A Child Could Hack These Popular Video Doorbells, Tests Show

There may be bad news if you purchased one of Amazon’s “Overall Picks” for video doorbells in recent months. New tests from Consumer Reports find that popular doorbell cameras sold under names including Eken and Tuck are rife with security flaws that make it dead simple for anyone to watch your camera footage.

Consumer Reports looked at ten seemingly identical video doorbells sold under various names including Eken and Tuck that are widely available on websites including Amazon, Walmart, Shein, and Temu. All of them are manufactured by Eken Group Ltd., and all use the same companion app called Aiwit. Apparently, hijacking these devices is as easy as downloading Aiwit and putting the doorbell in pairing mode. This allows an attacker to take over the device, view footage, and lock out the owner.

In fact, the tests found you can gain remote access to the doorbells without a password. All you need to see photos from the video feeds is one of the doorbells’ serial numbers.

Eken’s products don’t have as much name recognition as competitors like Ring or Wyze, but they’re relatively popular. According to Consumer Reports, Eken and Tuck doorbells were featured as the “Amazon’s Choice: Overall Pick” in recent months, and more than 4,200 were purchased on the website in January of 2024 alone. Consumer Reports said Amazon continued to display the Overall Pick badge on the cameras after the organization reached out about the security flaws.

“These video doorbells from little-known manufacturers have serious security and privacy vulnerabilities, and now they’ve found their way onto major digital marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart,” said Justin Brookman, director of tech policy at Consumer Reports, in a press release. “Both the manufacturers and platforms that sell the doorbells have a responsibility to ensure that these products are not putting consumers in harm’s way.”

Consumer Reports submitted a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, calling on the government to pull the cameras off the market and push online retailers to guarantee the safety of their products. (Disclosure: this reporter formerly worked in Consumer Reports’ newsroom, which is separate from the company’s testing and advocacy wings.)

A Temu spokesperson said the company pulled the doorbells off its website immediately after it was contacted by Consumer Reports. “We require all sellers on our platform to fully comply with the laws and regulations of the markets in which they sell, including providing necessary product documentation,” the spokesperson said. “We regularly conduct spot checks at our affiliated warehouses to enforce this policy.” The spokesperson said Temu is conducting a review of these and similar products to ensure they meet legal requirements and other standards.

“The items mentioned by Consumer Reports were listed by third-party sellers and quickly removed from our marketplace,” said Walmart spokesperson John Forrest Ales. “Walmart policy prohibits any electronic products that do not comply with U.S. FCC regulations.” Forrest Ales said Walmart is offering refunds through its return policy to affected customers who purchased any of the offending products.

Eken, Amazon, and Shein did not respond to requests for comment.

It’s ironic that a product you bought for home security might end up violating your home security, but it’s nothing new. In 2023, Amazon agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $5.8 million dollars to settle a privacy lawsuit over its Ring security cameras. According to the FTC, the company gave every employee unrestricted access to users’ videos, including third-party contractors with no special training in handling sensitive content. Thanks to the lax approach, the FTC says Ring users were subjected to voyeurism and peeping toms. And just last week, security camera company Wyze admitted that some 13,000 strangers saw each other’s video footage after a software glitch.

“Major e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Walmart need to do a better job of vetting sellers and products sold on their platforms, so consumers are not put at risk,” Brookman said. “It’s become clear that we need new rules to hold online retailers more accountable.”

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