Spy the little Spies - Security and Privacy issues of Smart GPS trackers

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the security and privacy issues of smart GPS trackers, revealing vulnerabilities that could enable spying activities and emphasizing the need for better device hardening in sensitive applications.

Contribution

It introduces a methodology for assessing GPS tracker security and uncovers multiple security flaws in devices with advanced features.

Findings

Discovered security flaws in GPS trackers with microphones and cameras

Highlighted risks of spying and privacy breaches

Emphasized importance of device hardening for critical use cases

Abstract

Tracking expensive goods and/or targeted individuals with high-tech devices has been of high interest for the last 30 years. More recently, other use cases such as parents tracking their children have become popular. One primary functionality of these devices has been the collection of GPS coordinates of the location of the trackers, and to send these to remote servers through a cellular modem and a SIM card. Reviewing existing devices, it has been observed that beyond simple GPS trackers many devices intend to enclose additional features such as microphones, cameras, or Wi-Fi interfaces enabling advanced spying activities. In this study, we propose to describe the methodology applied to evaluate the security level of GPS trackers with different capabilities. Several security flaws have been discovered during our security assessment highlighting the need of a proper hardening of these devices when used in critical environments.