It sounds like you are blaming the user for providing data that a service can leak. That's like blaming a user for writing personal emails when faced with an email provider that leaks emails.
DMZs as a solution to port forwarding issues have been a misunderstood part of online games troubleshooting for at least 20 years.
If that idea surprises you then you definitely need to touch grass. Even cloud computing engineers are surprised to see random internet requests hitting services,and here you are assuming that any regular consumer that just wants a security camera to work will somehow have deep understanding of networking and DevSecOps and trying to ridicule those who don't.
When they get down to the $20 price point like the Chinese schlock, let me know, I'll be first in line to buy them.
It's not the best company but they're cheap.
- to do the song and dance to allow the whole Internet to access this cam - and 'security professionals' have been advising no to do that no matter what vendor it is
- to sit on your wire, literally and sniff everything
Unencrypted personal data is not good but if you have a habit of leaving your car with the open doors, windows and a key in the ignition - don't run around telling horror stories what someone didn't close the lid on a cookie jar.
And most of the time it's because there is only a couple humans and bears out there. But sure, attacking me would get your point across, Mr. Beautiful Garden citizen.
I can see how rough location information is helpful for support and business information. Maybe country, maybe even zip code. But precise GPS was a bit overkill. Maybe it was easy, maybe it was nefarious, but not encrypting it over the wow was just plain dumb. I guess there is a razor for that.
How would this exfiltration happen though? Aren’t these cameras going to be behind a firewall? Without a request originating internally no external packet will make it past, right? Does the firmware make the first request? If so, I missed it.
I’m more mystified by the fleet wide certs. Old manufacturing tech that makes per-device firmware difficult, perhaps?
Routers having abnormal amount of zerodays, and not being fixed on the other hand is actually serious, unlike this.
Just a week ago I actually set up one of TP-link's new line of smartplugs (Tapo instead of the old Kasa), and for that I had to make an account. For actual security, I'd rather have an option to control them locally with zero additional authentication when you're already inside the network, instead of the cloud stuff. But I HAD to make an account even though the custom code I control said plug with only accesses the plug locally.
The GPS finding (CVE-2026-13230) has been publicly documented on this device class since 2020. A single UDP packet returns sub-meter home coordinates with no authentication required. TP-Link scored it 5.3 medium. My independent assessment is 7.1 high. Precise home coordinates aren't low confidentiality impact.
The credential finding (CVE-2026-9770) covers a fleet wide RSA key and unsalted MD5 TP-Link ID credentials. Same credentials provide global authentication across the TP-Link ecosystem.
Factory reset on a secondhand device doesn't clear the data. Connecting to the device's soft AP during setup and sending a single UDP packet returns the previous owner's GPS coordinates.
Why single out bad Chinese coding? Bad US IoT coding has a longer history.
Yeah, I agree - at least Chinese Roborock gives very granular controls for privacy.
Not doxing myself, but... Company with a known name vibecoded a dashboard with Claude. Which also hardcoded a password into the client-side of the dashboard, which I caught.
I reckon security will be about the same.
Why would you be surprised there are failures?
BAs using AI make worse designs, management makes seniors redundant making code worse, and then QA is also laid off to make room for agentic testing. The results are not a surprise in anyway.
All of which was, of course, predicted by management, reported upwards, and ignored.
For example, if secret storage methods aren't specified in the prompts, a model might decide to be clever and implement a generic secret access interface, with a default implementation that hardcodes everything. It will probably tell you that this is not production ready and you should write or specify your preferred secret storage implementation, but if you don't read or understand that, you'll just leave it as is and push to prod.
Soon?
I've already seen multiple of TP-Link's firmware engineers leave their LLM history public and indexed by search engines.
It's quite obviously them as well.
Also, all communication and telemetry should be opt-in and turned off by default.
Government-controlled server would prevent foreign countries from collecting intelligence and pushing malicious updates.
In most cases companies don't want to give you Matter or HomeKit, because it means they cannot sell you more through their app.
Wyze has ads everytime you open it. So does Honeywell. Hell, even the internet-loved Ecobee has a banner that shifts everything down most of the time that you open the app. And for that last one, you _have_ to use their app to control the fan, as they don't expose separate fan controls over HomeKit...
Then don't buy those devices. All of my home devices are either Zigbee (local-only) or were bought specifically because they can be reflashed with open firmware to liberate them from the cloud.
> Hell, even the internet-loved Ecobee has a banner that shifts everything down most of the time that you open the app.
I don't want such apps. The only app I need is Home Assistant, and installing proprietary software on my phone (running GrapheneOS) is out of the question.
Honestly, I'd rather it leak my GPS to the Chinese government than the US government. They don't have jurisdiction over me anyway.
> should not be allowed to communicate over the public Internet
It would be a no-go for non-techies. One of the biggest draws to IoT devices for "average Joes" is being able to view and control them from remotely, and they aren't going to have the skills or know-how to set up a VPN correctly with dynamic DNS so that their phone can VPN into their home and then sideload/jailbreak their phone to load a custom app to control it. "It just works from anywhere" is a big sell for them.
There are better solutions, like Apple’s HomeKit. I’m able to watch a camera that has no internet access because it passed through my Apple TV, which serves as a home hub. I didn’t have to set any of this up, it just works when you have the required hardware.
How exactly does this prevent the same kind of issue for Apple devices? Aren't you just trusting that Apple handles your data better than TP-Link? Not saying they don't but routing through another device doesn't really add security on its own.
I am, yes. Ultimately you’re going to need to trust some hardware, somewhere. No matter what you’re doing you have to trust that your home router doesn’t have an externally accessible SSH port with no password set.
Personally I trust Apple more than I trust TP Link with this stuff.
What if a TP-Link camera supported HomeKit Secure Video? You access the camera through Apple but all of these cameras are still directly connected to the internet, meaning you still need to trust the camera manufacturer.
No, you don't have to trust. I build my own routers precisely because I don't.
There are various non-internet protocols for IoT devices, none of them good:
* Zigbee: Requires some technical understanding to set up, devices randomly disconnect for hours even when they are 2ft from the coordinator, all-around horrible experience for non-techies
* Non-standard Zigbee variants: even worse
* Matter-over-Thread: horrendously designed from a UX perspective. Easy-to-lose barcodes stuck on cards in the packaging, weird 12-letter codes, and your non-techie cannot understand what the hell Matter or Thread is. Pairing is an absolute nightmare.
I don't think that's normal. Like, to the point where I'm wondering if you have a bad opinion of the whole protocol because you got a faulty device.
Requires no technical understanding. At least not more than e.g. a WIFI router.
> devices randomly disconnect for hours even when they are 2ft from the coordinator,
You present this like a fact. But it is at most an anecdote. I present you a different anecdote: I have ~30 zigbee devices, in two different houses (first a house with concrete floors and cellar and level 1..3) and now one old woodwork structure house with 2 floors. Nowhere did I had even half an hour of disconnection.
> all around-horrible
... excellent experience even for my ex-spouse, which is/was non-techie.
However, that you present Zigbee here at all is weird. Zigbee doesn't have any way to transport a camera stream. It's mean for low-powered battery devices. My temperature sensors got a 1500mAh AAA chargeable batteries and they lasts now for over one year. Note that I have sensors from ~ 15 different brands. Mostly battery powered sensors and mains power switchable plugs.
I also enjoy that these Zigbee devices are by design completely disconnected from any IP traffic. This, and their (intentional) low data rate make them almost impossible to misuse. E.g. as denial-of-service originators or amplifiers.
It's like you present WIFI as long-range thingy but actually you'd want LORA for that. I'm not assuming that knowing for what kind of usage a tech was designed as "needing technical understanding". After all, no one would claim "you need technical understanding" to know that you better use a truck instead of a Porsche Cayman to transport 50 cubic meters of sand.
You meant rechargeable? You seem to know more about Zigbee than about rechargeable batteries.
Well my garage door opener sensor has been disconnected for two 30 minute gaps today and my plant humidity sensors go offline for 2 weeks at a time.
So yeah, it's not ready for prime time.
> LORA
No, let's not even go there. Tech nerd protocol here that's an awkward middle ground that creates even more problems. Average Joes aren't going to set that crap up.
There are also some devices which advertise ZigBee compatibility but the manufacturers don't seem to test them against coordinators other than their own (and ConBee 2 seems to have the most problems in this regard).
The protocol is complex, they all are, implementing it correctly isn't a given, but I think the issues people have are more often a factor of how long a protocol has been in use than any fundamental aspect of it.
As soon as cheap hardware manufacturers get on board you get this problem.
Quality hardware works fine with ZigBee. It's by no means perfect technology, if you want that, use copper wires, but it doesn't work as badly as you claim if you are not unlucky with coordinators and devices.
Also, it's not like 860-930 MHz (depending on the country) is without interference.
Pissed off script kiddies have been confused as government plenty of times by unsuspecting victims.
You can ask chatgpt.not a great way.
And when you ask it you the secure answers cost 3x more. And than require an installar. And some(Google) require a monthly subscription.
And even about the good systems, the chat recommends, since there's no mathematical guarantee for security, that you "Switch them off or physically cover the lenses while you are home.".
But if people knew how easy it was to use the camera they bought to spy on their family, then I bet many would care.
But the only solution here is very expensive marketing, so...
TP-Link is a prominent maker of network hardware, including home and mesh routers.
It's had the Huawei treatment?
It's one of the primary networking electronics brands in Australia.
As I write this, there are all kinds of TP-Link routers, mesh nodes, and cameras (oh my!) in stock at a nearby Wal-Mart, with pickup promised within a few hours from now.
99% of consumers won't know how to setup a firewall but could handle a checkbox
only problem I have is I can't seem to punch a hole for time sync and it won't use my local intranet time server
No idea if that helps with your particular devices; they are, of course, free to ignore those fields.