Remotely Exploiting AT Command Attacks on ZigBee Networks

Internet of Things networks represent an emerging phenomenon bringing connectivity to common sensors. Due to the limited capabilities and to the sensitive nature of the devices, security assumes a crucial and primary role. In this paper, we report an innovative and extremely dangerous threat targeting IoT networks. The attack is based on Remote AT Commands exploitation, providing a malicious user with the possibility of reconfiguring or disconnecting IoT sensors from the network. We present the proposed attack and evaluate its efficiency by executing tests on a real IoT network. Results demonstrate how the threat can be successfully executed and how it is able to focus on the targeted nodes, without affecting other nodes of the network.