vibrations of the washer would be picked up in a dryer vibration sensor.
Is that really a problem though? If you're washing another load at the same time as the dryer is running, wouldn't you generally want to wait until both are done anyways so you can swap the wash to the dryer after getting the dry load out?
Also at least in my experience the dryer takes longer to run than the washer, so if I've just rotated a previous load and started both at the same time I'm always waiting on the dryer to be able to do the next one.
It's actually really, really easy to get the state of a "dumb" washing machine (or any other electric machine) into Home Assistant using a smart plug. You can use something really basic like "power draw for > n seconds followed by no power for > m seconds" to detect when a cycle is finished. You can get way fancier and look at power draw curves to determine what part of a cycle it's in, or which cycle, if you really…
This is (largely) what I have for my "dumb" washer. What makes mine unique is the washer is in my apartment building's cellar, too far for Wifi. So I have a LoRa transmitter that routes the message to a LoRa receiver on my home network. Unfortunately, as you noted, I haven't figured out how to handle the dryer as the load is too much for all the smart plugs I've found. I wish there was a clamp-style monitor on an ext…
I wonder if it would be practical to McGyver a solution into place by coiling some wire around / next to the dryer's power cable - to detect flowing current - and connecting the coil to an Arduino / Raspberry Pi
Them living on a farm is the only explanation I can come up with.
Correct. Have several houses on the land, and it made more sense to put the machine where it was both equidistant between them and where the washing line is.
No, the obvious over engineered solution would be to mount the machines on a train (or tracked vehicle for bonus points) that can come when called and go where needed!