{"id":1794448,"date":"2023-01-04T07:04:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T12:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1794448"},"modified":"2023-01-04T07:05:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T12:05:04","slug":"security-loophole-in-google-home-speakers-let-hackers-snoop-on-private-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/security-loophole-in-google-home-speakers-let-hackers-snoop-on-private-conversations\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Home Speakers Security Loophole Allows Hackers to Snoop on Private Conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsecurity-loophole-in-google-home-speakers-let-hackers-snoop-on-private-conversations%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1794448&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>Recent revelations revealed that Google Home speakers contained a security flaw. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-hackers\">hackers<\/a> It is possible to listen in on conversations.<\/p>\n<p>Reports indicate that hackers were able to exploit a bug to install a backdoor account onto a Google Home smart speaker device. They could then use the remote control to spy on owners.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/google-home-speakers-allowed-hackers-to-snoop-on-conversations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bleeping Computer.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Security researcher Matt Kunze\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/downrightnifty.me\/blog\/2022\/12\/26\/hacking-google-home.html\">was\u00a0recently\u00a0rewarded<\/a> Google provided $107,500 for his discovery of the security issue in January 2021. While experimenting with his Google Home mini speaker, he also received $107,500 from Google.<\/p>\n<p>Kunze notified Google in March 2021 and later\u00a0published the technical details about his findings, along with a potential attack scenario, which explained how the flaw could be exploited by an outside actor.<\/p>\n<p>After setting up a new account through the Google Home app, he found a flaw that allowed commands from remote locations (cloud API).<\/p>\n<p>Google Home, a line of smart speakers, was launched in 2016 to great fanfare. It allows users to speak commands and interact with Google Assistant services using voice commands.<\/p>\n<h2>Hackers can access Smart Speakers and Appliances through a grave loophole<\/h2>\n<p>Kunze noted that if a hacker got within wireless proximity of a speaker device, even without access to the Wi-Fi network that it was connected to, they could discover a user\u2019s Google Home system.<\/p>\n<p>After a user account is created, an actor could then access the user\u2019s setup mode, install a different Google account, and then re-connect it to that unsuspecting person\u2019s Wi-Fi network.<\/p>\n<p>Once a hacker managed to connect their own account to the Google Home speaker, they would have access to the smart devices in the victim\u2019s home by initiating a phone call via the speaker, giving them the ability to hijack appliances,\u00a0set up scheduled routines, and play music.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, many users were unaware of the smart speaker\u2019s blue light alert that lights up when a phone was activated, assuming that the speaker was updating or was busy.<\/p>\n<h2>Google Update: Security Bug Fixed<\/h2>\n<p>Google has now made it impossible to add accounts remotely to the Google Home speaker. A patch included an invite-based system to manage account links. This was to block any attempts to add individuals to Home.<\/p>\n<p>The phone call security system was also improved to protect against remote initiation of the routine system.<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s\u00a0smart displays\u00a0now have an improved setup network that requires a QR code to log in, allowing it to be protected with WPA2, meaning that a hacker would need physical access to a device to connect their account.<\/p>\n<p>Kunze claimed that Google Nest devices and Home devices are, for most, quite secure. They don&#8217;t have many attack vectors. The vulnerabilities he discovered were subtle.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from phone call privacy, he stated that an attacker could change the basic settings of a user.<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times reached Google for comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-bryan-jung\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttl7daySGw_WEB_BrianJung.jpg\" alt=\"Bryan Jung\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>Bryan S. Jung, a New York City native and resident, has a background in politics as well as the legal industry. He graduated from Binghamton University.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recent revelations revealed that Google Home speakers contained a security flaw. hackers It is possible to listen in on conversations. Reports indicate that hackers were able to exploit a bug to install a backdoor account onto a Google Home smart speaker device. They could then use the remote control to spy on owners.\u00a0Bleeping Computer. Security &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1695376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,13149,6063,11231,13150,4070,3819,3646,10351,7779],"class_list":["post-1794448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-conversations","tag-google","tag-hackers","tag-loophole","tag-private","tag-report","tag-security","tag-snoop","tag-speakers"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1794448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1695376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1794448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1794448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1794448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}