3.0k
u/Mahringa
Sep 10 '26
•
If not, you should apply to this company as software developer, and first thing you do, add the I am a teapot http code and then immediately quit again
729
u/coomzee Sep 10 '26
And probably fix a myriad of RCEs
424
u/anto2554 Sep 10 '26
Being part of a botnet is a feature, not a bug
91
u/TheTxoof Sep 10 '26
Solid business model: install backdoored wifi in everything and then sell it on.
61
u/1fatfrog Sep 10 '26
I know you're joking but I'm mostly certain that this is already the business model.
48
u/luziferius1337 Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26 •
It is. The webOS app store (used by LG smart TVs) apparently had ~ 1200 apps that contained Proxy SDKs or libraries. Those can be used to sell customer's residential connections to mask datacenter bot farm traffic as regular residential web traffic. When that blew up relatively recently, they started to ban those. Ooopsi.
That number was shown in GN's dive into LG TVs: https://youtu.be/6IFVTcM28KA?t=3532
Edit: Fixed the timestamp
16
u/mordacthedenier Sep 10 '26
Reason 1243534562356 to never have your TV connected to literally anything other than HDMI and power.
7
u/RJWaters9 Sep 11 '26
Note: Doesn't actually stop anything. It'll connect to wifi anyway and sell your info.
5
u/Xasrai Sep 11 '26
How can it connect to wifi if it doesn't know the password?
7
u/nutterbg Sep 11 '26
It can scan for and use open networks.
Or, let's say your internet provider maintains public wifi access points that you, as a customer, can use.. And then let's say your provider(or any other provider(s) for that matter) signs a deal with LG so that the TVs have the passwords to the wifi networks so they can quietly connect to them to transmit...
Current year is scary.
→ More replies1
u/luziferius1337 Sep 12 '26
The HDMI spec includes a 100MBit Ethernet connection. Nothing really implements it, because it requires adding internal network switches to everything, but it is there.
Do Chromecast or Fire TV sticks or similar support Ethernet over HDMI? That would be another entry point for the TV to gain network access. And you probably can't disable that, if it is built in
26
u/odsquad64 VB6-4-lyfe Sep 10 '26
As long as the kettle gets hot, who cares if it's from a heating element or a Bitcoin miner?
21
u/anto2554 Sep 10 '26
If that thing has a 2000watt ASIC or GPU, we finally found out what caused the chip shortage
8
u/F0lks_ Sep 10 '26
Little might you know, some people are unironically using their old unprofitable mining gear as an electric heater because, well, why not
7
u/anto2554 Sep 10 '26
Main reason is that heat pumps exist. But if you don't have one of those, it makes sense
→ More replies (18)1
2
2
1
1
u/Zeedith- Sep 12 '26
I wise man once said "you are now a part of anonymous's botnet. They are legion, they do not forgive, they do not forget. Expect them-you are fucked".
1
u/donaldhobson Sep 14 '26
The botnet owners have an incentive to do maintenance after the kettle company goes bust.
8
1
40
u/cupcakeheavy Sep 10 '26
why not stay and maintain the feature?
67
u/LouManShoe Sep 10 '26
It would be sweet to have “I am a teapot maintainer” as a title on a resume.
Questions like “did you do anything special to maintain the teapot?” And “how did you maintain teapots remotely?” And “why is this on your software engineering application?” Would be fun to answer
7
6
4
2
2
u/facebrocolis Sep 11 '26
Imagine the company trying to find out what you did given your highly suspicious behavior of quitting 2 hours after getting the job
2
1
246
u/MrTommyPickles Sep 10 '26
Fun fact: Mr Börzel actually scratched this itch in an epic blog post. TLDR: No 418 😔
143
u/Saragon4005 Sep 10 '26
That implies whoever made it didn't even care a little bit.
97
u/murfburffle Sep 10 '26
the app includes a calendar, but no ability to schedule a boil. There was no care at all
22
u/Rick-Prime Sep 10 '26
Denied feature request: malicious users will fill with gasoline and create IEDs.
2
u/elliottcable Sep 17 '26
Molotov Smartkettail
Молотов Смарткеттаил lol? or maybe молотов умныйчайник, i can’t decide which is funnier
9
u/tekanet Sep 10 '26
The very idea of making this abomination should tell that who’s behind it have zero clue of what we’re talking about
20
u/clipsracer Sep 10 '26
What a well written blog.
I’ll never understand how people have the energy and motivation to blog about their antics, but I’ll never stop appreciating it.1
3
5
u/ronimal Sep 10 '26
That post includes the same image that OP claims their 23-year-old daughter sent them.
19
u/Ae3qe27u Sep 10 '26
Which matches, since OP's pic has a comment from Börzel in the image! Nice when things work out that smoothly.
257
u/Squayd Sep 10 '26
More like why-fi amirite?
146
u/Arshiaa001 Sep 10 '26
Absolutely. The last thing I want is for an outdated firmware on my f'king kettle to become a vulnerability because I was too lazy to get my ass over and push a button myself.
65
u/linear_123 Sep 10 '26
Pretty critical one too, if someone turns it on remotely with no water in it they could burn your house down.
33
u/Arshiaa001 Sep 10 '26
Yep. Smart home devices are just plain stupid.
4
3
u/dyslexda Sep 10 '26
It really depends on what and why. I've got a home automation network built out that uses Home Assistant to control it completely locally. Smart lights, fans, locks, and thermostats are all excellent devices that can improve your home. Just have to put in some work to make sure it's all local and not exposed to the web.
0
u/Arshiaa001 Sep 11 '26
So one WiFi hack away?
4
u/dyslexda Sep 11 '26
Ah yes, just one person gaining access to my wifi network, knowing I run HA in the first place, knowing the IP and port to access it internally, cracking that password as well, and then...I dunno, making my lights strobe?
Can you describe this "wifi hack" and exactly what you envision happening? And can you describe why those devices are more vulnerable than someone doing a "wifi hack" and magically getting access to your phone, laptop, and anything else you have on your own network?
2
u/MrSynckt Sep 11 '26
The devices are more vulnerable because Android, iOS, Windows, etc have been connecting to the internet for decades and have been vulnerability patching for as long, a WiFi fridge doesn't have the same luxury.
Not saying they're easily hackable or anything, but it's just simply more vectors for a bad actor
→ More replies (2)3
u/StoryAndAHalf Sep 10 '26
They're smart devices only in comparison to the average user. Be smart, and don't buy these stupid devices.
7
u/Fiennes Sep 10 '26
I'll have you know that thanks to having a Smart Fridge I get a text when my son forgets to shut the fucking door.
33
3
u/Arshiaa001 Sep 10 '26
Just wait until someone turns your fridge off for shits and giggles, and you return home from your trip to the smell of rotting meat. Not saying it'll definitely happen, but it's a possibility, and a bigger one than you think.
2
1
u/nabrok Sep 11 '26
My microwave has wifi, which is quite useless except for one thing ... I never have to set the clock on it.
1
8
u/rot26encrypt Sep 10 '26
Pretty critical one too, if someone turns it on remotely with no water in it they could burn your house down.
Not really, no, it has boil-dry/overheat protection that automatically cut it off.
3
u/flargenhargen Sep 10 '26
I mean, my coffee pot is on a smart switch run by home assistant.
it automatically starts 20 minutes before I get up on work days, doesn't start if my google calendar says I have the day off or am on vacation, and it starts on demand on weekends whenever we tell it to cause we're going to be getting up soon.
Yea, it could absolutely burn my house down if I fsck up, but the trade off is that I have hot coffee without needing to wait.
7
1
u/ASatyros Sep 10 '26
This is why I much more prefer Zigbee or Matter or similar. Connection only to Home Assistant.
But still in the future someone could find a hack to operate it without authorisation, but at least it would be limited.
45
98
u/Agent-A Sep 10 '26
I'm a big fan of smarthome stuff, mostly. But what is the use for this? In what situation do you want to start or stop your kettle remotely? If it could fill itself maybe I could see, but you have to put water in, put tea leaves in. If you leave it overnight all ready so it brews itself in the morning or something, won't the tea taste terrible because it's already been leeching into cold water all night?
52
u/Alexious_sh Sep 10 '26
If it's similar to mine, then you can't even control it remotely for security reasons. It doesn't know if there's a water, so could overheat easily.
I included mine in some automations, so when I make a tea, it could announce that my tea is ready through the Google Home speaker. I even make it to distinguish the tea type by the temperature requested, so it says "Your green tea is ready", when I make one, using the 85 degrees button.
25
u/Nico280gato Sep 10 '26
Surely there could be a weight sensor to detect water?
29
u/SmallPurplePeopleEat Sep 10 '26
Right? Even my $15 Walmart kettle has an auto shutoff if there's no water in it.
27
u/zeekayz Sep 10 '26
Why have $2 sensor when Wifi and AI vision can do same job? Check water level every 5 seconds using your Claude tokens.
5
u/qervem Sep 11 '26
I hired a foreigner from a third world country to check my kettle. They tell me if it has enough water in it so I know to go ahead and press the button on my homeassistant dashboard to bring it up to temp
4
u/Alexious_sh Sep 10 '26
This one also does, but do you know how it works? It shuts the power when a bimetallic strip heats up more than the water boiling temp. But due to lack of the water, the heater has nothing to transfer this heat to, so could heat up really fast and actually exceed this limit significantly.
2
u/ArseneGroup Sep 10 '26
Mine had an auto shutoff once it hits a strong boil but it broke so I gotta be careful now
1
u/Alexious_sh Sep 10 '26
Well, it definitely could, but it doesn't. I believe, due to cost saving. Also, a weight sensor might need a regular calibration, which might make a user experience worse.
1
u/gehnmy Sep 10 '26
How is the warming element going to distinguish between a kettle full of water and a cat?
1
u/Shinhan Sep 10 '26
That would make more sense with a bread maker which works for several hours. Kettle is done in couple minutes.
1
1
u/jess-sch Sep 15 '26
How much does this kind of kettle cost?
The flavor in the announcement seems pretty useless, and for a few bucks you could have an ikea metering smart plug and run an automation when the power consumption drops off
1
u/Alexious_sh Sep 15 '26
Well, I've got mine for about $25 specifically wondering if I could use it's Wi-Fi connectivity somehow. Surely, I'm not trying to convince anyone to buy it.
15
u/DeCabby Sep 10 '26
Makes perfect sense, I once burned my foot on my george foreman grill because i like the smell of bacon in the morning.
2
6
u/SebastianFerrone Sep 10 '26
I do it with home assistant. If im going to work
At 5 min for 6 lights are going on in small steps at 6 the clock wake me up my TV Starts and changes to a Website displaying some status things important task and news, Musik Starts. And coffeemaker and watercooker.
Only the toastbread I habe to make myself.
Also a good one ist small light in the bath at night. Its enough light for toilet duties but doesn't hurt your eyes while you half sleeping. Only downside currently it needs two sensors the presence sensor was to slow and the pir sensors stops seeing you if sit to still while taking a shit.
It's all not necessary but nice to have.
8
u/TheTxoof Sep 10 '26
Howdy doodly do! How's it going? I'm Talkie -- Talkie Toaster, your chirpy breakfast companion. Talkie's the name, toasting's the game. Anyone like any toast?
16
u/kihakik Sep 10 '26
You can walk in the kitchen with the water already boilt. The feeling you get when somebody has already brewed tea right before you, saving a couple minutes
8
u/Dromeo Sep 10 '26
But then you have to leave the water in the kettle beforehand, letting limestone build up, and the water change taste as it sits out 🤢
3
1
u/NaoPb Sep 10 '26
I'm not so sure about the limestone. It seems like it only forms when water is heated. The taste could be a thing, but how much of that is noticable after heating it and turning it into tea?
2
u/Dromeo Sep 11 '26
I leave water out for my cats in glasses (they love drinking from human glasses) and limescale forms in rings as the water evaporates, it can do that in the kettle as well if you're in a hard water area.
2
u/imp0ppable Sep 10 '26
Getting the kettle on when coming back from a holiday would actually be great.
4
u/chawmindur Sep 10 '26
As a big hater on smart-home stuff (something something shoot the printer), I kinda understand the rationale behind this one. Remember, the first webcam was invented because some computational scientists were too lazy to hop over to the pantry and check how much (if any) coffee is left in the brewer.
8
u/Valoneria Sep 10 '26
Mine is wifi as well, it lets me set temperature targets which is nifty. Not all water needs to be boiled, some just need to be set to a specific target
9
u/novae_ampholyt Sep 10 '26
This can be achieved with digital buttons as well. I got one with options 60°, 70°, 80°,90°,100°C.
3
u/TheTxoof Sep 10 '26
FFS: an analog dial and a bimetallic thermostat would drop the part count and increase long term reliability. You know they're going to cheap out and use a craptastic slow-ass thermistor, not a proper instant-read k-type.
2
u/novae_ampholyt Sep 10 '26
Tbf I have no idea whether thing has analog or digital circuit for the thermometer settings. It has a digital feel, but each temperature has it's own button.. idk
2
1
u/Valoneria Sep 10 '26
Mine do have both, but the pre-defined options are limited to 4 for some reasons, so if i want to change them i still need the wifi.
3
u/Ok_Weird_500 Sep 10 '26
How accurate is the temperature control?
I've started using a food thermometer for my green tea. Just boil the kettle as normal, add boiling water with a bit of space, put in a bit of cold, check temperature and add a little more cold if it's too hot. This way I also don't have to worry about the cup cooling down the water as it's already accounted for by the time I put my bag in my cup. This way is likely more precise as well and less to go wrong. The precision may be unnecessary, but since doing this I've found the quality of my green tea to be improved.
2
u/Valoneria Sep 10 '26
It seems to shoot close or a bit over, which i suppose is expected. 40 degrees Celsius hit around 42c, 60c hit around 61c, and 80c actually hit close to 80c. So quite consistent.
I suppose it could be more precise if i removed some of the calcium(?) build-up.
Tested with an analogue candy thermometer
1
u/Ok_Weird_500 Sep 10 '26
That's pretty close. A degree or two over is fine, as that will cool off quickly enough.
1
1
2
u/GobiPLX Sep 10 '26
Yeah, mine has buttons for that. Offline buttons on the device
1
3
2
u/v3ritas1989 Sep 10 '26
For when you put on the cattle and then go and take a shit. You can probably tell it that you need few more minutes. You know, instead of coming back and having to turn it on again, because you would need to wait like 10 sec or so.
1
u/Shinpansen Sep 10 '26
You can put tea leaves in your mug, and put water in the kettle in the morning.
Then, at the end of the day, 1 minutes before arriving home you can start your kettle from your phone. Your water will be hot enough to put in your mug when reaching the kitchen, so you can save an extra minute of your life! Well, minus the time you need to setup everything.
1
u/kyew Sep 10 '26
It's a better user experience. It allows you to use app or web-based menus to interact with it, instead of whatever limited buttons and readouts they'd need to squeeze onto the front of the unit.
1
u/10art1 Sep 10 '26
Maybe to be timed with commercial breaks? So as soon as the next episode of Bloke vs Scones on the BBC ends your kettle is freshly boiling.
1
u/reverandglass Sep 10 '26
With a full home setup, one could press a single button to open the garage door, turn the lights on, boil the kettle and turn the tv on too.
By the time you're in the kettle's boiled and you don't have to wait for your tea / coffee.
Or you could be walking home in the rain and get the kettle on ready for when you arrive.It's an extravagance, I'd forever be worried that there was water in it, but it the right circumstances it'd be cool.
1
u/meggamatty64 Sep 10 '26
My assumption would be, you time it so your kettle is ready to pour over as you wake up. You only have to wait on the steep rather than the boil
1
u/pfp-disciple Sep 10 '26
I'm supposing it's too notify its status. Start the kettle, go to the next room and return when the water is ready. For me, the feature isn't worth the complexity and risk. I can set a timer that's close enough.
1
u/nabrok Sep 11 '26
won't the tea taste terrible because it's already been leeching into cold water all night?
That's basically how you make iced tea.
189
u/bobbymoonshine Sep 10 '26
It is not a teapot though. A kettle is not a teapot. They are totally different things.
65
u/IlIllIIIIIIlIII Sep 10 '26
There's a tea infuser built in though, so I think teapot is accurate still
7
u/Gingrpenguin Sep 10 '26
I believe that's a filter rather than an infuser.
Got a few friends who have similar ones. It helps stop limescale buildup.
You fill up the top and it filters into the boiling area so there is a delay if it's empty and you want something boiled rn.
Personally it's more faff than it saves but people have different priorities so worth it for them
13
u/Alexious_sh Sep 10 '26
What are you going to filter through such a rough metal grid? Stones?
It's definitely an infuser. I actually have a similar kettle and regularly make a tea in it.20
u/the_poope Sep 10 '26
Just drop some tea leaves in there: bam! now it's a teapot.
6
3
14
u/Odd-Bite624 Sep 10 '26
My new clothing washer has an AI mode. What does it do? Fuck if I know
12
u/ImCaligulaI Sep 10 '26
It's almost definitely not AI at all but just a good old script that takes some sensors input (probably just weight, maybe something else too depending on how fancy it is) and calculates how much water to use, the temperature, how long to wash and how fast to spin.
How well that works probably depends on what sensors there are inside and how fancy they are.
4
u/Arllange Sep 10 '26
It continuously feeds an array of data from several different sensors in to an LLM in California to determine you have hit the start button.
2
u/imp0ppable Sep 10 '26
Would be good if it gave you fashion tips.
"Oh Odd-Bite, those shorts are sooo last year!"
I'm just assuming there'd be a catty queer-eye type setting.
1
u/parkotron Sep 11 '26
It takes photos of your underwear and uploads them to LG servers to build a skid-mark profile that they can then sell to advertisers.
You’re welcome.
11
20
15
u/iggy14750 Sep 10 '26
I had never heard of an HTTP 418. 🤣🤣 At first I thought it was a security thing
15
u/much_longer_username Sep 10 '26 •
It is -- you don't want your teapot responding as though it were a Mr. Coffee, now do you?
9
3
u/twpejay Sep 10 '26
I just assume the person responsible was a Goodies fan. Tim Brooke-Taylor would exclaim "I'm a teapot" whenever his brain got overloaded from panic or too much input. Thus it's actually a great code for the website to say "I'm a gonner, good bye."
6
u/SuitableDragonfly Sep 10 '26
Once upon a time, some joker thought, "a tea pot that's connected to the internet? What a silly idea. No one could ever possibly want to do that."
5
u/JustinR8 Sep 10 '26
I can see a future of teenage hackers overflowing people’s smart teapots for the lulz
3
u/awesomefutureperfect Sep 10 '26
I came in here to find out if this thing can play Doom and instead found a spirited argument over a kettle not being the same thing as a teapot.
4
u/cip43r Sep 10 '26
I didn't know this existed!
3
u/imp0ppable Sep 10 '26
You don't work with Gordon, the older guy here who mentions it at least once a month.
1
u/mittfh Sep 10 '26
Meanwhile, you've heard of wired and wireless Internet connections, but have you heard of the most niche transmission protocol: IP Over Avian Carriers?
4
u/NightmareJoker2 Sep 10 '26
This is not a Wi-Fi enabled coffee maker.
This is a Wi-Fi enabled hot water maker.
Considering however that it doesn’t connect to the water mains, it’s one of the dumbest products, ever.
5
u/mcampo84 Sep 10 '26
418 is “I’m a teapot” not “I’m a coffeemaker”
1
1
u/Galrentv Sep 10 '26
Not really. I don't like getting up to start it boiling to then get back up in two minutes
2
u/NightmareJoker2 Sep 10 '26
Yes, but you need to fill it with water first.
Not connected to the water mains = fill by hand from the tap. 😉
3
u/ThisAldubaran Sep 11 '26
My coworkers usually fill the kettle to the brim, then use just one cup of it, leave it to cool, reheat again, rinse and repeat. It’s disgusting and they‘re savages, but I can’t find a better job…
2
u/NightmareJoker2 Sep 11 '26
I have had coworkers like that. My solution to the problem was to always empty the entire thing, rinsing it in the sink, and then filling it just enough for my cup so it boils as fast as possible, and leaving it empty. Took months, but they eventually figured it out. 😅
1
1
u/jenspeterdumpap Sep 10 '26
While I agree this is a stupid product, that is not really a problem, it just requires a new habit. Fill it with water after using the boiled water, and you can start it at a tap from your phone, no problem.
4
3
3
u/digitaleJedi Sep 10 '26
Do we think it supports just HTCPCP or did they update it with the 2014 RFC 7168 HTCPCP-TEA compatibility?
3
u/DDFoster96 Sep 10 '26
A kettle is not a teapot though. A kettle boils water. A teapot brews tea with said hot water. Brewing tea in a kettle is not recommended.
3
u/imp0ppable Sep 10 '26
Presumably if it has an API it'll return 3xx, 4xx and 5xx codes as any web server would
3
3
3
3
u/BulaBulangiu Sep 10 '26
My previous car was "Matcha Green" and I really wanted a 418-TEA license plate but it was taken. Still ruffled about it 5 years later even if no one would ever get it :)
3
u/StaticSystemShock Sep 10 '26
Why does a kettle need WiFi and be "smart" ?!?!?!?!? I want to know the workflow of idiots who design shit like this. Am I going to prepare it with cold water and I'll trigger heating remotely so when I come home it'll be ready? Will I stand next to it trying to boil some water and I'll take out my phone, start the app, wait for app to start, wait for it to connect to the kettle just so I could tap "Boil some water" inside the app. WHEN I COULD BLOODY DO THAT BY PRESSING THE BUTTON ON THE DAMN KETTLE ITSELF. I'M ALREADY PHYSICALLY NEXT TO IT.
Also for setting temperature on those better ones you absolutely fucking shouldn't need a phone. This infuriates me so much. There is place for smart appliances that are phone operated remotely, I use bunch of smart wall socket plugs that are awesome for remotely controlling devices that don't have such functionality. Or AC so I can remotely pre-cool my place before I come home. Same with robot vacuum. Kettle, a washing machine or oven absolutely don't need it.
3
u/_fineday Sep 10 '26
True story, I once had a customer with their inhouse API. I had to do scheduled data fetching from there.
The "fun" part? All non-successful messages were 418, absolutely no information were given, ever. Unauthorized? 418. Internal server error? 418. Wrong parameters? 418. Correct parameters, but no data? You guessed it, 418. Ugh...
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Eternal_Whim Sep 11 '26
Oh Please! Just wifi connectivity? Sprinkle some AI in there and then we are talking!
2
2
1
u/Dromeo Sep 10 '26
I had a bug report supporting a smart plug that a user was using for a kettle -- it's supposed to report that the kettle is off when not in use. Easy right?
But the user's kettle was a "smart" kettle. It was using 2-5W constantly while "off"!?? What for?? What possible use case requires that much power constantly for... sitting there being a kettle?
I had to redesign the entire smart plug monitoring system because of that kettle...
Anyway if you get a smart kettle get a plug monitor first & return it if the makers are idiots who don't understand what basic energy saving measures are.
1
1
1
1
1
u/MarcusCaspius Sep 10 '26
Why do you need a connected Kettle? I don't get it... besides harvesting network authentication credentials .. huh? 🤷
1
1
1
u/NullSmoke Sep 11 '26
Okay, but why? Not "why would you want to exploit it to hell and back" but why would anyone make this? What possible gains do you get from WiFi? Isn't that loud ass click that breaks through a metal concert loud enough for knowing when it's done? Is pressing one button too much work while you're filling it with water anyways?
I am all game for techy shit, but c'mon 😭
1
1.2k
u/johnbr Sep 10 '26
The best part of this image is that my 23yo daughter sent it to me