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Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras

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21–30 of 37 posts

Re: Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras

#21
post #8

Seriously folks... put all those cameras behind firewalls, and only grant access to them over a VPN.

It’s not a bad idea to stick them on their own VLAN as well, with access exclusively to the NVR and/or specific management devices. Their only purpose is to feed video back to specific systems, why let anything else touch them at all?

Re: Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras

#24
post #17

Any Internet-connected device is, in fact, a server, and must be seen and managed as one. This means strict control of installed services and, first and foremost, regular updates of all its software components (including firmware). If you acquire and install such a server which either can’t be updated or one which you know, realistically, won’t get any updates six months after installation, that’s asking to lose.

In my experience, keeping software and firmware aggressively up to date is far more likely to randomly break functionality and workflow and require my time and effort to fix than doing nothing and crossing my fingers I'm not subject to a zero-day. I can't even imagine how annoying this would be for someone without technical know-how. I think manufacturers who seem desperate to trick users into installing updates could go a long way by reducing the associated dread.

Re: Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras

#25

Calling the second one a bug is ridiculous. “If the file /tmp/moses/ exists on the file system then an unauthenticated remote attacker can list all of the non-admin users and change their passwords“. That functionality is way too intentional.

Not to mention the name "moses". Definitely intentional.

Re: Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras

#26
post #21
post #8

Seriously folks... put all those cameras behind firewalls, and only grant access to them over a VPN.

It’s not a bad idea to stick them on their own VLAN as well, with access exclusively to the NVR and/or specific management devices. Their only purpose is to feed video back to specific systems, why let anything else touch them at all?

Agreed, all my IoT stuff has its own separate network with its own access point.

Re: Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras

#28
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a bad idea to stick them on their own VLAN as well, with access exclusively to the NVR and/or specific management devices. Their only purpose is to feed video back to specific systems, why let anything else touch them at all?

Agreed, all my IoT stuff has its own separate network with its own access point.

If you've got more mid-range network gear you might consider setting up a simple RADIUS system and switching to 802.1x auth (with just a basic guest portal or something for visitors) and per-port VLAN control as necessary. Makes it very convenient to segment out and isolate IoT, video, and VoIP into their own independent segments, best practice not just for security but performance and functionality as well. While it takes a bit more setting up it's also interesting and adds safety and versatility over time, plus you don't need any extra gear or cable. Worth a bit of consideration anyway if you have time and/or enjoy that sort of thing, along with a decent local VPN setup. The latter should also become even better over the next few years as WireGuard support spreads.

Re: Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras

#30

My house security and automation systems are all behind a firewall and access to them is proxied, including the video feed concentrator for the security cameras. I've had folks call this overkill but I won't directly expose any IoT-like thing to the Internet these days.

Are they able to initiate outbound connections?
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