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I de-IOT-ed an appliance! (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Gonna vaguepost so I don't self dox too much. Had to replace a dead appliance this week. Got a lightly used replacement, no choice about which. It had a wifi spot build in. It would talk to any phone with the mfg app. No auth other than having the app installed! WTF.

You couldn't disable that! Well not thru the panel controls. Web says you can do it with the phone app. IF you make an account with the mfg for your appliance first. Rofl!

Maybe this approach will help others. What I did was, searched the schematics online. Most appliances, you can find it. Searching model number + schematic often works. There are sites that catalog them.

Using the schematic, I found a connector that powered the wifi. Unplugged that. Re-powered appliance. Confirmed wifi was gone.

My neighbors are not gonna hijack my appliance over wifi, so I wasn't worried about that. I guess it could find an open WAP and phone home. TBH it was mostly the principle of the thing tho! I don't want ANY n/w on my appliances, thank you. Ya know?

It's a tiny skirmish in the war against IOT. Editing here to quote Aragorn, who famously said about IOT, "There may come a day when my appliances connect to the internet. But it is not THIS day!"

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[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Thanks for the heads up! I have a couple of things where I just ignored the WiFi casually thinking it didn't matter because I wasn't going to connect, but shit I never considered the security liability... (Or are they bluetooth?...time to assess...)

[–] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

YW.

Yah the risk is prob modest provided you don't give it a wifi pw so it can get onto your local n/w. Modest... but not zero. Lots of IOT devices ship with def passwords, and all units of that model share it. Also, somebody in range with the app could connect, depending on what the mfg does for auth. Some might require a button on the appliance to pair, that's safer. Mine didn't.

Also in theory, it could look for open networks on its own. That'd be a bigger risk for appts in a Manhattan hi rise than, like, somebody on a horse property on 40 acres.

Mine was wifi, which has a longer range, but some might be bluetooth. When I was sniffing for the wifi signal, I noticed my neighbors appliances too, lol.

[–] Brujones@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can confirm. My router log showed that a neighbor's iot device was repeatedly trying to connect to my WiFi every 10 seconds or so. It was by far the most dominant event in the log.

The only way to stop it was to block its MAC address.

[–] silicon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

That iot device Sounds pretty much like malware to me.