Hackers Could Unleash Chaos Through Backdoor in China-Made Robot Dogs

An undocumented remote access backdoor in the Unitree Go1 Robot Dog allows remote control over the tunnel network and use of the vision cameras to see through their eyes.

Security researchers this week raised an alarm after finding hidden remote access tunnel service pre-installed on the Unitree Go1 robot dog, warning that the backdoor activates once the device detects internet connectivity.

According to documentation published by researchers Andreas Makris and Kevin Finisterre, the quadruped robot developed by the Chinese cvompany Unitree Robotics contains the undocumented tunnel service that automatically pings unitree.com to initiate its connection if a certain variable is enabled.

The researchers say the tunnel service uses CloudSail, a remote access solution developed by China-based Zhexi Technology. While CloudSail is normally intended for legitimate remote management of devices, it is being used to grant external access to the robot dog.

“Anybody with access to the API key can ...