LG Smart TV Spying Exposed: 216M TVs, Full Breakdown | The CyberSec Guru
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LG smart TV spying is real: a Gamers Nexus probe found network scanning, plain-text audio logs, and uploads even offline. Full findings and fixes here

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/51634640

A new Gamers Nexus investigation found a retail LG TV actively scanning the local network for phones, laptops, smartwatches and other connected devices, while also capturing microphone audio when the screen appeared to be in standby. The investigation found voice data being stored locally even after the TV was disconnected from the network, with the queued data uploaded once connectivity returned. Researchers also uncovered webOS vulnerabilities that could potentially turn the television into a remotely controlled surveillance device. The really unsettling part isn’t just the advertising angle. It’s the fact that a consumer television can sit inside your trusted network, enumerate other devices, access a microphone, store collected data locally and communicate with external infrastructure. Put that same device in a corporate office, hospital, hotel or conference room and the security implications become considerably more serious. I went through the investigation in detail, including the network scanning, microphone behavior, ACR, webOS attack surface, offline data collection and practical mitigations

  • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    21·
    23 hours ago

    Look for articles about amazons sidewalk network and devices that connect to it without any kind of authorization from users.

    That shit has been around since the echo came out and it’s open to any manufacturer.

    There’s are lots of articles but my phone is too slow to load them at the moment.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      15 hours ago

      I looked for but didn’t find any about LG TVs, the actual topic here and what the wild claim was made about.

      • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        1·
        8 hours ago

        I’m not sure if LG connects to it, but it’s an open standard and like LoRa, has a decent range, so there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping them from adding it to their TVs.

        Plus from the article:

        It also picks up the SSIDs and signal strengths of neighboring Wi-Fi networks visible to its wireless radio, building a rough map of the surrounding area, and includes location data tied to those network identifiers in what it collects.

        This is active scanning, not passive listening: the television initiates the queries, processes the responses, and packages the results into structured data. The researchers confirmed the behavior happens out of the box, with no extra configuration needed, and found no setting that disables the LAN sweep on its own, separate from other smart features.

        It doesn’t mention connecting automatically to unsecured networks, but it sounds like one OTA update away from that capability (The sidewalk network works this way, which is why I mentioned it). LG is already lying about the transcriptions taking place, so there’s no reason to trust them, which I think the point of this thread was.