Robot Dogs Secretly Sending Data to China?

Amateur cybersecurity researcher Benn Jordan uncovered critical security flaws in Unitree robot dogs, devices also acquired by law enforcement and the US military. Jordan found that adding simple Curl commands to a Wi-Fi password granted root access to the robot. This unauthorized access permits control over movement and the ability to livestream audio and video from the robot's surroundings without needing an authenticated app connection.

Further investigation revealed the robot's built-in ChatGPT implementation could be manipulated to disable safety functions and reveal API information. The robot's radio control frequency is also easily replicable. Most concerningly, while the robot's firmware shows little regard for user security, it highly secures the data it transmits and its destination, which is found to be Chinese servers.

Jordan's research indicates that some, if not all, Unitree robots are intentionally and secretly sending heavily encrypted information to Chinese servers. These robots employ extensive measures to prevent any discovery of this data collection and transmission. The implications of this secret data flow, especially given the robots' use by sensitive organizations like the US military, raise significant national security concerns.