What’s your protocol: Vulnerabilities and security threats related to Z-Wave protocol

Abstract With the evolution of state-of-the-art applications and paradigms, the world is progressing toward smart cities. Smart homes are an important aspect of smart cities, wherein various mobile computing and network technologies are used. However, they are also susceptible to security threats that can cause serious issues related to privacy and safety. Z-Wave is a wireless technology primarily used in smart homes; however, its protocol has not been sufficiently investigated. In this study, we examined threat modeling for the Z-Wave protocol to determine the security issues and suggested attack scenarios in which we gained full control over the commercial products that implement Z-Wave. We analyzed the level 2 data flow diagram of actual products. The experimental results revealed that the major products that implement Z-Wave have several vulnerabilities. A video demonstrating our experimental result can be found at https://youtu.be/sM-NlJexDPU .