Vulnerabilities in IoT Devices with Software-Defined Radio

Advances in networking and semiconductor technologies, along with the ever-widening grid of interconnected and computationally capable products have promoted the development of the Internet of Things (IoT). This development naturally poses more and more complex security challenges. One of the key attributes of IoT is that it makes heavy use of wireless communications to allow for mobility and ease of installation. It is important to note this is not just Wi-Fi, but all manner of other Radio Frequency (RF) protocols: Bluetooth, BTLE, ZigBee, Z-Wave, etc. The increasing ubiquity of such devices and networks promises to make life easier (smart locks, smart bulb, smart home appliances.), however manufacturers often overlook the security in the implementation of these RF communication systems. This paper uses the Software Defined Radio (SDR) to study vulnerabilities in IoT devices using an unknown RF protocol as the analyzing frequency, demodulation and decoding RF signals used in the wireless IoT devices, jamming the target and replaying radio packets. A number of schemes have been proposed to mitigate such attacks. This study also provides an empirical environment sufficient to prove the exploit of that vulnerabilities.