Security Camera Firmware Exposed GitHub Admin Token and DoD IP Addresses

My security camera shipped a GitHub admin token in its login page

Security Camera Firmware Exposed GitHub Admin Token and DoD IP Addresses

While investigating Hanwha Vision security camera firmware, I discovered a hardcoded GitHub admin token embedded in the login page source. This token granted access to hundreds of repositories due to a build error that leaked the entire CI environment. The firmware also contained unexpected IP addresses assigned to the US Department of Defense, raising questions about the company's internal infrastructure. I reported the issue, and Hanwha revoked the credentials within twelve hours.

I never thought I would be accidentally finding keys to the kingdom of the manufacturer on the ground later in my career; my life is kinda weird sometimes.
  1. badatnames

    Worthy thread to ask: is there such a thing as a white label IP camera (or similar) with a supported open firmware? Not asking for open source, but something close to plug and play that nonetheless has a way of stripping the rootfs as desired for bespoke use in a manufacturer-supported way.

    I have looked around before but I only found genuinely dev-oriented kits that weren't even in a shell, and crazy priced.

    edit: seems there are some options now (or I missed them before), e.g. https://www.goodcam.io/#for-independent-developers

  2. grommz

    The US Department of War IP adresses baked into the firmware is the bigger story here. Note to self: never buy a Korean security product.

  3. dev_l1x_be

    Not surprised, many of these vendors are doing crazy things, insane defaults, broken security, hardcoded values. Security is not a priority, I get that, but at the very least some baseline check would be nice (no hardcoded credentials for starting)

  4. tehlike

    A rule of thumb, put your cameras on a separate VLAN and never give that vlan internet access.

    Least you can do.

  5. RyJones

    When I cared, I found out that a lot of OBD-II dongles shipped with the same MAC, which gave you access to everything on a bunch of websites.

    You can curse the storm, but the wind will come.

  6. pak9rabid

    Perhaps they should just drop the 'security' from the name and simply call it a camera.

  7. sodapopcan

    This blog's misuse of the external link icon irks me.

  8. IshKebab

    LLMs have truly killed obfuscation. It only worked previously by making things extremely tedious but AI doesn't care about that.

More from this day

2026-07-24