Exploit attacks your smart TV through over-the-air signals

[froggyboy604]

Worries that someone could hijack your TV with a broadcast have been present for decades (ever see The Outer Limits?), and it's clear that they're not going away any time soon. Oneconsult security researcher Rafael Scheel has outlined an attack that can control smart TVs by embedding code into digital (specifically, DVB-T) over-the-air broadcasts. The intrusion takes advantage of flaws in a set's web browser to get root-level access and issue virtually any command. You only need to have a transmission powerful enough to reach compatible TVs, and at least one attack will work without revealing that something is wrong.

The technique is known to work on at least two recent Samsung models, and it's possible to alter the code to compromise other web-enabled TVs

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I think it is most private to use a regular TV without a camera, microphone, and no support for the internet apps.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

disturbing to know, does this affect cable tv?

 

[froggyboy604]

disturbing to know, does this affect cable tv?

I think most Cable TV now use TV cable boxes which decrypts an encrypted video signal from the TV company to prevent your neighbor from getting free cable by tapping into your cable TV connection with a coax TV splitter which turn one cable into two. Cable TV also dont use DVB-T TV tuners which are use for over the air Antennae TV signals.

This security problem probably does not affect cable TV from a cable because most Cable TV signals need a box to de-crypt the video signal these days, and you can't watch TV by plugging a tv cable into the TV without a cable box.