The Internet of Things promises to make our lives easier. Want to remotely turn lights and appliances on and off and monitor them online? A “smart plug,” a Wi-Fi–connected electric outlet, is one simple method. But IoT devices can turn into attack vectors if they are not properly secured.
The McAfee Labs Advanced Threat Research team is committed to uncovering security issues in both software and hardware to help their developers provide safer products for businesses and consumers. We recently investigated a consumer product produced by Belkin. Our research into the Wemo Insight Smart Plug led to the discovery of an unreported buffer overflow in the libUPnPHndlr.so library. This flaw, CVE-2018-6692, allows an attacker to execute remote code. Following our responsible disclosure policy, we reported this research to Belkin on May 21.
Can this vulnerability lead to a useful attack? A smart plug by itself has a low impact. An attacker could turn off the switch or at worst possibly overload the switch. But if the plug is networked with other devices, the potential threat grows. The plug could now be an entry point to a larger attack. Later in this report, we will look at one possible attack.