When Adam Laurie stays at hotels, he says he can hack his way around paying for premium TV channels, the minibar and phone calls.
What's more, by connecting his laptop to certain modern hotel TV systems, Laurie says he can spy on other guests. He can't look into their rooms (yet), but depending on the system he can see what they are watching on their TV, look at their guest folios, change the minibar bill and follow along as they browse the Internet on the hotel television set.
To tease his fellow guests, he can also check them out of their room and set early wake-up calls via the TV.
Laurie can do all this because of what he calls the "inverted security model" of the systems. "The TV is controlling which content I get to see. The hotel in most cases is streaming all content without any control," Laurie said in a presentation Saturday here at the Defcon event for security professionals and enthusiasts.
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