Researcher hacked an at-home COVID-19 take a look at to provide bogus outcomes | Engadget

At-home COVID-19 assessments won’t be as reliable as you’d hope — not within the fingers of a dedicated hacker, not less than. As The Verge notes, F-Secure researcher Ken Gannon discovered a since-patched safety flaw in Ellume’s Bluetooth-connected nasal swab take a look at that allow him change the reported outcomes. The vulnerability was sophisticated, however nonetheless disconcerting.

Gannon used a rooted Android machine to examine the Bluetooth site visitors Ellume’s lateral circulation tester was sending to the corporate’s cellular app. The researcher pinpointed the site visitors used to point take a look at outcomes, and wrote scripts to vary the end result. F-Secure Marketing Manager Alexandra Rinehimer even managed to idiot Azova, an organization issuing certificates for US entry assessments, when it supervised her take a look at.

Ellume has made it more durable to review and modify the information, and it isn’t clear iPhone or iPad customers may replicate the identical feat. The firm can also be constructing a portal to assist officers confirm at-home assessments, and has decided that every one earlier assessments have been genuine.

Even so, the findings increase considerations about folks utilizing different flaws (together with for different assessments) to falsify their COVID-19 outcomes. Someone with sufficient know-how may flip outcomes unfavorable to re-enter the US or a specific office whereas contaminated. Although the trouble at the moment concerned makes that fraud unlikely on a big scale, it would not take many bogus outcomes to result in outbreaks.

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