A long way to a vibrant future

With great pleasure comes great responsibility. A responsibility, which is not taken enough into consideration by the smart sex toy manufacturers as they should, while handling extremely sensitive data. As long as there is no serious breach, there is no problem, right? This was the basis for a research project (Master Thesis) called “Internet of Dildos, a long way to a vibrant future”, dealing with the assessment of smart sex toys and identification of vulnerabilities in those products, including mobile apps, backends and the actual hardware.
After the assessment of a selection of multiple smart sex toys an abyss of vulnerabilities was revealed. The identified vulnerabilities range from technically interesting vulnerabilities to vulnerabilities which affect the privacy of the users in extreme and explicit ways.

In recent years the internet of things has slowly creeped into our daily life and is now an essential part of it, whether you want it or not. A long-existing sub category of the internet of things is a mysterious area called teledildonics. This term got invented about 40 years ago and described (at this time fictional) devices, allowing their users to pleasure themselves, while being interconnected to a global network of plastic dongs. In the 21st century, teledildonics actually exist. Multiple devices are on the (multi-million dollar) market, offering the ability to pleasure an individual, while being connected to the internet. Those devices offer functionalities, like remote pleasuring over local links as well as over the internet. They implement social media-like functionalities such as friends lists, instant messaging, movie chats and explicit-image sharing.
With great pleasure comes great responsibility. A responsibility, which is not taken enough into consideration by the smart sex toy manufacturers as they should, while handling extremely sensitive data. As long as there is no serious breach, there is no problem, right?
This was the basis for a research project called “Internet of Dildos, a long way to a vibrant future”, dealing with the assessment of smart sex toys and identification of vulnerabilities in those products, including mobile apps, backends and the actual hardware.
After the assessment of a selection of multiple smart sex toys an abyss of vulnerabilities was revealed. The identified vulnerabilities range from technically interesting vulnerabilities to vulnerabilities which affect the privacy of the users in extreme and explicit ways. It was possible to gain access to thousands of users’ data records, including cleartext passwords, explicit images, real-world names, real-world addresses, and many more specific facts. Furthermore, we were able to remotely pleasure individuals without their consent over the internet, or over a local link.

Werner Schober

https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2018/Fahrplan/events/9523.html