IoT lightbulb worm takes over all smart lights until entire city is infected

A research team has set up a chain reaction attack that would take over Philips Hue smart lightbulbs across entire cities.

Researchers have developed a proof-of-concept attack on smart lightbulbs that allows them to wirelessly take control over the bulbs from up to 400m.

The attack involves writing a new operating system to one of the light bulbs. The infected bulb then uses its trusted status to spread the infection to all vulnerable bulbs in reach, until an entire city is infected, “enabling the attacker to turn all the city lights on or off permanently brick them, or exploit them in a massive DDoS attack”, according to the researchers. The research team from Dalhousie University in Canada and the Weizman Institute of Science in Israel demonstrated attacking bulbs by drone or ground station. The researchers chose to work with Philips Hue lightbulbs, one of the market leaders in smart lighting systems in the market.