alt Hacker NewsTP-Link Tapo C200: Hardcoded Keys, Buffer Overflows and Privacy
Comments
It's probably fair to assume that most of their other camera models are affected by the same or similar issues. It looks like they pump out quite a few models that I image have similar firmware.
This page[1] lists the C200 as last having a firmware update in October, but also lists the latest version as 1.4.4 while the article lists 1.4.2. It seems like they have pushed other updated in this time, but not these security fixes.
[1]https://community.tp-link.com/us/smart-home/kb/detail/412852
This is exactly why network segmentation is critical for IoT devices. I always recommend putting all smart cameras and IoT devices on a separate VLAN with no direct internet access - only local network access through a firewall with strict egress rules.
For anyone concerned about their TP-Link cameras, consider: 1. Disable UPnP on your router 2. Use VLANs to isolate IoT devices 3. Block all outbound traffic except specific required endpoints 4. Consider replacing stock firmware with open alternatives when available 5. Regularly check for firmware updates (though as this article shows, updates can be slow)
The hardcoded keys issue is particularly troubling because it means these vulnerabilities persist across the entire product line. Thanks for the detailed writeup - this kind of research is invaluable for the security community.
Thingino supports C200 https://thingino.com/#:~:text=SC3336%2C%20WQ9001%2C%208MB-,T...
This is why all my cameras internal or external live on an isolated VLAN with no internet access. It’s nice because HomeKit can still talk to them and I can see it online or locally without an additional app even though the camera themselves has no internet access .
This is so bad that it must be intentional, right? Even though these are dirt cheap, they couldn't come up with $100,000 to check for run-of-the-mill vulnerabilities? There must be many millions sold. Quite handy for some intel agencies.
I assume any Wi-Fi camera under $150 has basically the same problems. I guess the only way to run a security camera where you don't have Ethernet is to use a non-proprietary Wi-Fi <-> 1000BASE-T adapter. Probably only something homebuilt based on a single board computer and running basically stock Linux/BSD meets that requirement.
I have a few of these that I use with unifi for non-critical things over ONVIF and there's a reason they are on a separate vlan and not allowed to access the internet... Thankfully they don't die when you block them from phoning home.
Do you think the S3 bucket with the firmware will be available for the foreseeable future? If not could someone archive it somewhere? Maybe make a torrent out if it? My network is very slow and I estimated it's about 990 GiB of data (by summing the column with the bytes in the ls output the author linked). It might be useful to have it as a resource in the future for a variety of reasons.
I used this website to research the camera https://drmnsamoliu.github.io/
Very interesting, I had a go with Ghidra and AWS Amazon Q, used it to reverse the video feed on a toy drone. I did not think to look for GhidraMCP, would of made it a lot quicker.
>25000 devices exposed directly
How does this happen? Doesn’t pretty much every ISP give a router with their modem? How do people manage this?
I more and more tend to not buy any network-connected product if there's no open-source firmware to run on it.
(Phones is one notable exception. I need contactless payments to work.)
Great article. I have the same model and few months ago I did notice it was restarting in a non-scheduled time, and you can tell it restarts because it does a full rotation. First time it happened I ignored it but the second time I knew something was up so I disconnected it and since then been offline, it was recording an insignificant thing anyway.
So which camera brand has adequately designed software? It’s hard to know as a consumer what to trust or not trust, because how do you evaluate the quality of their work when the device SEEMS to work as expected? Is Ring the only choice?
[dead]
As soon as i read the author used grok as an ai assistant, i was somehow less interested to keep on reading. Not because of the usage of ai, but the chosen provider. (I don’t know whether grok is just the best choice for this kind of work.)
Is it wrong to judge people for their choice of ai providers?
I'm a little frustrated with articles like this that scattershot their critique by conflating genuine failures with problems that even FAANGs struggle with.
In particular, I don't love it when an article attacks a best practice as a cheap gotcha:
"and this time it was super easy! After some basic reversing of the Tapo Android app, I found out that TP-Link have their entire firmware repository in an open S3 bucket. No authentication required. So, you can list and download every version of every firmware they’ve ever released for any device they ever produced"
That is a good thing - don't encourage security through obscurity! The impact of an article like this is as likely to get management to prescribe a ham-handed mandate to lock down firmware as it is to get them to properly upgrade their security practices.