Attackers can use drones to hack Smart-TV

[Brother]

Researcher Pedro Cabrera demonstrated at the Defcon conference how vulnerable modern smart TVs using the Internet-connected HbbTV standard are to hacking. Attackers can force TVs to show any video, display phishing messages asking for user passwords, inject keyloggers and run cryptomining software, Wired reports.

Cabrera demonstrated how a DJI drone equipped with a software defined radio can transmit a stronger signal and block legitimate TV networks. The attack radius in this case depends only on the range and power of the signal amplifier.

In another situation, the researcher was able to manage the HbbTV standard, which allows televisions to connect to the Internet. Cabrera, using the same radio signal, was able to trick the HbbTV smart TVs into connecting to the web server URL he specified. According to the researcher, this vulnerability does not affect the ATSC standard used in the US because it does not send or retrieve data from URLs.

Attackers can also exploit this vulnerability to carry out phishing attacks. The researcher suspects that this may be more effective than similar email fraud.