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© Lead Image © Nelli Valova, 123RF.com
Flashing IoT devices with new firmware lets you wield control and keep them out of the cloud.
In the age of robotic vacuums, robotic lawn mowers, and mopping robots, I want to add automation and intelligence to my apartment. Just the act of purchasing a smart socket that has an Android app makes this both an easy and a comfortable solution for people wanting to add a touch of home automation to their living space.
However, I am paranoid enough that when devices are in my network, I want to have full control over them. It bothers me that this new functionality comes with the "additional feature" of these devices calling home to a server somewhere on the Internet. I was optimistic that I could achieve my goal of automation but also keep full control over my own devices.
To achieve this control, I was hoping I could purchase a few smart adapters and find one that I could bend to my will. The good news is that the security on each of these devices was good enough that I wasn't able circumvent it with a playback or man-in-the-middle attack, but I didn't actually have any luck gaining complete control of the devices, so I set out to find a way to modify an existing device to achieve my goals.
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