Security researchers Emily Astranova and Patrick Kiley earlier this month presented their project: a security analysis of PackBot bomb-disposal robots. The journey started with buying surplus devices and continued with reverse-engineering their hardware, software, networking, and control protocols.
Quite a rare piece of equipment and definitely not one of the top 5 things you can see at security conferences, right? And now I know that iRobot creates not only vacuum cleaners but also bomb-disposal robots. I wonder if they share any code...
And of course, there are vulnerabilities, including bot hijacking! I believe it is remote hijacking, but I am not 100% sure from the slides alone. :)
Very interesting research on a very unusual device that can still be hacked remotely. Enjoy the slides, and maybe share them with your fellow tech teams that use this equipment - maybe they should update.
Stay safe!
More details:
Render Safe: Reverse Engineering and Exploiting an EOD Robot [PDF]: https://i.blackhat.com/BH-USA-26/Presentations/BHUS26-Kiley-Render_Safe-Slides.pdf
