Re-Hacking The Samsung Smartcam

Today we’re re-visiting a device that we’ve hacked in a previous session. At DEFCON 22, we released exploits for the Samsung Smartcam network camera in our “Hack All The things” presentation. These exploits allowed for remote command execution and the ability to arbitrarily change the camera’s administrator password. After being alerted to the vulnerabilities, Samsung reacted by removing the entire locally accessible web interface and requiring users to use the Samsung SmartCloud website. This angered a number of users [Example 1, Example 2] and crippled the device from being used in any DIY monitoring solutions. So, we decided to audit the device once more to see if there is a way we can give users back access to their cameras while at the same time verifying the security of the devices new firmware.

Web Interface

When a user visits the updated web interface on the Samsung Smartcam, they are now greeted with a “404 – Not Found” message. The interface previously in place, which allowed for users to view and configure their camera, is now completely removed with only backend scripts left. Seemingly all vulnerabilities found by us as well as those found by others are patched. There was however one set of scripts that were not removed or modified, the php files which provide firmware update abilities for the camera through its “iWatch” webcam monitoring service were left untouched. These scripts contain a command injection bug that can be leveraged for root remote command execution to an unprivileged user.

iWatch Install.php Root Command Execution

The iWatch Install.php vulnerability can be exploited by crafting a special filename which is then stored within a tar command passed to a php system() call. Because the web-server runs as root, the filename is user supplied, and the input is used without sanitization, we are able to inject our own commands within to achieve root remote command execution. You can find the technical writeup and fix for the vulnerability as well as instructions for re-enabling the Smartcams’s web administration panel on our wiki along with a video demonstration below.

Video:

-Exploitee.rs
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