The first vulnerability involves using the camera’s Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) – always on by default – and pinging Wi-Fi SSID with a really long parameter. This causes a buffer overflow in the camera and prompts the device to crash and reboot. The second vulnerability also involves a buffer overflow crash, but this time caused by an overly long Wi-Fi password.
If a burglar can do that, he can definitely make better money elsewhere. His burgling career can officially be retired.
Because the smart camera has no offline footage storage capabilities, this attack would give a burglar a window of opportunity to sneak into the house. Considering the attack could be repeated indefinitely, the burglar would have a lot more than 90 seconds to move about the house, without fear of being recorded.
Technical aspects aside, the scenarios painted in the article are almost comically far-fetched. In 2017, a spy scenario might even be less so.