Now, after months of reverse engineering and security testing, Vasquez-Garcia and a fellow hacker he’s partnered with who goes by the pseudonym “Nyx,” have shown that it’s possible to hack one of those Halo 3C gadgets—which they’ve taken to calling by the nickname “snitch puck”—and take full control of it...
At the Defcon hacker conference today, they plan to show that by exploiting just a few relatively simple security vulnerabilities, any hacker on the same network could have hijacked a Halo 3C to turn it into a real-time audio eavesdropping bug, disabled its detection capabilities, created fake alerts for vaping or gunshots, or even played whatever sound or audio they chose out of the device’s speaker.
Motorola said it has since developed a firmware update to address those security flaws that will automatically push to cloud-connected devices by Friday...
“To the credit of the company, the microphones sound great,” says Nyx. “From up on the ceiling, you could totally listen to what somebody was saying, and we’ve made this happen.”
“To the credit of the company, the microphones sound great,” says Nyx. “From up on the ceiling, you could totally listen to what somebody was saying, and we’ve made this happen.”
Motorola told the hackers in an email that it has worked on a new firmware update that should fix the vulnerabilities. But the hackers argue that doesn’t, and can’t, address the underlying concern: that a gadget loaded with hidden microphones is installed in schools around the country. Motorola also advertises its Halo sensors for use in public housing—including inside residents’ homes—according to marketing material. more
Hacking issues aside, this is a brilliant device to enhance building security. Here is a video showing one feature. Many additional videos are on YouTube.com.
