As a computer scientist at the University of Waterloo, Abedi discovered design flaws in Wi-Fi chips that raise concerns about privacy and security threats from a little-known corner of the digital world. Simply put — devices connected to Wi-Fi inside a home or office can easily be tracked and tracked by a hacker’s drone. After identifying flaws in the chip’s design, Abedi published articles in 2020 and was invited to give presentations to some of the world’s largest makers and users of Wi-Fi chips, including Google. Now, Abedi is going public with his call for design changes to the chips themselves to eliminate the threats. “When I found this loophole, I realized it could cause some serious problems, mostly related to privacy,” Abedi said. He made a wi-fi node that weighs only 10 grams and attached it to a small drone. This nodule causes all connected Wi-Fi devices within the target building – smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktops, CCTV cameras, thermostats, doorbells, fridges, speakers – to continuously send location data to the above nodule. “We can actually force a device that has Wi-Fi connectivity, like a phone, a laptop, anything that has Wi-Fi, to send us some data,” Abedi said. It can hover the drone 10 or 20 meters above the target building and soon know where every Wi-Fi-connected device inside the building is. “Well, you wouldn’t even hear the drone,” Abedi said. The nodule and drone are so small that they can be folded up and carried in a pocket. The nodule is basically a very, very small computer with a Wi-Fi chip. Abedi programmed the chips, put them in a drone and did some experiments. “It’s a very basic loophole in the Wi-Fi protocol, and maybe they didn’t even imagine what consequences it could have,” Abdi said. Everything from phones, fitness trackers, TVs, personal assistants, refrigerators and smartwatches to exercise bikes, bathroom scales and speakers are part of the growing web of Wi-Fi enabled devices. “So when someone finds your phone, they find you, to track you in, it could be anything — an office building or it could be your home,” Abedi said. The technology could be used by bad guys looking for the location of security cameras and guards, or regular police teams trying to rescue hostages. “All kinds of information is leaking, for example, someone can see, ‘Oh, everybody’s in the basement, nobody’s on the second floor,’” Abedi said. “They can find the location of expensive smart TVs and expensive laptops computers”. Someone outside the building can find the location of security cameras inside the building. The police will also find it very useful, he said. “They can learn quickly, for example — ‘they’ve got all the people in that room together,’” Abedi said. “Or where the attackers are, potentially, if they have devices connected to Wi-Fi.” He made presentations to Wi-Fi chipset manufacturers about the design flaw. “Unfortunately, it’s not an easy fix, so most devices won’t be able to be patched with software because the gap is actually related to something physically, the chipset of those devices, and in many cases I can’t change that using software,” Abedi said. Abedi now works as a researcher at Stanford University, part of a large project involving several American universities. He researches wireless networking but maintains an adjunct professorship at the University of Waterloo. “The solution we came up with will help future generations of Wi-Fi devices, we don’t have as much hope for existing devices,” Abedi said. Describing himself as a neutral scientist, Abedi said chip designs that allow exploiting the Wi-Fi loophole should be shut down as soon as possible. “We believe that because the loophole exists in Wi-Fi devices, sooner or later a bad guy could start using it against people,” Abedi said. SHARE:
