TVs Vulnerable To Remote Hacking Via Rogue TV Signals

[john12345678]

I attempted to ask the folowing query on the VERIZON Forums, but could not get it to work!?!?!?
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Does Verizon FIOS use any of these standards; HbbTV, DVB-T, DVB-C?
Relevant to the following news article;
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About 90% of Smart TVs Vulnerable To Remote Hacking Via Rogue TV Signals;
entertainment slashdot org/story/17/03/29/2018240/about-90-of-smart-tvs-vulnerable-to-remote-hacking-via-rogue-tv-signals
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If so how can a FIOS user protect ones self from attack and abuse?
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[j'vai]

I attempted to ask the folowing query on the VERIZON Forums, but could not get it to work!?!?!?
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Does Verizon FIOS use any of these standards; HbbTV, DVB-T, DVB-C?-

the thread submitters are great feedback on topics, garbage in / garbage out.. one poster;

""Five seconds on google, first hit is a worldwide tuner chips from Silicon Labs for ATSC/QAM, DVB-T2/C2/T/C, ISDB-T/C, DTMB

http://www.silabs.com/products... [silabs.com]

Even in the last days of analogue there was no such thing as an NTSC only tuner chip. They all did PAL as well. Anyway none of the chips on that web page do ATSC and or NTSC only.""



Relevant to the following news article;
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About 90% of Smart TVs Vulnerable To Remote Hacking Via Rogue TV Signals;
about-90-of-smart-tvs-vulnerable-to-remote-hacking-via-rogue-tv-signals

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If so how can a FIOS user protect ones self from attack and abuse?
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excellent question, not only for fios consumers, but ANYONE, with any networked smart tv, connected..

if possible, **downgrade** to an unsmart tv....

this is a set up for crAkerz to do **this** , far too easily..

oo yea, this is **TAFA**

[kencrudup]

... and if you don't have your TV attached to an antenna (i.e., everybody I know with a smart TV) how are these "rogue signals" supposed to make it into your TV?!

[bobdevnul]

... and if you don't have your TV attached to an antenna (i.e., everybody I know with a smart TV) how are these "rogue signals" supposed to make it into your TV?!

Exactly. I suppose it is possible for hackers to get their rogue signal onto FIOS or a cable system, but it is unlikely when there is much more low-hanging fruit, like every home Wifi router is vulnerable.

Even over the air, it involves setting up a rogue low-power TV transmitter, presumably on an unused channel. The TV is never going to see the rogue channel unless you have the TV scan for channels. How often does one do that? Every few years?

Some of the things that smart TV manufacturers have done are downright evil. I would say that I would never buy one, but some of my dumb TVs have a Roku. That's the same as a smart TV, though probably not for this particular hack.

I am more concerned by those Amazon and Google things connected to the Internet that sit and listen for commands. Really people? Do you really want something that listens to every word or sound in your house 24/7?

[hwertz]

I attempted to ask the folowing query on the VERIZON Forums, but could not get it to work!?!?!?
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Does Verizon FIOS use any of these standards; HbbTV, DVB-T, DVB-C?

DVB-T and DVB-C? No. DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial) and DVB-C (Digital Video Broadcast-Cable) are European digital TV standards (and DVB-S or now DVB-S2 for satellite broadcasting.) In the US, we've got ATSC over the air; I don't know for cable (something standardized since TVs and tuner sticks can get digital cable channels as long as they aren't encrypted), and for satellite Dish Network used to use DVB-S (probably DVB-S2 now?) with custom encryption, and DirecTV is a custom setup.

So that would leave HbbTV. I couldn't get a clear idea of what this actually does, bu t it sounds like it's one of those ill-conceievd "interactive services" things, so you'd tune to like channel 6.3 and instead of having a weather loop it could throw jpegs and javascript and crap at your tv and it'd draw up a weather loop; or you could have a hotel system with the pay-per-view menu done with this, or whatever. So of course this embedded web browser was probably implemented once, years go, then never updated to fix security holes or bugs.

I would say that I would never buy one, but some of my dumb TVs have a Roku. That's the same as a smart TV, though probably not for this particular hack.

Yes and no. Rokus get regular software updates, and since all it does is the smart TV bits, they tend to keep the software reasonably up to date, they fix security and implementation bugs throughout the software stack. The smart TVs (based on both using a few and reading about people tearing into the tv software), they might update a few "applets" (like add a new video or music service, remove one, or updates web addresses if some site changed it's streaming address) but dig below that and you could get a 2016-era TV and find 2010-2012 era software on it, security bugs and all. Typically there are not software updates for these TVs either.