Can someone really hack a Firestick actually? Is this modest device really worth hacking in the first place or not? There have also rumors and reports about the Amazon TV Fire Stick hack for over a year along with some instances still report twelve months after the initial hack was announces actually. So what’s actually the deal? Is the Amazon TV FireStick still being hacked as well? Just read this article to know all about Can You Hack Amazon Fire Stick — Secure it.
The initial story broke last year whenever reports says that a botnet was slowly taking over some Amazon TV Fire Sticks actually. Those that had Kodi installed on them made themselves vulnerable to a crypto-miner hack called ADB.Miner as well. The hack did not want access to your account or credit card, and it wanted to use your Firestick as a cryptocurrency miner as well.
It’s important to know that if you guys have not jailbroken your Amazon TV Fire Stick. It is not susceptible to this hack as well. Only if you have installed Kodi or otherwise jailbroken your Amazon Firestick are you vulnerable or not.
This all seemed a little desperate at the time actually. The Amazon TV Fire Stick doesn’t really have anything like the power of the average graphics card or crypto-miner PC but they were being taken over via the botnet. Each and every little helps I guess.
Can You Hack Amazon Fire Stick — Secure it
The vanillaAmazon TV Fire Stick is really secure. But, when you install Kodi, you have to turn off the basic protections that come with it. It is basically this process that lets ADB.Miner in.
For Kodi to install, you have to enable Android Debug Bridge (ADB). As part of the bridge, the app opens port 5555. So it can feed back to Android about what’s going on actually. This port remains open even when you’re not using your Firestick actually. It is this port that is leaving the Amazon TV Fire Stick vulnerable as well.
Anyone with a laptop with port scanning software and the skill to use it can theoretically scan for open ports on any device and take a look-see. Mostly, the Firestick will not leave ports open, however, ADB leaves port 5555 open which is susceptible to scanning and therefore, to ADB.Miner as well.
You can see also the scale of the problem over at Shodan. Type ‘Android Debug Bridge’ into the search box at the top in order to see just how many devices are exposed in what parts of the world actually. At the time of writing, more than 10,000 Firesticks were currently running along with port 5555 open!
Secure your Firestick from hacking
Fortunately, it makes your Firestick more secure is just a matter of disabling ADB again. Then the port is closed and hackers will have to work much harder to get into your hardware.
- Power up your Firestick and also log in if required.
- Choose Settings and Device.
- Then select Developer Options.
- Choose ADB Debugging and then turn it off.
That’s all you have to do to make your Amazon TV Fire Stick more secure as well.
Arguably, if you guys are running your Firestick at home behind a firewall and have decent network security. You’re not that vulnerable right. It’s still a vulnerability though and ADBDebugging isn’t something the average user needs enabling on their device actually.
You can also install Kodi or jailbreak your Firestick and run it happily. Just turn ADB off again when you finish.
ADB Debugging
ADB Debugging is basically a part of Android, not of the Firestick. So theoretically, any device that has it enabled is potentially vulnerable actually. That could be your phone, Chromebook, Android Play in your car, and any other device that you may have that runs Android as well. It’s definitely something worth checking for as well.
That said, to turn it ADB Debugging on an Android phone, you have to be able to find the setting before you can use it. The Firestick makes it really easy to jailbreak it but on phones and other devices, it is much more difficult. You have to dig into the Android settings menu on your phone as well. Then tap a setting seven times to enable Developer Mode, and then go back into the menu to turn on ADB Debugging.
An AmazonTV Fire Stick can also hack and you can use it as a cryptocurrency miner. It’s not a massive risk if you’re within a secure network, however, it’s an extra vulnerability nobody wants to leave open. If you guys have jailbroken your Firestick and are enjoying Kodi. Then just take a minute to turn off ADB Debugging. It will save your firestick being used in order to make someone a little money. And make sure all its hardware can be dedicated to doing what it does best, giving a fantastic viewing experience!
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