Today I was in the car with the Wyze cam v2 connected to external battery pack, my phone USB tethered to my laptop which then shared that connection via WiFi hotspot that I set up to match the SSID and Passphrase we have at the house. Not only did I want to test this whole on the spot mobile surveillance unit out, I wanted to also test whether or not the cam would actually connect to the hotspot automagically or if I would have to enter setup to force it. Funny thing it actually connected automatically which leads me to wonder whether or not someone could compromise my cameras using a similar setup. Someone dupes my cams into connecting to a decoy network and kills its ability to connect it’s the first issue that comes to mind.
Considering that these cams primary use is for security I was pretty amazed that such a problem wasn’t already addressed.
Can anyone else duplicate this issue?
@Mrseesitall
No not possible for average user something you didn’t consider is… YOUR PASSWORD. Unless they know your wifi password just duplicating the same ssid may for a brief second cause it to try and connect but quickly realize the password is incorrect and revert back to the original router. It would still be seen as a separate network with incorrect credentials. You stated you used the ssid AND passphrase because you know BOTH. I suggest getting a router with strong wifi security options like deleting wifi passwords after x amount of time or single use passwords also even just using Qr generated passwords can add some security I personally set up my guest network as my smart home network all my cams and automation stuff is located there and no one gets that password. Guests networks are great for this and most pole don’t use them anyway. I like it because I can limit bandwidth, set security options, etc without neg impacting your primary network.
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If someone sets up a WiFi SSID with the same name and passphrase as yours, then your devices will automatically connect to it. This is normal.
Why do you find this odd?
Yes, if they can do that, they can also connect to your home network and do anything you can do. In this case it’s not the cams with the security issue, it’s the network.
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There’s many different situations where you would give your wireless password to others and there’s really no need to detail them all. I’m sure you can think of a few.
And being able to access the wifi (which would give you the ssid and key) should not provide anyone with the ability to disable your home security.
When I configure my cam to connect to my wifi then it should only connect to MY wifi, but these cams will also connect to other networks with the same SSID. That’s a problem from a security perspective.
If your cam connects to an ssid that has the same password, it IS connecting to your network. What you may be overlooking is that the password IS the security point you are overriding by giving it to anyone. The hypothetical offender would also need access to your Wyze account to turn off cameras without turning off wifi.
LifeHackster covered this awhile ago. Not really a bug or an issue provided you don’t share your Passphrase. Like others have said, if they have your SSID and Passphrase, they essentially can get into your network.
