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> It's not even possible to get two ZigBee products from > different manufacturers to operate (like a switch and a > lamp). It may require a distinct

by runeks 10y ago

> It's not even possible to get two ZigBee products from > different manufacturers to operate (like a switch and a > lamp). It may require a distinct payload for each type of device/software, but it should be possible. You start by infecting a group of devices of one type with a specific payload, and from there see which other types of devices are in range, and either carry the required payloads with you or fetch one over a nearby wifi. And indeed, if someone were to implement this, they would basically have built a standard ZigBee inter-device communication protocol, by using existing software features (bugs), in otherwise incompatible devices. This is not too far off from something like Stuxnet, so -- given enough available capital -- it should be possible.

vanderZwan 10y ago
> And indeed, if someone were to implement this, they would basically have built a standard ZigBee inter-device communication protocol, by using existing software features (bugs), in otherwise incompatible devices. I was indeed half-joking, half-serious. Actually, aren't there cases where viruses (the biological kind) have ended up serving a function in the DNA machinery of multi-cellular life-forms? Would be a funny parallel.
user5994461 10y ago
You can't jump from and to -any- devices. They can't talk to each other. They have different network stacks. Lemme me give a simple illustration. You know that wifi has different encryptions standards: WPA1, WPA2, WPA2-something, TKIP, AES (and mixes of those). Now, imagine that Zigbee has no encryption standard, each manufacturer invented something of his own. [That's a simple example of a piece of the L2 layer. Trust me, ALL the upper layers are are even more of a mess :D]. There are thousands of bugs in Zigbee devices for sure, but they are specific per device/firmware/network stacks. Not cool enough for a fun apocalypse.

by runeks 10y ago

vanderZwan 10y ago

> And indeed, if someone were to implement this, they would basically have built a standard ZigBee inter-device communication protocol, by using existing software features (bugs), in otherwise incompatible devices. I was indeed half-joking, half-serious. Actually, aren't there cases where viruses (the biological kind) have ended up serving a function in the DNA machinery of multi-cellular life-forms? Would be a funny parallel.

user5994461 10y ago

You can't jump from and to -any- devices. They can't talk to each other. They have different network stacks. Lemme me give a simple illustration. You know that wifi has different encryptions standards: WPA1, WPA2, WPA2-something, TKIP, AES (and mixes of those). Now, imagine that Zigbee has no encryption standard, each manufacturer invented something of his own. [That's a simple example of a piece of the L2 layer. Trust me, ALL the upper layers are are even more of a mess :D]. There are thousands of bugs in Zigbee devices for sure, but they are specific per device/firmware/network stacks. Not cool enough for a fun apocalypse.