A important vulnerability within the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Wi-Fi configuration interface utilized by a number of completely different Unitree robots may end up in a root stage takeover by an attacker, safety researchers disclosed on 20 September. The exploit impacts Unitree’s Go2 and B2 quadrupeds and G1 and H1 humanoids. As a result of the vulnerability is wi-fi, and the ensuing entry to the affected platform is full, the vulnerability turns into wormable, say the researchers, that means “an contaminated robotic can merely scan for different Unitree robots in BLE vary and robotically compromise them, making a robotic botnet that spreads with out consumer intervention.”
Initially found by safety researchers Andreas Makris and Kevin Finisterre, UniPwn takes benefit of a number of safety lapses which might be nonetheless current within the firmware of Unitree robots as of 20 September, 2025. So far as IEEE Spectrum is conscious, that is the primary main public exploit of a industrial humanoid platform.
Unitree Robots’ BLE Safety Flaw Uncovered
Like many robots, Unitree’s robots use an preliminary BLE connection to make it simpler for a consumer to arrange a Wi-Fi community connection. The BLE packets that the robotic accepts are encrypted, however these encryption keys are hardcoded and had been published on X (formerly Twitter) by Makris in July. Though the robotic does validate the contents of the BLE packets to make it possible for the consumer is authenticated, the researchers say that each one it takes to change into an authenticated consumer is to encrypt the string ‘unitree’ with the hardcoded keys and the robotic will let somebody in. From there, an attacker can inject arbitrary code masquerading because the Wi-Fi SSID and password, and when the robotic makes an attempt to hook up with Wi-Fi, it can execute that code with none validation and with root privileges.
“A easy assault is perhaps simply to reboot the robotic, which we revealed as a proof-of-concept,” explains Makris. “However an attacker may do rather more refined issues: It will be attainable to have a trojan implanted into your robotic’s startup routine to exfiltrate knowledge whereas disabling the flexibility to put in new firmware with out the consumer figuring out. And because the vulnerability makes use of BLE, the robots can simply infect one another, and from there the attacker may need entry to a military of robots.”
Makris and Finisterre first contacted Unitree in Could in an try and responsibly disclose this vulnerability. After some backwards and forwards with little progress, Unitree stopped responding to the researchers in July, and the choice was made to make the vulnerability public. “We’ve had some unhealthy experiences speaking with them,” Makris tells us, citing an earlier backdoor vulnerability he found with the Unitree Go1. “So we have to ask ourselves—are they introducing vulnerabilities like this on objective, or is it sloppy growth? Each solutions are equally unhealthy.” Unitree has not responded to a request for remark from IEEE Spectrum as of press time.
“Unitree, as different producers do, has merely ignored prior safety disclosures and repeated outreach makes an attempt,” says Víctor Mayoral-Vilches, the founding father of robotics cybersecurity firm Alias Robotics. “This isn’t the appropriate solution to cooperate with safety researchers.” Mayoral-Vilches was not concerned in publishing the UniPwn exploit, however he has discovered other security issues with Unitree robots, together with undisclosed streaming of telemetry data to servers in China which may doubtlessly embody audio, visible, and spatial knowledge.
Mayoral-Vilches explains that safety researchers are specializing in Unitree primarily as a result of the robots can be found and reasonably priced. This makes them not simply extra accessible for the researchers, but additionally extra related, since Unitree’s robots are already being deployed by customers world wide who’re probably not conscious of the safety dangers. For instance, Makris is anxious that the Nottinghamshire Police in the UK have begun testing a Unitree Go2, which might be exploited by UniPwn. “We tried contacting them and would have disclosed the vulnerability upfront to them earlier than going public, however they ignored us. What would occur if an attacker implanted themselves into one in every of these police canines?”
Find out how to Safe Unitree Robots
Within the brief time period, Mayoral-Vilches suggests that folks utilizing Unitree robots can defend themselves by solely connecting the robots to remoted Wi-Fi networks and disabling their Bluetooth connectivity. “That you must hack the robotic to safe it for actual,” he says. “This isn’t unusual and why safety analysis in robotics is so vital.”
Each Mayoral-Vilches and Makris imagine that essentially it’s as much as Unitree to make their robots safe in the long run, and that the corporate must be rather more conscious of customers and safety researchers. However Makris says: “There’ll by no means be a 100% safe system.”
Mayoral-Vilches agrees. “Robots are very complicated methods, with vast assault surfaces to guard, and a state-of-the-art humanoid exemplifies that complexity.”
Unitree, after all, will not be the one firm providing complicated state-of-the-art quadrupeds and humanoids, and it appears probably (if not inevitable) that related exploits will probably be found in different platforms. The potential consequences right here can’t be overstated—the concept robots might be taken over and used for nefarious functions is already a science fiction trope, however the affect of a high-profile robotic hack on the fame of the industrial robotics industry is unclear. Robots firms are barely speaking about safety in public, regardless of how damaging even the notion of an unsecured robotic is perhaps. A robotic that isn’t beneath management has the potential to be an actual bodily hazard.
On the IEEE Humanoids Conference in Seoul from 30 September to 2 October, Mayoral-Vilches has organized a workshop on Cybersecurity for Humanoids, the place he’ll current a short (co-authored with Makris and Finisterre) titled Humanoid Robots as Attack Vectors. Regardless of the title, their intent is to not overhype the issue however as an alternative to encourage roboticists (and robotics companies) to take safety critically, and never deal with it as an afterthought. As Mayoral-Vilches factors out, “robots are solely protected if safe.”
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