Sony SMART TVs Expose WiFi Passwords

May 7, 2019
Sony smart TVs

Security vulnerabilities in Android-based Sony smart TVs allow attackers to access WiFi Passwords and the images stored on the devices.

 

The vulnerability resides in the Photo Sharing Plus which allows users to upload photos to Sony Smart TV through a smartphone. It affects not only the TV’s used at the home but also the smart TVs used in organizations conference and meeting rooms.

 

These vulnerabilities were uncovered by Darkmatter, it affects multiple Sony Smart TVs including the flagship Bravia line. To be clear, the attacker would need to first access the network in order to exploit either vulnerability – so the attack would be local or require a multi-stage effort involving gaining remote network access.

 

The information disclosure vulnerability exists in Sony Smart TV Photo Sharing Plus allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to retrieve plain text wireless password from the “Photo Sharing Plus” API.

 

Based on the logs, all the passwords have been delivered through plain-text HTTP passwords without authentication.

 

CVE-2019-11336 – Information disclosure

01-01 07:47:23.730 5539 18687 I System.out: [MEXI][D] HttpEndPoint: send: {“result”:[{“ssid”:”DIRECT-GDBRAVIA”,”keyType”:””,”key”:”8362tbwX”,”deviceName”:””,”url”:”http://192.168.49.1″,”touchPadRemote”:”notSupported”}],”id”:80}

 

CVE-2019-10886 – Arbitrary File Read Vulnerability

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to retrieve images locally stored by the Photo Sharing Plus application without authentication.

 

By default, images used by the Photo Sharing Plus application are stored inside ‘/data/user/0/com.sony.dtv.photosharingplus/files/_BRAVPSS.TMP/’,

 

Photo Sharing Plusapp initiates an access point on the television and an HTTP daemon is listening to a TCP port on the newly created WLAN. The vulnerabilities allow attackers to read arbitrary files without authentication and to disclose the wireless password.

 

In order to mitigate the issue, Sony removed the availability of the Photo Sharing Plus service on 2015 – 2016 Android TVs. If you would like to display photos from your mobile devices on your BRAVIA™, it is recommend that you use the Cast function in Google Photo™. There you can find the list of affected models.

 

It’s important to remember that the vulnerabilities exist not only in homes but also in companies and organizations where smart TVs are used in conference and meeting rooms, widening the scope of the threat surface.

 

This is not the first issue for Sony TVs and Photo Sharing Plus. In October, security researchers revealed that eight Sony Bravia smart TV models were vulnerable to a command-injection (CVE-2018-16593) bug tied to Photo Sharing Plus.

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