New SPLICE Publication: A Framework for Evaluating the Security and Privacy of Smart-Home Devices, and its Application to Common Platforms

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tinapavlovich

January 13, 2025

In this article, we systematically highlight research challenges when deploying, operating, and decommissioning smart-home devices. We evaluate Apple’s and Google’s smart-home management solutions and find distinct confidentiality, integrity, and availability shortcomings in their products throughout the deployment, operation, and decommissioning of smart-home devices. We outline a solution we call the “HomeCube” which would integrate into the home router and allow non-technical users to effectively manage devices at scale.

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Comparisons of how Apple HomeKit and Google Home handle different tasks using our framework. We find issues at nearly every life cycle stage for both platforms, but Apple has more desirable features.

Ravindra Mangar, Timothy J. Pierson, and David Kotz, “A Framework for Evaluating the Security and Privacy of Smart-Home Devices, and Its Application to Common Platforms,” IEEE Pervasive Computing 23, no. Jul.-Sept. (October 16, 2024): 7–19, https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/pc/2024/03/10627940/1ZbDKfBm9pe.

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The SPLICE research team consists of faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students from 8 different institutions across the United States. We look at smart-home security and privacy from a multi-disciplinary perspective, across the lifecycle of smart devices, with varied residential situations in mind.

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