"A software engineer’s earnest effort to steer his new DJI robot vacuum with a video game controller inadvertently granted him a sneak peak into thousands of people’s homes.

While building his own remote-control app, Sammy Azdoufal reportedly used an AI coding assistant to help reverse-engineer how the robot communicated with DJI’s remote cloud servers. But he soon discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries. The backend security bug effectively exposed an army of internet-connected robots that, in the wrong hands, could have turned into surveillance tools, all without their owners ever knowing.

Luckily, Azdoufal chose not to exploit that. Instead, he shared his findings with The Verge, which quickly contacted DJI to report the flaw. While DJI tells Popular Science the issue has been “resolved,” the dramatic episode underscores warnings from cybersecurity experts who have long-warned that internet-connected robots and other smart home devices present attractive targets for hackers."

https://www.popsci.com/technology/robot-vacuum-army/

#AI #IoT #CyberSecurity #DJII #RobotVaccum

Man accidentally gains control of 7,000 robot vacuums

Sammy Azdoufal just wanted to steer his DJI Romo with a gaming controller.

Popular Science
@remixtures I also wonder if a DJI engineer ever asked an "AI coding assistant" to help them code, thereby uploading all DJI's prorpietary software to an LLM model, so anyone can now write code like DJI would write, access proprietary code that way.
@remixtures
Never been a fan of IoT.
@remixtures What makes you think that it was not already discovered and exploited? Or Worse it was a deliberate design decision?

@remixtures Wow, that’s really good to know. Also: scarily similar to the Wallace and Gromit film “Vengeance Most Fowl”!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_%26_Gromit:_Vengeance_Most_Fowl

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Wikipedia

@remixtures
The question here is not why he had access.

The question is why DJI does.

@remixtures All hail our new Roomba overlords!
@remixtures stealth mountain strikes again (I checked the article wrote 'sneak peak' and yep)

Did the URL change? Looks like it’s now:

https://www.popsci.com/technology/robot-vacuum-army/

Man accidentally gains control of 7,000 robot vacuums

Sammy Azdoufal just wanted to steer his DJI Romo with a gaming controller.

Popular Science

@remixtures

I find it really funny that the journo wrote the expression "could", as if they're not already being used for that purpose.

@remixtures

My 2 euro broom doesn't spy on me and it's good exercise. It also doubles as a flying device for commuting to my wicca gatherings.