Hacking into Internet Connected Light Bulbs

25 Jul 2014 • contextis.com

AES, being a symmetric encryption cipher, requires both the encrypting party and the decrypting party to have access to the same pre-shared key. In a design such as the one employed by LIFX, this immediately raises alarm bells, implying that each device is issued with a constant global key. If the pre-shared key can be obtained from one device, it can be used to decrypt messages sent from all other devices using the same key. In this case, the key could be used to decrypt encrypted messages sent from any LIFX bulb.

There is really no hope for the average consumer to understand security implications. I consider myself proficient in software, security, Internet, web apps, etc. yet I almost bought one of these bulbs the other day and would not have thought twice about whether it was introducing a huge security vulnerability into my network.

If someone had asked me to specifically think about whether it could be introducing a security issue I might have been able to reach the conclusion “possibly” but my regular, every day semi-paranoid “security is important” self never even thought about it. Reading the linked article I completely understand the problem of pre-shared global keys - it’s just not something I even thought about when considering the bulb.

…and even if I had thought about it - how would I have confirmed it was secure or even checked into the issue thoroughly? I’m certainly not going to purchase my own 802.15.4 6LoWPAN wireless mesh network testing gear and then do my own packet sniffing. Inquiring of the company would have also done no good since I’m pretty sure the answer would have been simply “all bulb communication is securely encrypted”…

Sometimes the future scares me.