In January, two students from UC Santa Cruz discovered a way to make internet-connected washing machines, owned and operated by CSC ServiceWorks, give practically unlimited washing cycles for free. Alexander Sherbrooke and Iakov Taranenko ran a custom script through CSC's mobile app and bypassed the security checks on its servers.
Nowadays, everything connects to the Internet. Not so long ago, one user discovered that his LG washing machine was reportedly sending gigabytes of data daily. The CSC internet-connected washing machines require users to download the app, create an account, and add funds to enable laundry cycles for those users. The students discovered the security flaw in the app that would make the servers allow laundry cycles for the connected accounts, even if these accounts had no funds. The students could also add credits worth several million dollars into one of their accounts, which is reflected in their CSC Go mobile app.
