IOT devices are notoriously insecure and this claim can be backed up with a laundry list of examples. With more devices “needing” to connect to the internet, the possibility of your WiFi enabled toaster getting hacked and tweeting out your credit card number is, amazingly, no longer a joke.
With that in mind, I began to investigate the Mr. Coffee Coffee Maker with Wemo (WeMo_WW_2.00.11058.PVT-OWRT-Smart) since we had previously bought one for our research lab (and we don’t have many coffee drinkers, so I didn’t feel bad about demolishing it!). My hope was to build on previous work done by my colleague Douglas McKee (@fulmetalpackets) and his Wemo Insight smart plug exploit. Finding a similar attack vector absent in this product, I explored a unique avenue and was able to find another vulnerability. In this post I will explore my methodology and processes in detail.
All Wemo devices have two ways of communicating with the Wemo App, remotely via the internet or locally directly to the Wemo App. Remote connectivity is only present when the remote access setting is enabled, which it is by default. To allow the Wemo device to be controlled remotely, the Wemo checks Belkin’s servers periodically for updates. This way the Wemo doesn’t need to open any ports on your network. However, if you are trying to control your Wemo devices locally, or the remote access setting is disabled, the Wemo app connects directly to the Wemo. All my research is based on local device communication with the remote access setting turned off.
