The Smart TV Is Still a Computer

In LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps, Brian Krebs reports that LG plans to suspend apps that turn its televisions into residential proxy nodes.

“A residential proxy network is not an intended use for LG smart TVs.”

The action came after Spur examined more than 6,000 LG and Samsung television apps and found residential proxy software in 2,058 of them. More than 42 percent of the LG apps examined contained proxy SDKs, along with more than a quarter of the Samsung apps. These apps could continue routing someone else’s traffic through the television even after the app was closed.

This is part of a much larger problem with smart appliances and connected home products. We treat televisions, picture frames, doorbells, refrigerators, and streaming boxes like ordinary appliances, but they are poorly monitored computers sitting inside our private networks.

The FBI has warned that compromised home devices are being used in botnets and residential proxy services, allowing criminals to disguise their activity behind an innocent household’s IP address. Some devices have even shipped with malware already installed or downloaded backdoors during setup.

Consumer Reports has also found that vulnerabilities in smart appliances can provide attackers with an opportunity to probe the rest of a home network. That becomes especially concerning when an appliance may remain in a house for ten or twenty years, long after its manufacturer stops supplying security updates.

LG removing these apps is welcome. But proxy software never should have been allowed into nearly half of its app store in the first place.

A smart television is still a computer. The problem is that it is a computer most people never update, inspect, or think about securing.

Read Brian Krebs’ full report, LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps.

Supporting reading: Spur’s investigation, the FBI’s residential proxy warning, and the FBI’s earlier warning about the BADBOX 2.0 botnet.