IoT coffee machine hacked to demand ransom
Your morning brew could be disrupted by a lack of encryption and a reverse engineered firmware update


A security researcher has managed to reverse engineer an IoT coffee maker to the point where ransomware could be uploaded to the machine.
Martin Hron, a researcher with security firm Avast, conducted an experiment on the £179 Smarter Coffee Maker (version 1) to prove that hacking IoT devices is more than just accessing them via weak routers.
Security issues within the Smarter brand of coffee machines, and its iKettle, have previously been highlighted. London-based security firm Pen Test Partners found that they could recover Wi-Fi encryption keys used in the first version of the Smarter iKettle in 2015. These same flaws were also spotted in the first version of the coffee maker.
Hron managed to turn that same coffee maker into a ransomware machine. After tinkering with the IoT device, he found that when connected to the user's home network, the coffee maker's functions all went off simultaneously and a pre-programmed ransom message endlessly bleeped across the display.
His experiment was so successful that the only way to stop the machine from going haywire was to pull the plug.
"I was asked to prove a myth, call it a suspicion, that the threat to IoT devices is not just to access them via a weak router or exposure to the internet, but that an IoT device itself is vulnerable and can be easily owned without owning the network or the router," Hron wrote in a blog post.
"We thought this would be enough to freak any user out and make it a very stressful experience. The only thing the user can do at that point is unplug the coffee maker from the power socket."
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
Hron was able to access the coffee machine through a firmware update because of the unencrypted connection to its corresponding smartphone app. He uploaded the Android app's latest firmware version to a computer and reverse engineered it using an interactive disassembler, and also took the coffee machine apart to learn what CPU it used.
With all that information, he then wrote a Python script that mimicked the coffee maker's update process. His modified firmware and lines of script caused the machine to go haywire and demand a ransom.
RELATED RESOURCE
BIOS security: The next frontier for endpoint protection
Today’s threats upend traditional security measures
This is by no means an easy hack and it has its limitations, as an attacker would need to find the coffee maker within Wi-Fi range. It can be triggered by hacking someone's router, but that would potentially require access to more than just a coffee machine.
"A very limited number of first-generation units had been sold in 2016 and although updates are no longer supported for these models, we do review any legacy claims on a per customer basis in order to provide continued customer care," a Smarter spokesperson told IT Pro.
But the implications of this kind of hack are concerning for the wider IoT industry, according to Hron, as smart gadgets could be rendered incapable of receiving patches to fix such a weakness. He also suggests that this type of vulnerability might be exploited in devices that no longer receive support.
"With the pace of IoT explosion and bad attitude to support, we are creating an army of abandoned vulnerable devices that can be misused for nefarious purposes such as network breaches, data leaks, ransomware attack and DDoS."
Bobby Hellard is ITPro's Reviews Editor and has worked on CloudPro and ChannelPro since 2018. In his time at ITPro, Bobby has covered stories for all the major technology companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, and regularly attends industry-leading events such as AWS Re:Invent and Google Cloud Next.
Bobby mainly covers hardware reviews, but you will also recognize him as the face of many of our video reviews of laptops and smartphones.
-
How to implement a four-day week in tech
In-depth More companies are switching to a four-day week as they look to balance employee well-being with productivity
-
Intelligence sharing: The boost for businesses
In-depth Intelligence sharing with peers is essential if critical sectors are to be protected
-
Hackers breached a 158 year old company by guessing an employee password – experts say it’s a ‘pertinent reminder’ of the devastating impact of cyber crime
News A Panorama documentary exposed hackers' techniques and talked to the teams trying to tackle them
-
The ransomware boom shows no signs of letting up – and these groups are causing the most chaos
News Thousands of ransomware cases have already been posted on the dark web this year
-
Everything we know about the Ingram Micro cyber attack so far
News A cyber attack on Ingram Micro severely disrupted operations and has been claimed by the SafePay ransomware group.
-
A prolific ransomware group says it’s shutting down and giving out free decryption keys to victims – but cyber experts warn it's not exactly a 'gesture of goodwill'
News The Hunters International ransomware group is rebranding and switching tactics
-
Swiss government data published following supply chain attack – here’s what we know about the culprits
News Radix, a non-profit organization in the health promotion sector, supplies a number of federal offices, whose data has apparently been accessed.
-
Ransomware victims are getting better at haggling with hackers
News While nearly half of companies paid a ransom to get their data back last year, victims are taking an increasingly hard line with hackers to strike fair deals.
-
LockBit data dump reveals a treasure trove of intel on the notorious hacker group
News An analysis of May's SQL database dump shows how much LockBit was really making
-
‘I take pleasure in thinking I can rid society of at least some of them’: A cyber vigilante is dumping information on notorious ransomware criminals – and security experts say police will be keeping close tabs
News An anonymous whistleblower has released large amounts of data allegedly linked to the ransomware gangs