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Some Wireless Alarm Panels Transmit In Clear, Says Researcher

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Ari Erenthal
Jul 24, 2014
Chesapeake & Midlantic

According to talks to be presented at Black Hat and Defcon, an attacker can read, learn, and spoof signals from wireless burglar alarm transmitters manufactured by Linear.

Terrific.

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Brian Rhodes
Jul 24, 2014
IPVMU Certified
Here are my thoughts:
''Spread spectrum' wireless is a fundamental feature for most commercial wireless systems. Companies like Innovonics have pressed this feature for years and it is fairly common. It might be a weakness, but only for rudimentary systems.
Second, The article does not say all systems use the same frequency (which they do not), so you need to read system individually to see what frequency it could be jammed on (with the RTL-SDR). This adds cost, time, and complexity to the exploit. Not sure common burglars are going to be this diligent before they break in.
Third, the success of the exploit depends on a 'boy who cried wolf' scenario, which means repeated false alarms result in the system eventually being ignored or turned off. This could take a number of days or even weeks of trouble before materializing... again, not really the typical habits of a tweeker looking for a quick hit 'n run robbery to get that next fix.
This could be a hole for many wireless systems, but the comparative skill (stealing EEPROM settings?) and time needed to take advantage of it seem pretty slim for most homeowners to worry about.
Does anyone agree / disagree?
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