Okay, so this is a crazy story! I’m a software engineer and I was messing around, trying to see if I could control my robot vacuum with my PS5 controller – yeah, I get bored. But somehow, it let me access thousands of other smart home devices all over the world! Turns out, I stumbled onto a huge security problem with how these things are connected. It was totally accidental, but pretty wild to realize how vulnerable everything is.
Sammy Azdoufal was tinkering with his new robot vacuum, a DJI Romo, and created an app to control it with a PlayStation 5 controller. During testing, he unexpectedly discovered that the login information for his own device also gave him access to thousands of other robots.
I was reading about this guy, Azdoufal, and it’s crazy! He wasn’t just cleaning his own place anymore. Somehow, he ended up with access to data from almost 7,000 robot vacuums in 24 different countries! Apparently, he could see what all these little cleaning robots were ‘seeing’, which is wild.
Robot vacuums expose thousands of cameras, microphones and floor plans
The security breach wasn’t limited to just controlling devices remotely. Because of a weakness in the system, someone could also watch live camera footage, listen to audio from microphones, and access detailed floor plans and information about devices like smart vacuums. This gave them a clear picture of what was happening inside people’s homes.
The problem was caused by an error in how the server handled permissions. After a user logged in with their device, the system mistakenly provided data from multiple devices instead of just the one they were using.
Azdoufal allegedly proved he could find a journalist’s test device simply by using its serial number. He was also able to check the device’s battery life and create a remote map of the journalist’s home.
Azdoufal explained that he didn’t break into the company’s systems or overcome any security measures. He simply figured out how the vacuum cleaner communicated with its online servers by studying its code, and he used an AI tool to help him while working with his own device.
After confirming the vulnerability, he shared the findings with reporters, who alerted DJI.
DJI discovered a security flaw in its DJI Home software during an internal check in late January and started fixing it right away, according to a statement to Popular Science.
The company fixed the problem with software updates, but the situation still highlighted the potential privacy risks of smart home devices.
As a tech fan, I always tell people it’s not just vacuums we need to worry about when it comes to smart devices! Seriously, almost anything connected to the internet can be hacked. I remember reading this really scary story from 2023 about a mom who was shocked to discover someone had hacked into her baby monitor and was actually talking to her child while he was sleeping! It just proves you can’t be too careful.
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2026-02-24 22:49