During an IoT (Internet of Things) hacking challenge at the recent DEF CON hacking conference, a UK-based security firm, Pen Test Partners, exploited the MiTM (Man-in-The-Middle) vulnerability in Samsung’s RF28HMELBSR smart fridge to intercept owners’ Gmail login details. In a Man-in-The-Middle attack, a hacker intercepts a piece of data as it passes between a server and the device, in this instance a fridge.
“The Internet-connected fridge is designed to display Gmail Calendar information on its display. It appears to work the same way that any device running a Gmail calendar does. A logged-in user/owner of the calendar makes updates and those changes are then seen on any device that a user can view the calendar on. While SSL is in place, the fridge fails to validate the certificate. Hence, hackers who manage to access the network that the fridge is on (perhaps through a de-authentication and fake Wi-Fi access point attack) can Man-In-The-Middle the fridge calendar client and steal Google login credentials from their neighbours, for example,” explained Ken Munro, a Senior Partner at Pen Test Partners.
The DEF CON hacking conference is designed to give hackers a chance to play with new devices and expose their weaknesses, allowing manufacturers to remedy faults with patches.
The Pen Test Partners team wrote in a blog post, “We wanted to pull the terminal unit out of the fridge to get physical access to things like a USB port and serial or JTAG interfaces, but ran out of time. However, we still found some interesting bugs that definitely merit further investigation. The MiTM alone is enough to expose a user’s Gmail credentials.”
The hijacked fridge, which isn’t on sale in the UK, is one of several ‘Samsung Smart Home’ devices that integrates with the Internet of Things to provide at-a-glance information and easy control from a smartphone app.
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