You might believe that if cyber criminals attack a smart TV, they cannot do much harm. Well, it’s just a TV — what possible threat could that cause? This is a myth and we want to bust it!
Let’s break this down and tell you why securing a smart TV is necessary.
Earlier this year, researchers at Bitdefender, a cybersecurity company, identified vulnerabilities in LG TVs that allowed malicious hackers to remotely attack these smart devices. Four major vulnerabilities were identified. One of the major vulnerabilities known as CVE-2023-6317 can be exploited to go around the system’s authorization and add a new user to the targeted TV.
Once in the network, the user, now identified as a non-threat, can easily elevate their privileges and take control of the device completely. This was the second vulnerability, CVE-2023-6318, that was easy to exploit once the window opened with the first one. The other two vulnerabilities that were identified were CVE-2023-6319 and CVE-2023-6320, which allow arbitrary command injection on a host operating system.
When an attacker accesses your smart TV, they can easily gain unauthorized access to your entire network, drop malware, snoop on traffic, and move laterally across your network that houses the compromised TV. What’s worse is that the hackers can steal the publicly available pre-shared keys of this smart TV and access billions of other smart TVs with the same key, and eventually access other connected networks that use these devices.
Cyber criminals will be able to retrieve information from smart devices connected to your home network like refrigerators, thermostats, voice assistants, etc, that could give them details of your household routines and habits, which can be exploited for several reasons. If devices like smartphones or tablets are connected to the network, attackers could even track the physical location of family members.
It doesn’t end there. If an attacker enters your network and can move freely, they could gain access to sensitive information like health records, financial records, personal identifiable information, personal photos and videos, passwords and login details, and even digital copies of sensitive documents. Hackers can also get into your home security system and access your smart locks, security cameras, and alarm systems, compromising your physical safety.
Who would have thought that a vulnerability in a smart TV could cause this level of chaos? Something to think about!
Let’s look at security as a whole and think about every device that could be compromised in our surroundings. Because a small vulnerability is a window of opportunity for cyber hackers.
Source: https://www.securityweek.com/thousands-of-lg-tvs-possibly-exposed-to-remote-hacking/