this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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Manufacturer issues remote kill command to disable smart vacuum after engineer blocks it from collecting data — user revives it with custom hardware and Python scripts to run offline (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 1 day ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
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An engineer got curious about how his iLife A11 smart vacuum worked and monitored the network traffic coming from the device. That’s when he noticed it was constantly sending logs and telemetry data to the manufacturer — something he hadn't consented to. The user, Harishankar, decided to block the telemetry servers' IP addresses on his network, while keeping the firmware and OTA servers open. While his smart gadget worked for a while, it just refused to turn on soon after. After a lengthy investigation, he discovered that a remote kill command had been issued to his device.

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[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I would certainly want to see more technical details

Certainly. By default most home networks block incoming traffic but then again if the's the tinkerer type his network will most likely not be default.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Or the kill command could have been a response to a request made by the vacuum.

Vacuum #2566247: checking in for firmware updates

Server response: it's been 3 months since we received any telemetry data from vacuum #2566247 -- Execute Order 66

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago

This is something I've never understood about firewalls. If the vacuum cleaner is uploading and downloading stuff from https://somecorpo.net/, what stops it from listening for remote commands on that same connwction?