Physix Frontier · News Briefing Card (Hacker News · Oct 13, 2026)

Researchers Use AI to Crack Most Smart Devices, Release HWREBench

KEY FACTS

The authors bought multiple smart devices on Amazon and successfully cracked most of them using AI.
Cracking the DVD drive firmware required GPT 6 Astra; previously Codex 5.4 only completed the preliminary steps.
The research was partly funded by BlueDot, and based on it they established the HWREBench hardware reverse engineering benchmark.
The authors did not use fully automated testing, but instead manually connected each device and observed the AI reasoning process.
Open-source models can discover and exploit security vulnerabilities in many devices with very little guidance.

PHYSIX OBSERVATION

The security of consumer-grade smart hardware has long relied on the obscurity of 'nobody studies it,' and AI has lowered the barrier to reverse engineering to the point where ordinary people can do it. This means a large number of devices that no longer receive updates will be exposed to replicable attack paths, and manufacturers and regulators can no longer assume firmware security depends on being obscure. Users should be wary: your home cameras and routers may be more fragile than you think.

Source: Hacker News report