Google Works on fixing a bug in Google Home and Chromecast that reveals the location of users

Google is working to fix a bug in its Google Home and Chromecast gadgets, which allows a malicious website to obtain valuable user location data, as confirmed by the company. The vulnerability was reported Tuesday by investigator Craig Young and security specialist Brian Krebs.

According to Young, an employee of the security company Tripwire, an attacker could use a flaw in Google's systems to check the list of wireless networks After that, by doing a triangulation, he would determine a location with a margin of Error of a few meters

Nearby wifi networks and Google's geolocation would be the key [19659002] The attack would work by asking Google Home or Chromecast for a list of nearby wifi networks, then sending this list to the location services of the company. All this would be possible as long as the victim accesses a specified link while she is connected to the same wifi network as Google's devices or that the connection to them is by cable.

The content of the attack, which could be found in both malicious ads and even in a tweet according to the researcher, would be able to triangulate the location of a user. The key to everything is, says Young, in geolocation via wifi networks, similar to what Android makes with mobile phone antennas.

Moreover, in his opinion, this information could help an abuser to blackmail or blackmail more effectively.

Google will fix the bug in Google Home and Chromecast in a few weeks

In addition to providing video evidence of one of these attacks, the Expert explains that testing Google's location capabilities on wifi networks is as convenient as disabling location data from a terminal, removing its SIM card, and seeing how navigation apps like Waze continue to work. correctly display the location of the device.

This is not a problem that concerns Google alone but is shared with other companies responsible for devices that are part of the Internet of Things. That's what Young thinks at least.

Google will deploy fixes to fix this bug in Google Home and Chromecast in a few weeks.