Packets Over Any Wire: Alternative Networking Mediums for Hackers

The talk argues that the cabling already inside a house, including telephone wire, coaxial cable and power lines, can carry network packets alongside its original service. The speaker traces the long history of reusing existing wires, from early phone-line links to broadband, and notes that early home wireless and IoT gear repeated the same security mistakes: weak encryption, exposed admin panels and default credentials.

The middle section covers specific technologies. MoCA adapters on coax share one management and data path, ship with identical static addresses, and rely on pre-shared keys that scale poorly, so the speaker recommends point-to-point links where possible. Powerline standards, including HomePlug AV and AV2 and the newer G.hn, are examined for electrical noise, latency and shared-medium collisions. A method is proposed that uses a fully charged UPS to create an isolated setup for provisioning encryption keys. The talk also covers HDMI over IP for whole-home video, synchronised audio through Sonos, radio remotes that work through walls, and how wired ports on wireless devices can accidentally create network loops.

The closing takeaway is to treat each alternate medium as a flat, shared network. Practitioners should segment it with VLANs, such as isolating a garage camera, choose encryption based on how sensitive the data is, and expect older hardware to receive no security patches. Latency and reach should be weighed against the specific environment rather than assuming these links are ready for sensitive use.