802.15.4 and ZigBee

Matt Knight, software engineer and security researcher at Bastille, introduces 802.15.4 and Zigbee, a low-power mesh networking standard operating in the same 2.4 GHz band as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. In the enterprise it most often appears in access control, HVAC, and lighting. Being well-established, it also has known vulnerabilities, including attacks that subvert network encryption to open a door lock, executable with a roughly 100-dollar board bought online.

Key Takeaways

• Zigbee is a low-power mesh networking standard on 802.15.4, operating in the crowded 2.4 GHz band
• As a mesh standard, devices route messages among themselves rather than through a fixed topology
• In the enterprise it shows up most in access control, HVAC, and lighting
• Known attacks can subvert Zigbee encryption, for example to open a door lock, using a roughly 100-dollar board

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Matt Knight. I'm a software engineer and security researcher at Bastille. And I'm going to talk about 802.15.4 and ZigBee. The ZigBee is a mesh networking standard that is popular for a number of low-power embedded applications. It operates in the 2.4 GHz spectrum, the same frequency that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth use. The ZigBee is interesting because it's a mesh networking standard, meaning that devices are able to route messages among themselves and not just in a fixed topology.

Additionally, ZigBee is used for a wide range of applications, everything from home automation up to heavy-duty industrial control. In the enterprise, the three most likely places you are to find ZigBee are access control, HVAC, and lighting. Although ZigBee has been around for a number of years and therefore, is well-exercised by the security community, this also means that there are a number of known vulnerabilities that affect ZigBee networks.

These include attacks that subvert network encryption, for example, to open a door lock that you don't have the code to. Such an attack can be executed on a board such as this, which costs about $100 and can be bought online. As more and more buildings begin to use electronic access control, ZigBee will be a part of the equation. To learn more about vulnerabilities facing ZigBee and other IoT protocols, visit bastille.net.