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> If an attacker compromises any device on your network you think they'll stop there? Hell no. They're going to pivot and compromise every other vulnerable devi
by problems 10y ago
> If an attacker compromises any device on your network you think they'll stop there? Hell no. They're going to pivot and compromise every other vulnerable device on the network and we're already seeing "crime kits" (aka customizable malware) with built-in exploits for things like networked printers and cameras. It won't be long before they have built-in exploits for light bulbs, refrigerators, and more.
Yes, while it would certainly work on a targeted basis, it's impossible on a massive scale basis. You can't just go hack all smart lightbulbs because you can't just go hack all home networks. There's no large-scale threat here if a vulnerable lightbulb is behind a NAT, where it cannot be directly attacked. It might be a point where an attacker who broke in already could lurk, but it's not a new and trivial point of intrusion.
> Also, what about IPv6? To date, consumer routers that support IPv6 are configured by default to hand out global IPv6 addresses (as they should!) to connected devices via DHCPv6. What this means is that your IoT light bulb is going to get a globally-accessible IPv6 address.
I commented on this already: By _default_ routers need to be firewalling off incoming connections completely via v6 too, as they effectively do with v4, NAT is probably the only reason we're not still in the worm era. This is incredibly trivial for manufacturers to do, and I'm hoping the majority will do it. Seriously, it's like one iptables rule that needs to be in their config.
NAT _is_ a security tool, like it or not, if you're preventing your most vulnerable devices from being directly attacked, that's a damn good security tool. Not a perfect one by any means, but a very important one for the non-expert majority of home network operators.