The Thermomix is one of the most popular kitchen machines and one of the most expensive. The current model starts at 1349 euros. It is therefore little surprising that many customers resort to significantly cheaper Thermomix clone from Lidl. Listens to the name “Monsieur Cuisine Connect” and offers thanks to Wi-Fi connectivity, access to hundreds of Online recipes.
Recently, the kitchen machine is available in France. The start of sales of the two security experts, Alexis Viguie and Adrien Albisetti took the occasion of the “Monsieur Cuisine Connect” apart. They discovered a hidden microphone. This, however, is required neither for the control of the device, nor is it mentioned in the manual. Why is a microphone in the kitchen helper?
legacy Software
On the discovery of raised, said of the discounters, as a screen for a trade to be built in normal Tablet by a microphone is located. This was disabled on the software side, assures in Lidl. Can check the however. At least the microphone is functional, as the hackers have demonstrated.
Because even with the Software the manufacturer has made a mistake: the Tablet is still running Android Version 6 (“Marshmallow”), which is already since 2015. The Software is extremely outdated. Due to the many open security vulnerabilities, the hackers can install at will Software. So they managed to get the Ego-Shooter “Doom” on the kitchen machine to Run or to start Youtube Videos.
Lidl said that the gaps could be closed with Software Updates, this one would do on a regular basis. In fact, the last Update dates from March 2017.
The case shows the smart household helper can be a Problem, if the manufacturers ignore minimum safety requirements. Many products are already out of date at time of purchase. This is true not only in the case of kitchen machines, but often also in the case of Wi-Fi surveillance cameras. Security experts call for stricter requirements for manufacturers.
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