A recent discovery by academic researchers from Italy and the UK has unveiled concerning vulnerabilities within the TP-Link Tapo L530E smart bulb and its associated mobile application. These vulnerabilities could potentially expose households to hacker attacks by allowing unauthorized access to the local Wi-Fi network’s password.
The TP-Link Tapo smart Wi-Fi light bulb, known for its cloud-enabled features, has gained popularity as a best-seller on Amazon Italy. This device can be managed through the Tapo application on both Android and iOS platforms.
The severity of the vulnerabilities varies, with the most critical issue involving a lack of authentication between the smart bulb and the Tapo app. This flaw permits attackers to impersonate the smart bulb and gain authentication access to the app. With a high CVSS score of 8.8, this vulnerability poses a significant risk.
Another vulnerability, rated with a CVSS score of 7.6, affects both the smart bulb and the Tapo app due to a hardcoded, short shared secret that is exposed in the code fragments.
Two additional vulnerabilities, rated as “medium” in severity, revolve around message transmissions between the application and the smart bulb. These issues arise from the use of static initialization vectors for messages and a lack of message freshness verification. Exploiting the first vulnerability could allow an attacker within the range of the smart bulb and the local Wi-Fi network to obtain both Tapo and Wi-Fi credentials.
This can occur during the smart bulb’s setup mode, where it exposes its SSID. In case the bulb is already connected, an attacker can execute a Wi-Fi deauthentication attack to reset the bulb.
These findings highlight the potential security risks of seemingly innocuous devices like smart bulbs. The researchers, who reported the vulnerabilities to TP-Link via their vulnerability reporting program, emphasize the significance of these flaws and their potential to impact users’ security. Despite potential misconceptions about the importance of securing smart bulbs, these researchers reveal that such devices can indeed harbor vulnerabilities with far-reaching consequences.
