- cross-posted to:
- cybersecurity@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- cybersecurity@sh.itjust.works
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Smart TVs are almost ideal proxy hosts. They sit on the same home network as everything else, but they do not feel like computers, so people rarely audit them like computers. There is no battery drain to notice, no cellular bill to spike, no app switcher full of suspicious background activity. A TV can stay plugged in, signed in, and online for years while the user thinks of it as furniture.
That changes the consent equation too. Most people do not have a working mental model for what it means to sell access to their residential IP address, no matter what device they are using. On a TV, the gap is even wider: a one-time prompt navigated with a remote can disappear into the setup flow, while the app keeps monetizing the connection long after anyone remembers what they accepted.
This is why my TVs don’t go online or connect to a network.
They have audio/video wires to devices that do.
Yup, mine is plugged into my PC as a monitor, and has no net access. A PC can do everything the tv could do and more, and I can run a firewall/adblockers on it.
This is about apps that people install after setting up the tv. Not the TV OS itself.
Mostly garbage apps and games that most people don’t use from the LG and Samsung app stores.
Pick up open WRT because it’s easy to give it net access while isolating TV and all IOT from everything unwanted.
I’m not convinced it’s enough because bluetooth can go around wifi from device to device.
Everything is spyware. Everything.
Or just don’t install crap games or apps from LG or Samsung app stores.
I think you are missing the point.
The article is talking about specific apps from a specific set of vendors.
Oh? Then the technology is otherwise secure and everything is fine.
You know I didn’t say that. So why did you reply that way?
Can’t have anything nice.
I wonder if my pihole would stop this nonsense
It might stop some depending on the block lists you have. You would have to set a firewall rule to block all other DNS, DoT and DoH servers so nothing can bypass your block lists. Blocking DoH servers is hard because it looks just like HTTPS. Even then, it could still connect to a hard coded IP address instead of doing a DNS lookup.
A better option would be to use an IPS to detect and block suspicious connections from the TV. Ideally, you would just keep it offline though.
