This definitely deserves a place in the Internet of Shit category: the Evowera Planck Mini is a smart toothbrush designed for the little ones. With the help of an ESP32-C3, an LCD screen, WiFi connectivity, and an official app, concerned parents can closely monitor their children's dental hygiene. However, Aaron Christophel not only discovered that it's extremely easy to hack this toothbrush, but also did what everyone expected: install Doom.
The desperation of some companies to turn their products smart or integrate artificial intelligence into their services has reached absurd levels, and one of the best examples is the Evowera Planck Mini. This smart toothbrush costs more than $55 on its official page… and it isn't even an electric toothbrush. It has a 0.96-inch LCD screen, an ESP32-C3, and WiFi connectivity, but there's no motor inside.
All the electronics are there to gamify tooth brushing, combining data from an algorithm, a gyroscope, and a pressure sensor so kids can reach those more difficult areas. At the same time, the official app helps parents visualize their little ones' performance, an activity not disturbing at all (?). However, this thing begs to be hacked, and that's what Aaron Christophel did:
The Internet of Insecure Things vs. Toothbrushes, ft. Doomguy
Aaron explains in his video that the smart toothbrush tries to connect to a wireless network with the SSID evowera, using the password 12345678. This allows it to get and install new firmware updates, but since there are no additional checks, it was very easy for Aaron to create a network with the exact credentials the toothbrush looks for (using another ESP8266 module), and load custom firmware. Once the process is finished, all that's left for the toothbrush is to automatically restart and run the new firmware.
Aaron also took care to identify the pinout on the toothbrush's ESP32-C3 to access it directly, but the cherry on top is the installation of Doom. While it's not possible to use a full retail edition of the game, this ESP32-compatible MiniDoom is enough to slay demons. All the necessary files and the Doom build have already been published on his GitHub profile. Links below!
Access the files: Click here
