Researchers at UK cyber-security company, Fidus Information Security, say that they have found security flaws in a popular Chinese-manufactured white-label location tracker that could be serious enough to warrant a recall.

Which Tracker?

The GPS tracker which is used as a panic alarm for elderly patients, to monitor children, and to track vehicles is white label manufactured but rebranded and sold by several different companies which reportedly include Pebbell (by HoIP Telecom), OwnFone Footprint and SureSafeGo. The tracker uses a SIM card to connect to the 2G/GPRS network.  According to Fidus at least 10,000+ of these trackers are currently used in the UK

What’s The Problem?

According to the researchers, simply sending the device a text message with a keyword can trick the tracker into revealing its real-time location. Also, other commands tried by the researchers can allow anyone to call the device and remotely listen in to its in-built microphone without the user knowing, and even remotely stop the signal from the tracker, thereby making the device effectively useless.  On its blog, Fidus lists several other things that its researchers were able to do to the device including change or completely remove all emergency contacts, disable the motion alarm, disable fall detection and remove any device PIN which had been set.

All these scenarios could pose significant risks to the (mainly vulnerable) users of the trackers.

According to Fidus, one of the main reasons why the device has so many security flaws is that it doesn’t appear that the manufacturers, nor the companies reselling the devices, have conducted any security testing or penetration testing of the device.

PIN Problem

The research by Fidus also uncovered the fact that even though the manufacturers built in PIN functionality to help lock the devices down, the PIN, by default, is disabled and users need to read the manual to find out about it, and when enabled, the PIN is required as a prefix to any commands to be accepted by the device, except for REBOOT or RESET functionality.  The problem with this is that the RESET functionality is the thing that really could provide any malicious user with the ability to gain remote control of the device.  This is because is the RESET command that wipes all stored contacts and emergency contacts, restores the device to factory defaults and means that a PIN is no longer needed.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

What is particularly disturbing about this story is that the tracking devices are used for some of the most vulnerable members of society.  Even though they have been marketed as a way to make a person safer, the cruel irony is that it appears that if they are taken over by a malicious attacker, they could put a person at greater risk.

This story also illustrates the importance of security penetration testing in discovering and plugging security loopholes in devices before making them widely available.  This is another example of an IoT/smart device that has security loopholes related to default settings, and with an ever-growing number of IoT devices out there, many of them perhaps not tested as well as they could be, many buyers are unknowingly at risk from hackers.f