Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Have you patched your coffee machine lately?

I saw this article referenced from Slashdot this morning about an Internet-enabled coffee machine that contains security vulnerabilities. Basically, a remote "attacker" could break into your coffee machine, and:

1) change the strength of your coffee - I would classify this vulnerability as "Critical." I cannot afford to have my daily caffeine fix watered down!

2) change the amount of water per cup, thus spilling water all over the place

3) make a mess of the internal settings, causing the need for the machine to be repaired

4) gain access to its version of Windows XP as a user - the coffee machine runs XP? Apparently, there is no way to patch the embedded OS.

You know, I thought it was hilarious when I first saw the USB George Foreman Grill, but this takes superfluously blending technology and appliances to a whole new level. Why would I never need my coffee machine to be on the 'net?

--Chris

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