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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday June 19 2019, @10:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the seems-ok-to-me dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Consumers Urged to Junk Insecure IoT Devices

A security researcher who disclosed flaws impacting 2 million IoT devices in April – and has yet to see a patch or even hear back from the manufacturers contacted – is sounding off on the dire state of IoT security.

More than 2 million connected security cameras, baby monitors and other IoT devices have serious vulnerabilities that have been publicly disclosed for more than two months – yet they are still without a patch or even any vendor response.

Security researcher Paul Marrapese, who disclosed the flaws in April and has yet to hear back from any impacted vendors, is sounding off that consumers throw the devices away. The flaws could enable an attacker to hijack the devices and spy on their owners – or further pivot into the network and carry out more malicious actions.

“I 100 percent suggest that people throw them out,” he told Threatpost in a podcast interview. “I really, I don’t think that there’s going to be any patch for this. The issues are very, very hard to fix, in part because, once a device is shipped with a serial number, you can’t really change that, you can’t really patch that, it’s a physical issue.”

Marrapese said that he sent an initial advisory to device vendors in January, and after coordinating with CERT eventually disclosed the flaws in April due to their severity. However, even in the months after disclosure he has yet to receive any responses from any impacted vendors despite multiple attempts at contact. The incident points to a dire outlook when it comes to security, vendor responsibility, and the IoT market in general, he told Threatpost.

b-b-b-b-but it is still working!


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Thursday June 20 2019, @01:15AM

    by deimtee (3272) on Thursday June 20 2019, @01:15AM (#857698) Journal

    This is how it is in Australia.
    The merchant who sold it to you is fully responsible for what they sell. If they want to pass that responsibility back to the manufacturer that is their problem, it doesn't reduce their responsibility to the customer at all.
    RMA's are almost unknown here*, you just carry it back to where you bought it and demand they fix/replace/refund depending on the problem. Every so often a store with US ideas tries "you have to send it back to the factory", and gets slapped down hard.
    Mail/internet order complicate things a bit, but if they have a physical presence in Australia they generally follow the rules or get shut down. It is pretty much understood that if you order cheap shit from a dodgy overseas website, then you are on your own.

    *The only time you will see a RMA is when the manufacturer offers a warranty that far exceeds the statutory minimum, and doesn't have a deal with the store to handle it. This is rare because if the warranty is a selling feature then the store is involved anyway. The store would have to explicitly claim they are not honouring manufacturers warranties at the time of sale, which is not something they like doing when they are trying to sell it.

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    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
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