Technology@lemmy.worldbytardigrade@scribe.disroot.org
1 day

Hackers can remotely destroy hundreds of thousands of solar systems across Europe, researchers find

www.upday.com English

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10061950

Security researchers from the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) have exposed critical vulnerabilities in Hoymiles solar inverters that allow attackers to remotely control, manipulate, or destroy hundreds of thousands of solar installations across Europe. The Chinese manufacturer holds roughly 20 percent of the European microinverter market, making the security flaw a widespread threat to balcony power plants and small rooftop solar systems.

…

During experimental tests, a modified handheld scanner located two dozen foreign inverters and their identification numbers within 20 minutes. In Augsburg, Hunz identified 42 hackable systems within just one hour. The radio signals can travel several hundred meters, making it feasible to mount attack equipment on drones for systematic scanning of residential areas.

Once attackers have the serial numbers, they can switch inverters on or off, alter power limits, and inject malware through an unprotected firmware update command. Tampering with sensitive network parameters or erasing bootloader memory could lead to fires, electrical accidents, or device destruction requiring physical repair.

…

The CCC informed Hoymiles [which is headquartered in China] about the vulnerability in February but received no initial response. Only after the German Federal Office for Information Security contacted the Chinese authority CNCERT did Hoymiles react at the end of June. The company announced a security update for mid-October.

…

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    Hackers can remotely destroy hundreds of thousands of solar systems across Europe | The latest National and International News - upday News
    www.upday.com
    Security researchers from the Chaos Computer Club have exposed critical vulnerabilities in Hoymiles solar inverters that allow attackers to remotely control, manipulate, or destroy hundreds of thousands of solar installations across Europe. The Chinese manufacturer holds roughly 20 percent of the European microinverter market, making the security flaw a widespread threat to balcony power plants and small rooftop solar systems. | The latest National and International News - upday News
    • CodeHead@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      Hackers, across Europe, can remotely destroy hundreds of thousands of solar systems.

      FTFY

      How many death stars would that require?

    • nanometer1625@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      2 hours

      PSA: If your router has a guest network feature, enable it, and put all of your IOT devices on it. Unlike the main network, guest networks are typically configured such that each device on the guest network can only access the internet, and not other devices on the guest network, nor the router, itself.

      • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4 hours

        Or set up Home Assistant on a dedicated VLAN for all your IoT stuff. I know that’s a few extra steps that not every router will support, but it is a way to be more privacy focused (Home Assistant is entirely self-hosted) while still maintaining a lot of the IoT functionality.

    • justaman123@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      Is this like an oil industry story? Like who would try this attack vector? And honestly how much damage could this actually do other than break peoples balcony solar panels?

      • tardigrade@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
        3 hours

        And honestly how much damage could this actually do other than break peoples balcony solar panels?

        Is this satirical?

    • Yggstyle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13 hours

      Thats some impressive reporting from a news org utilizing an AI stock image that has no apparent ties to the content. To be fair I can’t think of any obvious choices either.

      I’ll just take a peek at their publishers:

      Damn. 404. (not that one)

      No worries - follow the money! Let’s see who your advertisers are…

      404? The plot thickens.

      About us! Surely they are going to describe their attention to detail, their quest for truth, and their refreshing lack of baises at this establishment…?

      1. Very well then. Keep your secrets.

      There can only be one explanation for this. Obviously.

      The dangerous hacker known as En Jin X. This would have never happened if everyone needed their ID online!

        • Yggstyle@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3 hours

          I imagine the feat itself is possible and plausible - though I couldn’t speculate further without digging into the specifics.

          What left me feeling wary was, at least in the US, theres been a massive push to limit the spread and use of renewables… and normally when sowing fear and doubt you generally want to tie in your preferred boogie man. Presently that would be China.

          Misinformation campaigns and astro turfing frequently will rely on half truths as it is FAR easier to sow dissent in a community. A half truth becomes opinion - an easily disproven lie can backfire and unify communities.

          Tons of Chinese equipment is exploitable. Most of the time its simply a product of “cheap, fast, stable/secure” pick 2. I promise you it won’t be the thing that costs time and money.

          I won’t speculate further on something I noticed in passing but… very frequently the third play in the trifecta is to accuse your boogie man of something that you are doing as well. It weakens the opposing observation, true or not, by increasing difficulty in finding data (similar search terms… two different parties) and lizard brain “feels” like your arguement is weaker because its copying the opposition.

          Either way - I’d hesitate to take an organization seriously if they fucked up their own.distribution platform that badly and didnt IMMEDIATELY fix it. Either they are inept or unaware… and unaware implies lack of traffic who might @ a dev.

        • Yggstyle@lemmy.worldEnglish
          9 hours

          It read like it was laser focused on pushing an idea while ignoring too many obvious parallels. The fact that the site is basically all facade - no function … kind of provides a physical representation of this entire movement. Its practically modern art.

          That said - it really does drive home how this virtual snake oil is literally sending us in the wrong direction.

    • EastofEdson@lemmy.caEnglish
      1 day

      Ok, we need to refer to them as something else. I thought we had a much bigger problem on our hands when I first read the title.

          • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            3 hours

            Every civilization ever has been self-centered, so honestly I’m not that torn up about it. Europe is more globally/internationally-focused than most of the world.

            Why do you think it hosts the UN headquarters, ICC headquarters, and so many other IGO headquarters? It’s the only multi-national federation that I know of and is part of the largest and most widespread defense pact in the world.

            Clearly people want to live there, otherwise they’d be migrating to BRICS nations and Northern Africa. So it must be doing something right.

            What’s wrong with a civilization being self-centered? Especially when most of the critique it’s received regarding previous centuries was that it was too expansionist?

      • timochka@lemmy.zipEnglish
        11 hours

        A brigade of yanks with “you just can’t understand how many solar systems fit in Texas, though” is incoming…

      • HeyJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1 day

        I read that same line 3 times before realizing this is not comic book villain bad.

      • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        24 hours

        Yeah, I was legit impressed both with the brazen threat of the hackers as well as Europe for somehow becoming a galaxy spanning union.

        • Damage@feddit.itEnglish
          23 hours

          The stars on the flag aren’t stars, they’re actually galaxies!

    • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
      19 hours

      I’ve set up a few solar systems (and, I agree, it’s a pretty ambiguous name). Generally speaking, they’re devices that include an MPPT charger (which regulates the power coming from the solar panels), battery charger, and inverter (which produces mains AC), often with a bridge rectifier that also allows the system to accept input from the grid, and a second inverter to supply power back to the grid. It a lot of kit in a compact package, so it’s unsurprising that they come with apps to allow them to be monitored and configured and, sometimes, support for automation in, say, Home Assistant.

      And let me tell you: the majority of these things are fucking horrendous. I’ve lost count of the number of cheap Chinese units - with brands like LCERRZOPX and JRXYLNG, or provided whitebox so a fly-by-night European companies with a name like TotalCharge Voltacon Solutions can silkscreen their own logo on - which are guilty of every IoT sin imaginable: no local API or connectivity; plaintext communication to a data center in China; apps that force you to sign up and sends your credentials in clear text; apps that have not been updated since they were released in 2013 and crash constantly; no interface other than that fucking horrible app; and so on. This might seem like a minor thing, but if you’re depending on these things to run your entire house, you need access to that information, but I have to plead with people not to buy them because they’re €50 cheaper than the equivalent from a reputable brand. These devices are susceptible to anyone with a copy of Wireshark, let alone the manufacturers or Chinese government, and they’re just waiting to be exploited.

      Incidentally, if anyone is looking at buying something like this, I can’t recommend Victron highly enough. Aside from their kit being high quality, you can access every feature using Bluetooth either from their own app, or a number of other apps that support their published protocols including, of course, Home Assistant.

      • Derpgon@programming.devEnglish
        9 hours

        Definitely. My dad also got a “solar system” and when he showed me how it works I was like “Are you aware that China can basically disable and/or destroy it with a click of a button?”. He’s been very paranoid and been trying to disable any remote controls since then.

        • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
          5 hours

          The solution in my experience is to not bother with any kind of IP connection and try to find a serial port. If you can connect via serial odds are the protocol will have been reverse-engineered already. A cheap microcontroller can get it talking to Home Assistant and then you’ve got a well-maintained, self-hosted and open source way of controlling the system on your terms.

      • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
        5 hours

        Feels like solar tech is like trying to buy real medicine in 1890. Mostly snake oil or alcohol.

        • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
          5 hours

          Well, no. It all works and even the shittiest no-brand Chinese tat can reliably run a whole home with an EV or two. The systems I’ve been involved with have either paid for themselves within a couple of years, or are on track to. The problems here are nothing to do with solar and everything to do with poor quality IoT.

      • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
        5 hours

        I assume so yes. The first video we transmitted was Hitler, and the biggest radio signals were H-bombs.

      • Rhaedas@fedia.io
        24 hours

        Already had one, why else do you think no one has contacted us yet? Wouldn’t you steer clear of this planet?

    • tardigrade@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
      1 day

      Here is the article by CCC (in German)

      Edit:

      China Holds a Kill Switch to European Power Grids (May 2025)

      Despite years of debate about supply chain resilience, more than 70 percent of world’s solar inverters come from Chinese manufacturers. The three biggest players – Huawei, Sungrow, and Ginlong Solis – are all Chinese. Here lies the first paradox: Huawei has been banned from a large portion of Europe’s 5G networks due to national security concerns, yet its technology is welcomed into the power grid.

    • Drekaridill@lemmy.wtfEnglish
      20 hours

      I’m drunk and need someone to clarify what a solar system is in this context

      • BeBopALouie@lemmy.caEnglish
        16 hours

        Ahh, so no special lasers heading off into space nuking other solar systems?

      • Darkassassin07@lemmy.caEnglish
        19 hours

        Specifically; this article is talking about the devices that convert DC power generated by solar panels into AC power that’s supplied to homes.

        Seems they’re mostly talking about home installations, but this could effect larger commercial setups too.