Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

For Years, a Backdoor in Popular KiwiSDR Product Gave Root to Project Developer

posted by Fnord666 on Monday July 19 2021, @04:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the pwned dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

For years, a backdoor in popular KiwiSDR product gave root to project developer:

KiwiSDR is hardware that uses a software-defined radio to monitor transmissions in a local area and stream them over the Internet. A largely hobbyist base of users does all kinds of cool things with the playing-card-sized devices. For instance, a user in Manhattan could connect one to the Internet so that people in Madrid, Spain, or Sydney, Australia, could listen to AM radio broadcasts, CB radio conversations, or even watch lightning storms in Manhattan.

On Wednesday, users learned that for years, their devices had been equipped with a backdoor that allowed the KiwiSDR creator—and possibly others—to log in to the devices with administrative system rights. The remote admin could then make configuration changes and access data not just for the KiwiSDR but in many cases to the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, or other computing devices the SDR hardware is connected to.

Archived copy of the story.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
For Years, a Backdoor in Popular KiwiSDR Product Gave Root to Project Developer | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 26 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @08:00PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @08:00PM (#1158005)

    So CoX, Neverwinter Online, Champions Online, and Star Trek Online all have a client RDP server built in for admins to remotely access any clients, likely for cheating, but it had provisions for viewing the desktop, not just the game client, and for remote execution of commands.

    Yeah, that bad. And people are installing these things and then allowing them to demand root privileges while also having network access...

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +2  
       Informative=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @12:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @12:04AM (#1158106)
    And some wonder why a few of us prefer consoles over PCs, the industry's over-zealous philosophies behind both anti-piracy AND anti-cheating measures are in direct-conflict with the security of my machine. I can weather a botched DRM locking up my PS5 but if my workstation goes....