With great pleasure comes great responsibility. A responsibility, which is not taken enough into consideration by the smart sex toy manufacturers as they should, while handling extremely sensitive data. As long as there is no serious breach, there is no problem, right?
This was the basis for a research project called “Internet of Dildos, a long way to a vibrant future”, dealing with the assessment of smart sex toys and identification of vulnerabilities in those products, including mobile apps, backends and the actual hardware. After the assessment of a selection of multiple smart sex toys an abyss of vulnerabilities was revealed.
The identified vulnerabilities range from technically interesting vulnerabilities to vulnerabilities which affect the privacy of the users in extreme and explicit ways. It was possible to gain access to thousands of users’ data records, including cleartext passwords, explicit images, real-world names, real-world addresses, and many more specific facts. Furthermore, the researchers were able to remotely pleasure individuals without their consent over the internet, or over a local link.