Security News > 2020 > October > Researchers Turn Comcast TV Remote Into Spying Device
Researchers from segmentation solutions provider Guardicore have identified a series of vulnerabilities that could have been exploited by a hacker to turn a TV remote into a spying device.
The research focused on the XR11 remote provided by Comcast to Xfinity customers.
The researchers found that an attacker could have impersonated the set-top box to inform the remote that a firmware update is available by exploiting the encryption-related flaw.
The researchers found a way not only to push malicious firmware to a remote by impersonating the box, but also to cause the box to enter a DoS condition to ensure that it did not interfere with the attack - uploading the firmware took roughly half an hour and the process could have been disrupted by interferences.
"As Comcast has completed its remediation efforts, we know of no vulnerable devices at this time. Up until the fixes were released every XR11 remote could have been attacked in this fashion. Besides leaving out the batteries, there was no effective way to mitigate it, either," Guardicore said.