2) surely the fact that it has WiFi was known at purchase time? Despite what the internet would lead you to believe, there is still a lot of fridges without WiFi and "smart" features out there, why not buy one of those rather than mess with this?
Edit: point 2 was addressed in the article, sorry I missed it
Like many other 'smart' appliances, it creates it's own AP so allow you to set it up. So anyone within range could attach it to their network, and then do whatever they like with it.
> surely the fact that it has WiFi was known at purchase time?
It came with the place they're living in. Someone else made that decision.
It is irrelevant anyway. Buying something with the intent of modding it is not that unreasonable.
Considering the security risk of smart devices generally working like this, I feel like the industry ought to standardize on something more sensible. Maybe some kind of NFC pairing?
I haven't ever needed or wanted to try to use the NFC method, I would disable it on any equipment I installed until I had a need for it. And even then I would do some research to see how badly the Wi-Fi Alliance fucked it up before making a judgement about whether I would feel comfortable enabling it.
Some router manufacturers fixed the issue by removing WPS pin, others “fixed” it by rate limiting WPS pin connection attempts, but that will just delay the attack.
So we are left with WPS Push button (if that’s available because as stated above, consumer routers may only allow disabling WPS completely rather than just disable WPS pin). But thats a bit of a pain for items like Shellys that are designed to be put behind fixtures.
But yeah, in the case of a fridge and most other consumer grade equipment putting a push button somewhere for WPS Push Button should be easy to factor in.
https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-easy-connect
By the same geniuses that brought you WEP, WPA (TKIP) and WPS PIN... now we finally have QR codes and NFC mixed in.
I'll be turning this off so I can avoid the inevitable security flaws.
I do have a Samsung TV, and no matter what I do, I can't turn off the Wifi/Bluetooth radios in it - and several of my neighbours keep trying to connect to it.
The Google Chromecasts continually broadcast their AP when not fully set up.
A neighbour has a bluetooth/wifi speaker that pushed some kind of "Do you want to set up your X brand speaker now?" prompt to my phone.
There's a few other smart devices near me that are also broadcasting open APs that never seem to go away.
Related HN question from years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25275350
Thankfully it's only an US feature.
It says right there in the article:
these appliances came with the new place so i’ll be stuck with these i imagine for some time
It is also quite possible that these come with cellular connectivity in the future as well…
Just need to know where one can purchase said cellular jammer...
That being said, jamming is relatively easy, just saturate the channel you want to jam with noise. That will also probably kill your cellular connection though.
for now. That’s not true anymore for example for TVs.
Wi-Fi for fridges is available, but no one seems that bothered by it.